Ballast Point becoming gimmicky?

Ah, fruit and spice is gimmicky now. Noted and said note discarded.

 

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?

 

Yep, and they are not that good either.

 

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.

 

I thought Pineapple Sculpin was great. I applaud BP for releasing these beers in wide distribution.

 

Ballast point rules as long as it dosent change taste I will always seek out Thier releases