Ballast Point's Big Day

It was announced yesterday that Ballast Point Brewing was purchased by Constellation Brands for $1 billion (HT Ramblings of a Beer Runner for the article in the link).  My twitter feed was stunned silent.  There were no "sellouts" or "dead to me" rants that followed other recent craft beer acquisitions.  I can't knock Ballast Point for taking the cash.  It is hard for a small business to say "no" to a $1 billion pay day.

Ballast Point is arguably, from a taste standpoint, the best brewer in San Diego, which means it is one of the best craft breweries in the country.  Its flagship Sculpin IPA is a national brand.  Constellation must continue Ballast Point's brewing excellence to justify its $1 billion investment.  Here are a few of the things I don't want to see happen at Ballast Point:

Don't become Sculpin Brewing:  My guess is that Sculpin is about to get much bigger.  Sculpin is far from the only great beer Ballast Point makes, and it'd be a shame if other beers suffer in the promotion of Sculpin.  (To show the extent of Sculpin's current reach, characters on recent episode of the TLC reality show My Big Fat Fabulous Life, which is based in North Carolina, were drinking bottles of Sculpin.  If you've infiltrated the strange world of TLC's reality TV shows, what is left to conquer?)  Ballast Point needs to keep its diverse line-up of beers, not reduce them. 

Don't Dilute The Beer:  I have been told by employees at Ballast Point that the reason Sculpin is more expensive than other beers is because its ingredients - mainly extra hops - cost more.  Even though Sculpin is Ballast Point's star beer, I can't see Constellation's number crunchers avoiding the challenge of trying to eke out more profit by substituting cheaper, but similar, ingredients.  Brilliance does not come cheap, and beer geek taste buds are on watch.

Don't Close Tasting Rooms:  Ballast Point has four tasting rooms in San Diego.  Keep these open. These are the only place to try Ballast Point's many wonderful one-off beers.  Plus, they employ many San Diegans.

Don't Eliminate Big Eye:  Once Ballast Point's main IPA, Big Eye was long ago eclipsed by Sculpin.  Big Eye is still an excellent, underrated beer.  It is maltier than Sculpin or other IPAs being brewed today, but is one of my favorite beers.

Keep Brewing Homework Series:  Ballast Point is on the sixth in its Homework series of specialty beers.  Homework beers are sold with their ingredients and recipes for home brewers to replicate.  These one-time releases have been excellent beers.

Keep Brewing One-Offs: I noted above that Ballast Point's tasting rooms always have a number of one-off beers on tap, in addition to Ballast Point's core line up of beers.  Most of these beers don't end up getting bottled or distributed, but still, the ones I have tried have been good.  Ballast Point needs to keep trying new styles and providing creativity outlets for its brewers.

Ballast Point's decisions will now be made in context of a bigger corporate structure where low costs and high profits are the main motives.  It'd be foolish to think nothing is going to change, or only change for the better.  For my part, I will keep drinking Ballast Point beers, and plan to pick up a bottle of Homework Series #6 today.

On Your Marks, Get Set,.... SDBW!

San Diego Beer Week (SDBW) officially starts today.  Countywide, there are beer events large and small, and general to specific.  The SDBW website lists many events, and the schedule page lets you narrow your search by date, type of event, location, and time, which is great because there are too many events just to scroll through all of them.  I generally pop into several events during SDBW.  I avoid venues that charge an entrance fee or that involve a long time commitment, so no beer fests or beer dinners.  Right now, Pizza Point Ocean Beach's 5th Annual Sour Beer Night on November 14, 2014, and Culture Brewing's Ocean Beach tasting room's first anniversary sometime during SDBW, look interesting.  Ideally, I look for venues with rare, hard to find beers, or brewers not normally in San Diego.  I met Fritz Maytag a few SDBWs ago, and will check for events with other out-of-town brewers serving beers you can't get in San Diego. 

While the SDBW website is a fantastic resource, so are specific brewer's, restaurant's, and pub's websites and twitter feeds.  TapHunter's and West Coaster's twitter feeds and websites are essential resources for me during SDBW, as well as all other weeks of the year, as is beer writer Brandon Hernandez's twitter feed.

