Has Ballast Point's quality changed post-sellout?

I don't think so. It seems that price point only includes their lower ABV beers.

 

Interesting read. It also sheds some light on Lagunitas' inability to secure High West barrels since they will now be used for BA Victory at Sea.

 

Didn't drink much of it before and don't drink any of it now. Their beer is poor. They do no style or any particular beer well. Collects dust in every store in my city. Another overhyped, bad San Diego brewery. Change in ownership has no impact on that.

 

I think they make a couple decent beers. I think their major malfunction was always value which they attempted to fix.

 

Value is their malfunction for me. I tried all their main stuff in singles a few years ago, none of it jumped out at me that its worth 15 a sixer, so I never bought it. The only ome that stood out to me was VAS, I wouldnt mind revisiting that one again.

 

Not sure about quality but I could never find it even close to fresh so I quit looking. Haven't purchased in well over a year.

 

I don't drink much BP, IMO the Sculpin stuff is the pure definition of mediocre. Then there's the price. I've only had their hoppy stuff and I've never been all that impressed, but I would say that the Grapefruit Sculpin is the best of the bunch.

 

Looks like that varies by state - understandably, given the difficulty in switching distributors written into some states' Three Tier & franchise laws. Unlike the Heineken/Lagunitas deal, Constellation has been pretty active moving Ballast Point into what they've taken to calling their "Gold Network" (as opposed to AB's "Red" and MillerCoors "Blue" distribution).

According to this Brewbound article from a few months ago, they've switched BP's distributors in MA (their second largest market - go figure), NYC, NJ, MD and WI and 60% of BP is now with Constellation's Gold Network. (Gotta assume that most of that is made up of MillerCoors or, maybe to a lesser extend, AB wholesalers).

 

"Constellation then hopes to trade consumers up to the pricier Sculpin IPA, which retails for $14.99."

There is plenty of old Sculpin IPA on my local beer retailers shelves. My guess is that consumers do not want to pay 15 bucks for a 6-pack of beer which lead to old inventory at retailers.

Ballast Point does not need to do a lot of marketing research here: if you over price your beer people will not buy it.

Canned Sculpin IPA is a pass for me. There are plenty of other good lower priced IPAs available for purchase and they are not old.

Cheers!

 

I still drink a fair amount of Ballast Point. Grunion is one of the best pales out there, and I enjoy Victory at Sea (and variants) as well as Grapefruit Sculpin. Regular Sculpin, while solid, isn't worth the hype at this point.

Freshness is key though....check the dates!

 

And I'm sure they sent in some penny pinching bean counter to make BP wasn't 'wasting' money on higher quality ingredients.....

 

Quality has never been the issue with BP; their command of a wide range of styles is stronger than most breweries. (I actually might like their "standard"-style beers the most -- Bonito Blonde is excellent, Wahoo witbier is nice (love the Thai chili version), the amber/ESB is enjoyable, and so on.)

The issue was always price. Glad to see them bringing prices down. There's enough competition these days for to me to not buy them very often, but I don't hesitate to throw a bottle or two into a mix-a-six if I find something fresh and/or want a classic style that, frankly, many of these new breweries won't/can't make.

 

Has anyone else noticed that it's difficult to find regular even keel as opposed to mango even? They gotta stop with all these painfully obvious, terrible tasting, artificial flavorings.

 

Might be slightly overstated, no? Regular Sculpin is an awfully good west coast IPA. Criticism of freshness is warranted, but that doesn't reflect the real quality of the beer.

 

I was just talking about where I live. They went with Elite Brands when they introduced to the state (2014?); they are not a Bud, MillerCoors or Contellation distributor. I would imagine Constellation would like it in the Gold network (that's actually the MillerCoors distributor in Denver which is owned by MillerCoors, so maybe not), but for now they remain with Elite; one of several beer/spirits/wine distributors that service the Denver area. Since Colorado is primarily an independent liquor state, the spirits/wine distributors actually do a pretty good job.

 

The mango flavor is natural. Whether it tastes terrible and artificial to you is another issue.

 

Do you know for sure if they are using fresh mango or even a mango purée? As far as I'm concerned, If it isnt either of those, it isn't natural.

 

Of course, that is not the legal definition of "natural" under TTB regulations:

Using your criteria, hop pellets, liquid hop extract, malt extract, maltose, dextrose and other forms of brewing sugars, both syrup and dry, all used by numerous "craft" brewers would all also be "artificial".

 

Semantics my friend. This has been discussed plenty of times on BA. It's kinda like the what's "craft" discussion. We know it when we see it, or in this case, taste/smell it.

 

I made a post in here back in March I believe talking about 6 month old gf sculpin rotting on my area shelves. Last week, I saw some 120 julian dated GF Sculpin, marking it May 1st, or about 110 days old. Things have not gotten better.