Has Ballast Point's quality changed post-sellout?

IMO opinion, the biggest thing is the availability of "better" local and fresh beer at the brewery releases now. Around here, a lot of the sculpin has been sitting on shelves for months, so I haven't had any super fresh since I was actually at the brewery. The quality may be the same, but it's just the supply of so many new IPA's that are local and fresh, that the sculpin isn't as good to me as it once was. I will agree with the people who are stating the victory at sea has seemed to have taken a down turn this year.

 

Grunion is still great.

 

Have you link to this information? Based on the information I've seen the brewer who was among the 4 people that left "to pursue other opportunities" was the head brewer and distiller for the Spirits Division, for not the brewery itself.

http://sdbj.com/news/2016/aug/01/founder-white-3-other-leaders-leave-ballast-point-/

 

Their 'Victory at Sea' still tastes exactly the same to me (Delicious). It's the only beer I buy from them, though.

 

You're reading that wrong, in that link it says Churney co founded the brewers (Ballast Point's) spirits division and was also its (Ballast Point's) head brewer, referring to the brewery Ballast Point. Churney was the head brewer of Ballast Point and was also the head distiller of their spirits division. Distilleries don't have head brewers, just head distillers.

 

Yeah I do seem to have misread that wording. Thanks!

 

Fresh Grunion is better than Sculpin... there, I said it. It is. You know it in your heart to be true.

 

I haven't noticed a change, I also haven't bought some Ballast point beer in awhile.

 

This is not true though. The entire senior leadership team AND founders of the company are gone (most likely threatened with termination and/or forced to resign with severance packages). This is not a multi-generational, 100 year old company we are talking about. These people were the executives and founders of the brewery - you can't expect to discard the entire leadership team at a company and think that "move along now, nothing to see here, everything is the same......"

I've tried many of the beers from Ballast Point before AND after the buyout. As a matter of fact, I used to regularly have Ballast Point on tap on my kegerator at home from 2011-2014. It was staple in the rotation. I was intimately familiar with the taste and flavor profile of the beers given the heavy amount of sampling I did - we (my friends, family, and I) crushed several kegs per month at a regular clip!

I also regularly drink Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, Sweetwater, and many other breweries who have been bought out in the past few years, whether by big brewing conglomerates, private equity, or other means.

I have sampled Ballast Point on at least 10 different occasions in the past few months. I've had it on tap at several bars, bought cans at grocery stores, bought bottles at bottle shops, and even had some beers at an event. The beer has been fresh at times and I tried it in multiple formats. And I will say the beer does taste different...

Sculpin was an awesome beer, it had plenty of bitterness but the beer was an aromatic, flavorful juice bomb. However, the past few times I had it, the beer was very aggressively bitter, but it lacked the flavor, aroma, and juiciness that it used to exude.

Is it my faulty memory? Is it me that changed, and not the beer?

Could be, but keep in mind I used to drink Firestone all of the time as well, and that beer actually tastes better now to me, and as good as ever. I will concede that any individual's "memory" of beer is subjective and not perfect, but I do find it odd that Firestone has improved while Ballast Point seems to have gone downhill.

However, it appears I am not alone here, as many of the original supporters feel the same.

 

If you can find Manta Ray fresh, it's arguably the best new widely distributed west coast DIPA on the market IMHO.

 

yeah, thanks for clarifying - and it seems that you and I are a growing list of people who think the same

 

I have not noticed a change.

 

The only Ballast Point I drink is Sculpin (Grapefruit Sculpin) on draft. Since it is a draft product I have no idea how old that beer is.

Hoppy beers will 'evolve' with age. A Sculpin that is a few weeks from packaging should taste the same as another batch of comparable age (assuming that transport/storage is comparable). A Sculpin that is a couple of months old will taste different due to hop aroma fade.

So, how do I know whether my Sculpin tastes notably different due to the difference of the age of the beer or whether it is being brewed differently? The answer is: I have no way of knowing.

Cheers!

 

You speak the truth. I had it fresh from the brewery about a month ago and it was ridiculous.

 

Big difference. I can't taste the independence anymore.

Otherwise, it's the same.

 

Besides what you can get better and fresher at a similiat price point I'm confused. If you happened to be in the area of that brewery you wouldn't want fresh sculpin? What's the reason behind that.

 

I agree with fresher ipa offerings around me that date their products I will never go for a sculpin but I haven't noticed a difference at all with Victory at Sea. Maybe I can attribute that to issues being hidden behind darker malts but it was still very good to me.

 

I've been drinking several Ballast Point beers regularly for years and have not noticed any decline in quality lately. I would also note that, with regard to some responses that have been offered, when a beer consistently rates highly in blind tastings, and some individual says it is "overrated", they are objectively wrong and probably self-overrating their own ability to taste.

 

Not sure about a quality decrease.. because their beer wasn't that good to begin with. Sculpin is good and everything else can go the way of the dinosaurs