Happy, safe, and interesting beer drinking!

Prairie Somewhere

I have a hard time telling the differences between sours, wild ales, beers with heavy doses of Brettanomyce yeast, the wonder combination of Brett beers aged in wine barrels, and other funked up beers.   I mentally lump them into one category that I consider "sour."  A little research and methodical tastings on my part would clarify the distinctions, but I like the latitudes and gray areas of my lazy approach.   I let taste guide me rather than style demands.

The Midwest master, Prairie Artisan Ales, collaborated with Florida's Belgian-style brewer Saint Somewhere Brewing Company, to brew the sour farmhouse ale, Prairie Somewhere.  This beer is listed on BeerAdvocate as a saison / farmhouse ale, which confirms my intentional confusion on what the heck is a sour.  Prairie's website says the beer is a blend of golden farmhouse ale and sour ale brewed with oranges and limes.  OK.

I tasted the sour, but it was a mild sour.  I noticed bitterness more than sour, but nothing about this beer was offputting or over-the-top.   I was reminded of seltzer water as much as beer - possibly because of the intense carbonation -  and the mouthful was thinner and crisper than most sours or saisons.  The 7.0% abv was hidden and unobtrusive.  Prairie Somewhere was subtlety sweet and fruity, but I could not detect the oranges and limes.

Prairie Somewhere is a nice, smooth beer.  If you're a sour beer fiend, it will bore you.  But if you want a drinkable, enjoyable beer that tastes good, Prairie Somewhere is a beer you should try.

Encore, Encore

Last month I wrote a post describing my anticipation of Stone Brewing's re-brew of its Vertical Epic 08.08.08.  The re-release is a smash, my memory proved reliable, and any concern was unnecessary.   VE 08.08.08 is an aggressive, hop forward Belgian strong ale.  When brewed in 2008 it was probably ahead of its time, and even today with the mainstreaming of sours, wild ales, and all types of Belgian styles, 08.08.08 is still a standout beer.  

Vertical Epic 08.08.08 had a distinct pepper smell.  Its taste was sweet, with a healthy hop bitterness in the finish, more bitter than a typical Belgian golden ale.  The Belgian yeast, mixing with the sweetness, brought spices and complexity to the beer.  It was boozier than I remember - the abv a healthy 8.9% - and the alcohol was noticeable from start to finish, and was my only complaint about this beer.    Vertical Epic 08.08.08 is a great American interpretation of a classic Belgian style.  I plan to save a few of these bottles. 

Modern Times Via London

Here is an excellent article on Modern Times from Brew Geekery, a London-based beer blog.  It is bizarre and amazing that a San Diego brewery, located five minutes from my house, is profiled by a London blogger after he drank one of its beers in a Manchester pub.   How Modern Times ended up with its beers in England is an archetypal craft beer tale.  BrewDog, the Scottish craft brewer with a global brand and chain of UK pubs, first ordered Modern Times' coffee, which sparked a conversation between the two breweries, which lead to Modern Times' cans in the BrewDog pubs.

Jacob McKean, Modern Times' founder and owner, has some interesting things to say in the article, including this about the recent wave of craft beer acquisitions by macro brewing conglomerates:

Are you concerned by the increasing number of craft beer breweries being acquired by the likes of AB InBev? And being based in California, what are your thoughts on the Department of Justice and the California Attorney General’s enquiries into allegations that AB InBev is buying up distributors with the intention of edging out smaller breweries?

I am not concerned. This is the same strategy they’ve pursued elsewhere (and is fairly common in other industries) and it doesn’t spell the end of the world. Frankly, I think they’re flailing, and I wouldn’t expect them to remain committed to any one strategy for long. I am very heartened by the investigations, but this has been an open and shut case for the last 50 years, so I’m also a little exasperated. Hopefully they will someday investigate the anti-competitive trade practices (i.e. bribes and dirty tricks to get on-tap) these companies employ routinely as well.

I agree with McKean.  The macros can't buy, dilute, diminish, and eliminate all the craft breweries.  Macros will continue to try to capture and convert the craft beer drinker, and in the process make some better beers.  But they won't stop quality craft brewers and consumer demand for good local beer.

