Ballast Point Sculpin IPA (North Star)

Brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
San Diego, California USA

[Bottle] Pours a clear gold/orange with a medium beige head that slowly dissipates to a thin layer across the top of the beer. Aroma initially comes across as pure grapefruit juice, but a little more digging yields some pine notes, and some spicy notes of cinnamon and clove a la potpourri. Very interesting nose, and it works quite well. Flavor follows nicely. Strong bitterness, great dry body, lively carbonation, and strong hop flavor of pine and citrus. This is a great IPA.

Strong smell of citrus hops aroma of this beer is fantastic. Medium head and body. Taste reminds me of a Bells two hearted lots of floral hops with a nice bettering balance. Very sticky hop pallet. I would say the 7% abv is not well hidden if I was looking for a way to find the down side to this one. Very nice IPA

I really do not see all the hype surrounding this beer. It was a bit light on substance for my liking. Either that or my expectations were just too high for it. Poured a golden color and smelled slightly hoppy. Taste was a bit lacking and I never quit got the hop rush I was waiting for and also it lacked a prominent citrus or pine flavor. It was just ok, in my book.

Enjoyed via draft in a whiskey snifter. The beer pours a slightly-darker-than-medium amber color with a moderate white head. The nose brings the expected strong character of west coast hops, with what seems to be an especially enthusiastic nod to Cascade, Amarillo, and perhaps just a bit of Simcoe. Hops overwhelm malt in the nose, and no discernable sweetness is noticeable in the nose. The palate is full without being cloying and bitter without being puckering. The aforementioned hops make their presence known in the apparoach, followed by a very nice note of hop resin on the tongue. Malt character is perceptable, but is pretty thoroughly muddled by lingering hop flavor. Sweetness is mild but pleasant. The finish is clean and semi-sweet. Overall, this is a tremendous beer; one that belies a relatively light abv with heavy flavor and enough finesse to keep from being a cloying bully on the palate. Quite good.

This reminds me of two of my other all-time favorite IPAs with the great parts of each blended together; Port Wipeout and Nugget Nectar. It has a great floral, fresh hop flavor that sticks to your palate. Unmatched freshness and plenty of citric and somewhat sweet hop flavors make up the profile but there are many subtleties. Why don’t I live in California?

Pours a bright yellow orange with a decent head. Smells of magical danky citrus and bud. Tastes tropical and bitter. Oranges, mangos, pineapples and just a kiss of malt to hold it together, but not get in the way. Drinks beautifully and am amazed by it.

Clear medium orange with a 1 1/2 finger slightly yellowish white head with good retention. Wow, the tropical fruit aromas that I get from this beer are nothing short of awesome. So much pineapple and mango notes, tangerines, and then some nicely bitter grapefruit and pine needles in the background with some cotton candy and caramel. The flavor has a bit of an added grassy hoppiness, and the tropical flavors don’t quite jump out at me as much as they had in the aroma. The cotton candy and caramel malts meld with the hops very well in that I get "sweet hops"--I don’t get this very often in beers and I think it’s great. Semi-dry finish with bitterness peaking around a 3. Light to medium body with the same for carbonation. An excellent IPA--hopefully they start bottling this year round

was really clear out of the bottle, crystal clear in fact, didnt look like it was going to live up to the hype. really complex ipa from a very good brewer. loads of grapefruit hoppiness with a little lemon or orange zest to amke the ultra bitterness a little easier to handle. was very enjoyable, but i think a little overrated because of being a limited release. really good ipa though.