Ballast Point Sculpin IPA (North Star)

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

1/7/09 notes: bomber, shared with Derek. Pours yellow-orange with a medium white head. Aroma features prominent notes of apricot, tart grapefruit, lime. Flavor is bold, emphasizing herbs and tangy citrus (especially grapefruit). Palate stays buttery throughout, with a smooth finish. Reminiscent of eating delicate lotus flowers. This is an amazing IPA.

Bottle. Thanks to alexanderj. Nice light orange pour, clear, some white head. Aroma is very citrusy, pinecones, orange rind. The flavor is similar, good bitterness, lots of citrus rind, and full malty sweetness present as well.

Pours a translucent golden amber with a medium frothy off white head that left lacing. Aroma of fresh citrusy hops, tons of orange, pine, grapefruit, pineapple, dough and light caramel. Love the orange coming across...so fresh and hoppy! Flavor of grapefruit, pine needles, loads of hop bitterness and flavor. Just a touch of some malt to balance.

Bottle from South Bay Drug. Sort of a bright copper color with a decent off-white head. Mixed aromas of grapefruit and tropical fruits. Near medium body with medium carbonation. Flavor is sort of grapefruit mango over lightly roasted caramel. Bit of a bitter hop burn in the finish. Astringent too. This is a really super drink.

Reviewed 12/28/2008 (bottle): Pours a clear golden amber colored body. Big foamy white head, rocky with good lacing. Bubbly. Very piney citrusy aroma, grapefruit. Dry smelling. Watery body, malty taste, some nuttiness. Dry grapefruit aftertaste. Carbonated and drying aftertaste. More hoppy and bitter with only some balancing nutty sweetness. More balanced as it warms up.

Bottle. Pours light golden color with one finger white head. There is an immediate nose of pine needles and lemon rinds. The mouthfeel is light but compliments the hoppy characters very well. The malts form the perfect canvas for the palate to fully appreciate the hop complexity. There is a light sugary-sweetness that finishes this drink off. Great IPA

Pours with a frothy, two finger thick, pale, tan tinged, off-white colored head. The beer is a clear amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, bright copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma certainly hits the spot for any hop lover with a melange of herbaceous, spicy, fruity, citrusy and yes even dank hop character. Malt, I don’t know much about that, though I am sure there might be a hint in the aroma some where, right now I am focusing on the hop aromatics that the malt character is supporting. Vibrant lychee, ripe tangelo peal and bitter grapefruit oil round out the fruity hop aromatics, but in the deep draughts of the aroma it is the herbal hop components that reign. There are turpene rich hop notes, a slight grassy edge, perhaps a hint of chive, but what really jumps out is the essential "hemp" oil components; sticky, dank, resinous, slightly rosemary like, touches of pine tar and a spiciness that almost make my nose itch. Definitely a hop heads beer by the nose.

Lightly sweet up front and then a bracing, richly herbal, bitterness grabs hold of the tongue; this never recedes either as the bitterness lingers on in the palate after the beer has left my mouth. The hop flavors have a fruity, almost oily character that is sensed as a backdrop to the other flavors; tropical fruit, lychee and bitter orange peel. The flavor profile is dominated though by the herbal hop components. Pepper, amply spicy, a touch of sharp rosemary, green turpenes and of course it has a biting, dank, "hemp" oil green flavor to it that lingers on with the bitterness in the finish. This is definitely an aggressively hoppy beer, this can be nice, but somehow this beer seems a bit too one-dimensional, even for a overly hoppy IPA. There is a soft supporting malt character that brings a hint of sweetness as well as a touch of cracker light malt to the flavor, it also supplies a medium’ish body to this brew.

A bit too herbal focused to be great for me; I prefer a nice balance of tropical fruit notes as well as the sticky herbal hop character (the aroma is a bit more balanced than the flavor, though still not quite enough). Still this certainly has appeased my hop fix for the evening.

Purchased: South Bay Drugs, Imperial Beach CA

Bottle. Pours a clear golden hue with a thin white head. Fair amount of lacing. Nose is full of intense floral hops. Fruits of apricot, lemon peel, and mango. Wonderful smell. Great flavors. Tons of hops. Starts sweet and turns more bitter. Pine resins strong, lemon peel, apricot, grapefruit, peach, and a slight vanilla note. Medium bodied, spicy bitter aftertaste. Excellent IPA, one of the best I’ve had!