 Jacob McKean has big plans for Modern Times, saying in the article:

I dream big. I see Modern Times becoming a global purveyor of incredible beverages that is synonymous with beautiful, otherworldly spaces and art. I think we can do that and actually become an even better version of ourselves, rather than a diluted version."   

San Diego has well over 100 breweries.  Modern Times is fast becoming a force in not only San Diego's brewing scene but the entire craft beer industry.

The Beer Beer Geeks Love To Hate

Pumpkin beers - I know of no other beer style beer geeks love to hate more than pumpkin beers.  "I drink one a year," or "one every few years" are a few of the milder condescending remarks about fall's derided beer style.  (Beer Samizdat defends pumpkin beers here.)  Despite the disdain, I have seen more pumpkin beers this year than ever, including Ballast Point's Pumpkin Down Scottish ale and Stone Brewing's sort-of-harvesty-sounding collaboration beer, 24 Carrot Golden Ale. Someone must like these beers.

I am not a hater of pumpkin beers, although I may be responsible for the quotes above.  I have found some thin and artificial, and others too malty for my personal taste, and unfortunately these are the beers that form most beer geeks' opinions.  I bought Coronado's Punk'in Drublic last week, and it's quite a pumpkin beer.  Punk'in Drublic is like so many other pumpkin-based foods, where its flavor comes more from its spices than its pumpkin, which is OK, because it's the spices that trigger the "pumpkin" taste.  Punk'in Drublic is boozey and spicey, and its 8.0% abv is present throughout.  It is robust, sweet, and malty, and its flavors intensify as it warms.  If you want a bland, safe pumpkin beer, look for a macro label beer, or beer from a macro-owned former craft brewery.  If you want a serious fall beer, get Punk'in Drublic.  It's a pumpkin ale beer geeks will have a hard time ridiculing. 

Re-Remembering

I'm nervous. When I think of some of the most memorable beers I've ever had, Stone Brewing's Vertical Epic 08.08.08 is near the top.  Along with Brasserie Dupont's Avec Les Bon Voeux, Ballast Point's Sculpin, and Stone's Tenth Anniversary beer, 08.08.08 not only revealed the wonder of beer but the creative possibilities of craft brewers, with its hopped interpretation of a Belgian golden strong ale.  Vertical Epic 08.08.08 helped with my Belgian-style beer education and made me more appreciative of golden style strong ales and tripels. 

Subsequent Avec Les Bon Voeuxs, while still great, have never matched the magic of the first bottle.   Sculpin, initially an occasional Ballast Point release (the scarcity enhanced its legend) is now sold everywhere and remains brilliant.  Stone's Tenth Anniversary beer, one of the first extreme-hopped, high alcohol IPAs, faded so fast that the groundbreaking summer release was undrinkable by Christmas.  Will the new 08.08.08 match the beer of my memory, or will it prove the tricky reality of remembrance?

Starting this past Sunday, September 20th, Stone began pouring its newly brewed version of 08.08.08 in its tasting rooms and it released 22 oz bottles on September 21st.  I am looking forward to this beer, no matter what it brings, and I still have several bottles of 08.08.08 squirreled away in a closet that I plan to compare to the new batch.

Beer Round Up

There have been some recent beer topics on which I wanted to comment that were too long for Twitter but too short for a standalone post, so I am combining them below:

San Diego Eater is reporting that underrated and under distributed classic style brewer ChuckAlek Independent Brewers is opening a tasting room in North Park.  The proposed ChuckAlek beer garden is part of a bigger project, confusingly called Art Produce Gallery on University.  This is great news for ChuckAlek fans like me because its brewery and tasting room are in the rural community of Ramona, which is forty-five minute to an hour drive from my house.   Ramona is on the way to nowhere I frequent, so I can't fake an excuse to drop by the brewery as part of a concocted trip.  A North Park tasting room brings ChuckAlek's classic porters, stouts, lagers, and the other lost or forgotten styles in which it specializes, much closer to central San Diego, a part of town I can always find an excuse to visit.

