Ballast Point Indra Kunindra

Brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Diego, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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High 5 to the creator of this brew. I haven’t rated a beer in over 4 months and this one brought me out of retirement. Crafted really well. Super complex with all kinds of interesting flavors. I really enjoyed this and look forward to sharing this with a few of my craft beer friends. It’s a first of it’s kind and I agree it’s a bit much like previous raters have said. But that doesn’t make it uninjoyable. It has it’s place. Right now that place is in a couple of bottles marked for special friends who appreciate wierd "out there" creations. This qualifies. And congrats to the crafter.

Tap flight at the brewery. Still black pour. Light beige ring for a head. Aroma is shocking: yellow and green curry, cola, and fresh green herbs. Taste is curry root beer with some heat on the end. Holy crap...it works...in a weird way. I’m craving Thai food now. Curry yumminess. Surprisingly good albeit gimmicky.

Chocolaty curry, cayenne heat with citrus undertones. Very unique. Thanks Justin!

Bottle from Santa. Quite intriguing given the description. Poured dark brown almost black with a small beige head, tight. Aroma was all over the place yet seemed to work well together. Lime, tons of spice, earthy notes and cocoa. Flavors were also quite spicy, hints of curry and pepper, big lime presence along with notes of cocoa and chocolate. Just a hint of cayenne spice in the back of the throat, actually nicely balanced. Weird but well done.

Bottle. Pours black with thick tan head that quickly recedes to nothing. Nose is pretty crazy - big coconut aroma, some lime. Smells like a tropical drink or suntan lotion. Flavor is coconut, a more pronounced lime flavor, some curry, a decent amount of heat. Thick mouthfeel. Really unique.

Ok this if unique, but in my mind way overdone. I get a heavy dose of coconut and cayenne pepper that overpowers everything else.

Bomber purchased at Holiday Wine Cellar 15 months ago ($7.99). I had bought a number of bottles but finally rating my last (aged) bottle now. Pours quite black with some dark brown highlights at the edges and two fingers of creamy brown foam. Aroma is like nothing I’ve come across in any beer with the spice from and center: earthy cumin, dry masala curry powder, fresh kaffir lime leaf (more of a Thai thing than Indian), and some coconut along with dark roasted malts. Seriously, this reminds me of walking through the spice market in Jodhpur, India when I was there a dozen years ago. Flavor starts with some dark chocolate notes but the spice soon makes itself very known with lots of cayenne, curry, and cumin and lesser notes of the coconut (kaffir lime not really in the flavor). Some heat leading into the dry-ish finish. The heat and tang from the spice leads to an unusual but not unpleasant mouthfeel. I recently had a draft sample at Ballast Point and have to say that this aged bottle actually tones down the spice a little bit and brings out more of the "stout" characteristics (chocolate most notably). This might actually pair well with less spicy-hot Indian food...for truly spicy-hot stuff, an IPA would probably work better. It’s interesting to see that most raters here either quite like this beer or hate it. It’s certainly an interesting experiment. Since I’m a big fan of Indian food and the cuisine of my native Louisiana (thanks for the cayenne up in here!), I fall firmly into the "like" group. I’ve liked this beer since it first came out and glad to finally rate it...a really interesting and fun experiment unlike any other beer out there. (169, 766)

Best before 1/11/2013.

A: The body on this is pitch black with a thin tan head that dissipates into a thick ring.

S: The aroma is very spicy with curry and peppers with a coconut and lime aroma that clashes very hard with this. It reminds me a bit of body odor. I do not like this aroma one bit.

T: Oh boy I think this is awful, I don’t even want to sip again to get the flavors, but I will. The beer starts off okay with dark chocolate and roasted malts but it goes downhill very fast once the coconut hits which means that the curry and pepper heat is about to hit and it does rather hard. Hints of lime are on the finish as well, but it gets very spicy and leaves a tingle on my tongue and throat. This is awful.

M: Thick with light carbonation.

O: This might be one of the grossest beer I’ve ever had. I am barely able to get through the few sips I needed to rate this. My girlfriend was laughing at the faces I made on each sip until she sipped it as well and realized what I was making the face for. Ballast Point, you blew it.

I’m going to skip the introductory flourishes and just get straight into it - this smells incredible. It smells like everything the tropics could be, refined into a lovely perfume, with all the spices and fruits and liquors that make the Carribbean such a hot destination. Coconut, cumin, all-spice, shea butter, black pepper, vanilla and any number of other exotic aromas that make this smell genuinely like a 5-star seaside restaurant with a spice market next door. Really, this is an incredible aroma. The flavor is there too, reminescent of jerk chicken, coconut, a mild chipotle or chili spiciness and overall a gourmet experience in a bottle. Exotic, tropical, and all the flavors of the equator, I’ve never had anything like this, and it changes and wriggles and transforms as it warms. Ballast Point strikes again, and makes a beer that truly fits the sunny San Diego environs.

Bottle. Pours a deep dark brown with a tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, cumin, and lime. Taste is spicy and roasty, of toasted malt, wood, cumin, lime and ending with a bit of coconut and cayenne. Lingering hint of spiciness with roasted malt and coconut. Very weird beer, but the taste works.