Over the past two weeks, I've seen these in stores: 1. Pineapple Sculpin 2. Ginger Big Eye 3. Mango Even Keel 4. Watermelon Dorado Not to mention Peppermint Victory at Sea over the holidays. Is Constellation weakening the brand by pumping out all these new flavored offerings? P.S. To me, these sound like they come right from the PowerPoint of some Constellation marketer who decided that fruit beers are all the rage. I haven't purchased anything from BP since they were bought out and will continue to abstain.
Howdy partner...many of these concerns have been discussed in this thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/ballast-point-mango-even-keel.375812/
Damned if you do and damned if you don't. A brewery decides to go outside the box and be innovative and they are labeled "gimmicky", but if they just keep plugging away with what they have already been doing, they are boring. These guys can't win either way. Do you want different offerings, or will you be fine with just drinking the same beers for the rest of your life?!
Your missing out because the Mango Even keel was good. But they can keep the watermelon Dorado and Pineapple Sculpin, haven't had the new big eye yet.
I'm cool with it. It's called voting with your feet or in this case $$$. They will examine the sales and if people buy them they will make em. Goose island has done pineapple and peppermint beers. Both were excellent. I'm all for new stuff.
I will take the regular version of any of their flavored beer. Mango even keel ties the regular for me but gets a slight edge because my gf likes it. BP really has lost respect. if they had release some new BEER not just some of their current line plus some shit thrown in (artificial/natural flavors) I would cut them some slack but I'm sure sleeping in money is wonderful
BP has always been cutting edge...from Thai Chili Wahoo to Victory at Cereal. Constellation hasn't even owned them long enough to even begin to scratch the surface. Time to lighten up Francis...
This has been going on BP since before Constellation picked them up. It's just what they like doing I guess. I'm excited for at least 3 of those beers!
I agree, they lost a little respect....but its hard to turn down a truck load of money that backs up to your docks
That's not gimmicky. Fruit beers have been plentiful for a long long time and ginger isn't exactly some new bandwagon for brewers to hop on. This is just a brewery making beer.
These were all pilot beers at the brewery for over a year before they were released, so no. They are simply fan favorites that made it to bottles. I don't think having fun with some new variations makes a brewery gimmicky. Maybe if they replaced their core beers with the flavored ones.
How are these flavors added to the beer? Post fermentation as strictly a flavor additive (like creamer or sugar in coffee)? I havent gotten a straight answer yet from anyone from any brewery. All we hear is "brewed with grapefruit, grapefruit juice" or "tangerine, orange, and orange peel". I know one can add zest to the boil. Anything beyond that feels a touch like cheating. If one runs a stout through a bag of coffee beans, those flavors are intense. One can turn an average stout into a world class offering. AT the end of the day, it's not really the yeast working any sort of magic if it's all done after the fact. Then again, that's what dry hopping is all about (after the boil). Maybe people don't care so much about how it's made. I guess I'm just trying to see if I can brew this on my own. There was a thread in here awhile back about adding a splash of juice to IPAs. In theory, this may be how those orange flavors get added. Early on with home brewing, many warned of using real fruits in any sort of fermentation. One would have to make sure those items were super super clean or off flavors and infection could happen, so they would recommend flavor extracts. Maybe that's also used here. This just got me thinking.. Carry on, ramble over
Well if you add the fruit to the fermentation a lot the flavor and scent will blow off with the CO2. Added during Conditioning is ideal because the flavors are still fresh once they hit the serving vessel. You can add flavors in the mash, in the boil, you can add them like you would dry hop a beer all will impart something, but its however you want to express that flavor. Extracts are a good way as they are mostly just alcohol and whatever the source of the flavor is, you could also soak your flavoring is a grain alcohol to kill off any bugs/yeast that may be on the surface.
To continue drinking mass amounts of grapefruit sculpin or to care what people think about me drinking mass amounts of grapefruit sculpin..... * Sips beer *
As others have said, they aren't new beers. They were mostly brewery-only/draft-only beers that have been recently released in cans and bottles. Sure, the increased income helped with that, but they are in no way Constellation-born beers. Constellation was much more interested in their spirits and pre-made hard drinks than their beer line.