The year's first wet hop beer is here.  Culture Brewing released its wet hop IPA, Wet Hopped Cascade IPA, late last week.  It poured dense and cloudy, and the fresh hops were dominant, which you would expect from a wet hop IPA, but I did not find it to have the sharp, pungent smell and fresh-squeezed citrus juice taste of other fresh hop IPAs, in particular those from Pizza Port Ocean Beach.  I found that while Wet Hopped Cascade IPA tasted great, it reminded me of Culture's regular IPA, and even the abv and IBUs were identical at 6.6% abv and 66 IBU.  Wet Hopped Cascade IPA, while not spectacular, is still worth drinking, and is available for a short time at Culture's Solana Beach and Ocean Beach tasting rooms. 

Not to be out done by wet hop beers, breweries are now releasing their pumpkin beers.  Coronado Brewing has released its big Punk'In Drublic and Ballast Point is releasing Pumpkin Down, a Scottish ale with pumpkin, (it is an apparent offshoot of Ballast Point's Piper Down Scottish ale).  To me, it is still too hot for a heavy pumpkin ale, especially one with a Scottish ale base.  I plan to buy some of these beers to have them for fall.  Last year Punk'In Drublic did not stay long on shelves.

Beer Samidzat wrote on the wonder of Tahoe Mountain Brewing's barrel aged beers, and had this knowing quote that not only made me laugh but made me want to try Tahoe Brewing's beers:  "I mean talk about preaching to the RateBeer/BA/blog dork crowd - it's a "Flanders Red aged in oak with cherries and blueberries.''"  Yes, beer dorks go bonkers for any beer calling itself a Flanders Red aged in oak.  

Bay City Brewing soft opened earlier this week, and I plan to visit it sometime over the next few days.  Despite the unusual name  - I have never heard anyone refer to San Diego as Bay City - the new brewery has excellent visibility from Interstate-8, and is in an industrial area behind another poorly named venue, Valley View Casino Center (formerly called the San Diego Sports Arena).  Bay City is about a thirty second drive or five minute walk from Modern Times' creatively named Lomaland Fermentorium.  Bay City is pouring a beer called Experimental Pale Ale, which has a 5.5% abv and was brewed with Nelson Sauvin dry hops.  What Bay City beer I am trying first beer is no longer a quandary.

De LUX

Over the past weekend, we were in a beach area restaurant where it was hotter inside than it was outside - and it was plenty hot outside.  The Beer Rovette and I shared a Ninkasi Helles Lager (which I'm guessing was Ninkasi's Lux).  It was served cold in a legitimate glass, and was the correct antidote for the sweltering weather.  The beer had a classic pilsner/lager taste, a flavor that evokes "beer" in my memory.  The thousands of Buds, Coors, and their pilsner derivatives that I drank in my twenties left a deep mark.  The pale, straw-colored beer was refreshing and crisp, with minimal hop bitterness.  Lux was light, a bit dry, and had a yeasty, bready flavor.  After the initial memory jolt, I was bemused by the beer's overall sweetness, which made me wonder if the macro beers of my youth had a similar saccharine strain, not that I ever put much thought into their flavor profiles.   A heat wave is not the time to over think the intricacies of a Helles lager other than to realize that on a hot night a well made Helles lager is a perfect beer.

Twice The Fool

I bought two beers at two upscale restaurants last week and received two crap pours in two fake pint glasses, while paying pint prices for both.  If a restaurant is going to charge premium prices for less than a pint of beer, can it at least serve it in a glass that is not trying to look like a pint?  It angers me when I feel a restaurant is trying to con me.  Neither Kitchen 4140 nor Soda & Swine said they were offering a full pint, but serving a beer in a look-a-like pint glass is an implicit nod to a pint.   And there must be a design flaw (for the beer drinker, not the restaurant!) in the fat-bottomed glasses, because every beer poured in thick-base glass results in a disproportionate level foam, leaving the beer drinker with even less beer - about 12 ounces, I'm guessing - which is where a petty crime becomes a felony.  I figure that is 25% less beer poured but that is still sold for the price of a full pint.  There is no wonder why restaurants love and use the modified pint glasses.

