Ballast Point in Wisconsin

Alesmith did a great job for the first batch they sent here- we had IPA that was around a week old.

After that, not so much. Now, good luck finding an Alesmith IPA bottle brewed after October. Which is a damn shame, because that IPA is a classic.

I'll bet that Sculpin will end up sitting on shelves here. It's canned, so I'd have no problem picking it up at 1-2 months old (same rule I follow for Two Hearted) but never in a bottle and never older than that.

I hope that Big Eye makes it as well. Also, they do tend to sell to Costco's in CA, so maybe we'll get lucky with some fresh mix packs every once in awhile.

 

Woohoo! I can live with bottles until then.

So many Milwaukee shops shove the old beer to the front. This is understandable, but not when they're shoving 8-month old IPA's up there. It has been exceptionally bad with Alesmith- I think some shops have multiple batches to get through before the new stuff goes out.

As much as I love Discount, they put out old (sometimes really, really old) IPA's all the time. The year old Hop ***** was a good example, as was the 8+month old Bunny Green Toe 6-packs.

I'm concerned that the same thing will happen w/ Ballast Point, especially w/ the price point on Sculpin. Once the old bottles become shelf turds the fresh bottles won't get rotated in until those are gone. Vicious cycle. I am very excited for Sculpin on tap, though. The perfect burger beer.

 

I'll be in SD in Feb. Happy to bring back some fresh Grapefruit Sculpin cans if I find 'em. I'll BM you when the trip is closer.

Originally, BP only stamped bottles with a batch #- they also only sold bombers, no sixers or cans. Back then it was easy to keep track of each batch and get a sense of how old the beers were. As they grew they started bottle/can dating. Pretty easy to tell now (none of the Green Flash "Enjoy By" BS).

I still don't know what makes Sculpin so expensive. Plenty of other great IPA's sell for less.

 

Most of their 6-packs are $8-10. Sculpin jumps to $13-14. It really shouldn't be any higher in Wisconsin.
Their bombers are reasonable ($7-9).

A friend of mine calls Sculpin the "Bud Light of San Diego". Mostly because it is on tap everywhere and is a great stepping stone into hoppy beers. It's slightly cheaper there ($13 a sixer?) and much cheaper on tap (full pints around $5).