That's not true. I don't know why people keep saying that. Constellation didn't buy their spirits. I heard this from their East Coast Sales Manager on a podcast, before and after the sale went through.
I think its not that big of a deal. They're competing with Samuel Adams now, so the chase includes colorful labels and flavorful beers for guys and gals. Like Sam Adams, they have joined the coalition to the gateway to craft beer. Any local bottle shop will give you true craft but when you're in a super market, its not always available so I think Ballast Point is a nice suprise nowadays.
Becoming? They have been for some time. They seem to use a lot of shortcuts. For instance, Victory at Sea has always used vanilla "flavors"
Of course it's gimmicky. But if it's meeting their customers desires, what's wrong with that? Of course I won't drink, and I'll talk smack about the people that do, but so what?
I'm ok with gimmicky as long as the beer is good. With that being said I'm not a ballast point fan and won't be seeking out their beers.
You know, I've had the same thought. But I can't say anything, having not had any of these "gimmicky" beers. I love my sculpin, and as long as they don't mess with the base beer, more power to 'em.
Have tried the whole Sculpin + ______(whatever) line of BP, and have to say I'm more impressed by the simple and straightforward taste of Grunion though I rarely find it here. Don't buy a ton of the stuff, however, as it's a little up there...
Ginger Big Eye has been out for years. Lots of these variants have been brewery only or local keg distribution. That being said, they are certainly increasing the frequency and magnitude! I enjoy most of them. Not something I will drink everyday, but a nice change of pace.
I've enjoyed all the Sculpin variants, and would love to try the peppermint VAS. Keep 'em comin', BP.
Seriously? I get what you're trying to say but you really can't use the word "innovative" when they're adding fruit to beer.. That is a serious stretch.
Don't like 'em, Don't drink 'em. I, myself am glad breweries are trying new things because it keeps things fun and unique. Keep drinking the same beers. If you like them, that's great!!
good: these all seem like larger scale versions of "one keg only" type treatments that a ton of breweries do with a wide variety of their core beers bad: "natural flavor" on the label, meaning they throw some extract in the beer as late in the process as they want http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=501.22. Nothing very natural about the process. IMO a betrayal of the good point listed above.
Spoke with one of their brewers at their Old Grove location a little more than a year ago about Grapefruit Sculpin, and he indicated that they add concentrated essence/flavorings to the bright tank to give the aroma and flavor (something along the lines of rose extract, some form of citrus extract)...so I believe it would be safe to assume that they are just adding some form of concentrates or extracts for most or all of these beers
Their core line up is fantastic. Commodore, Big Eye, Sculpin, Wahoo, Grunion, and even their pale ale are well above average. So as long as they keep making solid beer they can experiment to their hearts content. There are some breweries that just brew different takes on hazy tropical fruit forward IPA's that might be construed as gimmicky however...
Change doesn't happen that fast. Damn some people cant handle a different flavor can they? How were you when they came out with new colors of Crayons?
Yep, the "natural flavors" on the bottle/can means "extract" or "derivative", and not concentrate, not "aged on", as a lot of breweries do with smaller scale runs. You could make the same distinction between "brewed with/aged on vanilla" (VaS still is afaik) and "we threw some vanilla extract in at the end". If you think this is semantics, cook/bake/brew with the two... check the difference in price and flavor. Dude, what if a brewer starts using Pappy extract instead of real Pappy! (this is a joke. Pappy is flavors + alcohol, so FDA probably considers it no different than an extract. Hells yeah "Pappy's Extract Stout" trademarked as of now)
i agree with the sentiment that at the end of the day it's on us to decide what we want to drink, and if you don't like it well hey don't buy it. i also could not agree with this more, this and pineapple sculpin are really fucking bad, so it's understandable when people complain about what BP wants to charge for beer they didn't even try to make good. every beer i've had that uses pineapple has been mediocre at best, but i have had several good mango beers so i don't think BP has any excuse for how gross mango even keel is.