The faux-shaker glass at Kitchen 4140 didn't surprise me.  It is a restaurant first, beer seller second - it only had two beers on draft - so I half expected a small glass.  Idiot me paid $7 for the approximate twelve ounce draft of Mike Hess Harley Pale Ale.  I should have ordered a $5 bottle of Sculpin.  The new Soda & Swine in Liberty Station, to me, is as much a bar as a restaurant, so it has no excuse for offering dodgy glassware.  Its prices per beer vary, but all are what you'd expect to pay for a pint, not a short pint.  While Soda & Swine didn't dip to fake shaker fraud, it still used a bottom heavy glass where the beer poured with a big foam.   I'll leave the beer at Soda & Swine for the beard and funky glasses and expense account set, and I'll get my meatballs as takeout and then stop at Stone for a growler fill.

The food at both restaurants was good, and I'd go back to both restaurants, but I am not going to order any draft beer.  I am on to the con and won't participate.  I need to start being that beer jerk who asks the size of the beer glass before ordering. 

High beer prices are here to stay.  I know that.  I recently went to dinner at Monello's in San Diego's Little Italy where drafts of four Societe Brewing beers were available for $9 to $10, depending on the beer.  I was too stunned by the prices to order a beer, so I don't know whether the restaurant served a proper sixteen ounces or not.  (If I had to guess, I'd say no, but for $10, I want my Apprentice in a quart-sized glass.)  So restaurants, if you plan to charge $7, or $8, or $9, or even $10 for a draft beer, you have to give at least a pint.  Don't insult me with a fat-bottomed glass you are trying to pass off as a pint.  If you want to serve less beer and charge full price, spend some some money and buy some properly deceitful glassware, don't cheap-out with a bastardized shaker.

Homework Series #5

Ballast Point puts out a periodic line of beers called Homework Series, which are one-time releases, separate from Ballast Point's regular beer production.   The Homework Series, which began in 2013, is brewed for the home brewer.   Each Homework Series bottle comes with a comprehensive recipe, list of ingredients, and detailed brewing instructions.

Ballast Point is up to number five in its Homework Series.  The previous four were a hoppy red ale (Batch #1), a Belgian-style double IPA (Batch #2), an English IPA (Batch #3), and a pumpkin beer (Batch #4).  To me, three of the first four were excellent.  The first in the series, Hoppy Red Ale, was so good and popular Ballast Point made two batches of it.  The English IPA was sublime and I can't remember a better pumpkin beer than Batch #4.  The hoppy Belgian double IPA (Batch #2) was nearly undrinkable, and the lone dud in the series.

The latest, Hoppy Belgian-style Pale Ale (Batch #5), makes up for Homework Series' previous Belgian-style effort, the nasty Batch #2.  Hoppy Belgian-Style Pale Ale was a cloudy, glowing gold beneath a white foam.  The pale ale smelled of yeast and fruit, and you immediately tasted the tart, immediately distinctive Belgian yeast (White Labs 575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend) along with sweet stone fruit.  At only 6.8% abv, the beer's alcohol was subordinate to other flavors and mostly non-existent.  I found Batch #5 smooth and almost creamy, and its body light.  The lingering, bitter finish (from Belma hops), which became sharper as the beer warmed, earned Batch #5 the Hoppy in its name.

I have found that with some Belgian-style pale ales or IPAs, brewers compensate for the acute Belgian yeast strains and their prominent flavors by over malting or over hopping the beers.  This fight for flavor dominance can make Belgian-style pale ales or IPAs hard to drink, as big ingredients do not always complement each other.  Ballast Point went for subtlety and nuance in Batch #5, and brewed a drinkable, delicious beer, and is now four out of five in its Homework Series.

Firestone Walker and Duvel

Duvel Moortgat has made an investment in Firestone Walker.  Both Duvel and Firestone Walker are private companies so they did not disclose the specifics of the transaction, and it does not appear that either plans to provide details.  Here is Firestone Walker's press release.  Here is an interview with David Walker last week in The New School that gives more insight into the new relationship. 

I had forgotten that Duvel owned Ommegang and Boulevard, so the new Firestone Walker arrangement looks like a strategic match.  Ultimately, though, beer drinkers, will have final word on the transaction.  If Firestone Walker's beer quality drops, beer drinkers will stop buying its beers.  Enough deal talk, I need to find a pint of Boulevard's Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, which has started to show up on tap lists around town.