Ballast Point becoming gimmicky?

It may not be a gimmick but it is a trend.

 

Yeah, and if you add stuff like fruit in the boil, the boiling process is going to change those flavors, often (always?) making them more bitter, which is what happens with hops the longer they are boiled. In my homebrewing days, I remember seeing some recipes where you added some kind of fruit in the last five minutes or so of the boil, but most said to add post primary fermentation so as not to affect that, either.

 

Yeah, seems to be one in the US these days. Looks as though Gose is moving back into the background.... :-)

 

Which Belgian styles are you referring to? Lambics?

Comparing what Ballast Point is doing to Belgian beer, while comparable on some level, isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison (see what I did there?).

If Grapefruit Orval or Peppermint St. Bernardus 12 came out, it might be viewed differently.

What the Belgians do, and adding fruit in general is nothing new. But bottling/distributing an entire line of your experimental tap room fruit/whatever-else-flavored beers in such a short time frame can be seen as gimmicky, even if it's not an actual gimmick.

Edit: Just read some new posts, perhaps "trendy" is the appropriate term in this case.

 

Sorry you can throw stones at me or whatever, but this argument makes no sense to me. Last time I checked around here BP bombers didn't cost $5.19.

 

Adding flavoring to beer isn't a gimmick, it' what consumers want. People want IPAs that taste like fruit juice and stouts that taste like bourbon/coffee. Anything to mask the flavor of the actual beer

 

Yes, mostly lambics, e.g., Kreiks, etc. but there are others that have been around for a while, e.g.

http://www.liefmans.be/en/fruitesse-on-the-rocks

Just as a clarification I didn't intend to do a tight comparison, simply to point out that doing fruit in beer isn't new.

But notice that your conditional use of "gimmicky" illustrates quite nicely the point I was making earlier about the meaning of "gimmick" has changed away from its original use to mean something fairly different than the way its being used on this site and/or in this thread.

 

And also that bomber prices are generally much more expensive per/oz than 6 packs. Just as an example, Mother Earth Boo Koo 6 packs are priced around $12. Then you would expect a bomber to be about $3.50 right? Wrong. A Boo Koo bomber is around $7-8. Just because it's a better price per oz than the bomber doesn't mean it's a good price. It's a no brainer when the competition is consistently $3-5 less expensive.

 

But you do understand that the people going to a brewery's tasting room is not an average American beer drinker, right?

And perhaps this finer point is not needed but: California does not equate to America (there are 49 other states that constitute the constitute America including West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, etc.)

Cheers!

 

I was great with the new "flavors" of crayons. I never did, but I wanted to eat those damned things when I was about 5. I can still smell and feel those rectangular brownish erasers also. How many crayons are in that big iconic box these days...64? I know of one banana lambic, it sucks, but I draw my personal line at banana beer! Oh, the British one, I almost forgot. Are there more? My philosophy is simple: I will not buy what doesn't entice me. Now, brown eraser porter just might work! Let the brewers have fun and see what sticks on the wall.

 

I didn't even know BP had been bought out until last week when reading posts here. Been out of the craft loop big time the past year or so.

I wouldn't doubt if the gimmicky answer is a mixture of a couple things already mentioned here. Brewers wanting to experiment and try different things and the money/marketing side wanting to make more money, now that bigger money owns the brewery, than did not too long ago before they sold out.

It bums me out that they sold out to a big company the way they did, but I don't know if that is enough for me to never buy anything from BP again. As long as they still make good beer, I just might find myself really wanting a Sculpin again, for instance. One of the better IPA's I've ever had.

 

They totally sold out when they made Indra Kunindra... back in 2011. You guys are so far behind the "sell-out" curve.

/sarcasm

 

I'm not throwing stones. I'm just making a statement for arguments sake. The competition is cheaper, but if you enjoy the beer, its not an awful price. It compares with Stone Enjoy By 6 packs where I live.

It's just a measure of comparison. Of course there is going to be an increase in price. People pay 12-20 dollars for bombers all the time and don't blink an eye. Obviously the price hasn't been a deterrent as their distribution was growing a lot before they buyout.

 

oh man I love that beer, know good and well I am in the minority on that

 

I think they're definitely gimmicky. I'm okay with that if you own up to it. Seems like they have with their mixed pack of adjunct beers. They clearly started something, too.

 

Not sure how I feel about Pineapple or watermelon IPAs but I respect the fact that they put out a legitimate "session beer" (as in not making a 5.5% watered down IPA and slapping the word "session" on it). It's under 4% and it actually tastes pretty solid. Good on you, Ballast Point!

 

Maybe if they brewed these with real fruit concentrates or purees I'd consider buying them, but as of now they are just dumping flavor extract into bright tanks. Though Funky Buddha has practically built their brewery around doing this and it doesn't seem to bother anyone, so what's gimmicky?

 

Didn't you know? Since they are Macro now, everything they do is evil!

But if I could get some BCBS that would be cool...

/sarcasm

 

Great points. I did a little bit more in depth searching and found some good threads about adding grapefruit zest to secondary, and even some juice to your finished keg product. That may be where I am headed. Not as complicated as I once thought.

Now what these other breweries do is beyond what we can control. I guess we take what they say in good faith and move on if we hate the product.
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Terminology can be so vague as well. New Belgium's new Citradelic IPA says its an "Ale brewed with Tangerine, Orange Peel, and Orange". Brewed being the key word. If it's basically at the finishing stages, is it still "brewed" with? I hear "brewed" and my mind thinks of the boil portion.

This also brings up the point for me, about bourbon barrels. If it's a virgin barrel, it's not exactly a bourbon barrel, is it? Many places are changing their wording too. Going away from Bourbon Barrel aged, to just Barrel Aged. Many places mention "aged in reserve barrels". Some places use oak staves in their bright tanks to impart some wood character. They still call them barrel aged.. I guess I'm getting beyond what this topic was about (grapefruit and fill in the blank adjunct BP beers).It seems more and more breweries are getting so vague. Tougher competition for sure. Choices are better but there's a seedy element as well.

However I do wonder how VaS is brewed. Do they just throw some peppermint candies into the bright tank tdays before bottling, and saying it was this huge process, or the peppermint was natural and added in 10 stages. And in that regard, I think we as craft drinkers are gimmick filled to the max.

Great info. So not all that in depth or crazy. They had a billion dollar idea to simply add some extracts at the latter stages, and it paid off. I see some homebrewers trying real grapefruit zest, and real GF juice. Those processes are a bit less controllable than simply using drops.


@THSdrummer If you want something hotter, I recommend getting a normal Sculpin, getting some ghost peppers, slicing that open, and using a fork to carve out some 'flavor', then add that fork to your beer as you drink it. One could add just about anything on their own terms to get those flavors to come out. I've mentioned dozens of times by now. But I bought a FBS keg, transfered half into a homebrew keg, and hop socked a combo of Stone's Xocoveza spices and turned it into a fierce beer.

Not long are the days of a bar/brewery that will offer flavor additives (into the hundreds) to base beer. Think of gas stations and those "flavor bursts" next to the fountain sodas. Cherry, Grape, Lime. Blueberry. Or like a cold stone creamery where you can have a chocolate chip cookie dough infusion added to a stout. It's sort of there with those randall devices. Many use french presses. Gone are those days of basic beer tasting like basic "craft" beer. I think we're in a new era for sure.

 

Nice, I'm gonna try it for sure.