Ballast Point Unfiltered Sculpin

I only drink Sculpin on tap for the same reasons discussed - the price difference from other hoppy beers is minimal.

I refuse to purchase packaged Ballast Point beers because of the high prices.

Cheers!

 

My local bar has it... tapping it today. Kelly's Korner Tavern in Placentia, CA

 

hum, sounds pretty good to me. Will be trying this one, have been enjoying a few 6 packs of the others and I think this will be pretty good.

 

This thread annoys the crap out of me...everyone complaining about $5 difference...On the whole, I really enjoy Ballast's offerings and will certainly be trying this out...Quit your bitching and hold my beer.

 

Picked up a sixer at a local Binny's today. 13.99. I know many folks rip on BP pricing but for 72 ounces of beer it seems reasonably priced to me these days. Anyway, I'm mostly happy I was able to find Sculpin less than 2 weeks from being packaged. I am looking forward to trying this as I'm a fan of (fresh) Sculpin. Cheers.

 

The unfiltered thing is interesting to me. I think it has a lot of merit in some situations but to me it's even more a function of how the market has changed and how beer is purchased/marketed/distributed and how the internet has completely changed the game of craft beer. In certain places in the country you don't have to distribute. If there's a large enough population base of beer crazy consumers you just sell direct from the brewery, preach freshness and keeping the beer cold. All you need to do is post your releases on all social channels, websites, email lists. As long as the product is good people will generally buy it. No middleman, full margin in the brand's pocket and controlling the quality of the end product right to the end consumers hands. Shelf stability is of much less concern so you can do so many different things to the beer (especially with hoppy beers) to maybe maximize flavor and aroma without worrying about what the beer might taste like in 60 days and how many times it got warm and cold, warm and cold.

Filtering is as much about stability as it is about aesthetic and it was this perception that if you were a pro brewer your beer was clear cause you were well educated and had the tools to produce such a product. Forgive me if I'm not mistaken but the haze craze was sort of started by Heady correct? Kimmich was adamant that any filtering stripped the hop oils from the beer and resulted in a less flavorful/aromatic beer. Supposedly they don't even pump any of their beer around the Brewery it's all forced with CO2 as he says the pumps strip oils as well??? Props to him for bucking the trend and doing something that was perceived to be substandard because he believed it tasted better and taste was more important to him. The unfiltering along with the 16oz cans and super limited **** Like distribution turned a lot of people on their heads and shaped how so many people perceive beer and how many breweries crafted their brands.

Now however all these breweries are adding things to their beers to promote haze and accentuate it even more so new Hop Freaks think an IPA needa to be murky to taste good. Unfortunately this really messes with the stability of the beer when there is that much protein and hop oil is the final product. You have to keep them cold and drink them fresh or they start to get really weird, especially if they get warm. But if you don't distribute or self distribute to a very small area it's not as big of a deal. Just amazing how a style of beer has developed due to evolution in how people communicate. Both consumer to consumer and brand to consumer.

I'm very interested to see what happens when Treehouse opens their huge new facility. Will they distribute? Self distribute? Kegs only for distro?

 

Sixty-five+ posts and not one mention of the beer's actual taste.

 

It's Sculpin, I'm sure you've tasted it countless times.

 

If you like Sculpin you'll love this.

 

As much as I want to try Sculpin/GF Sculpin they are a little too expensive for a six pack. Last time I bought BP was Commodore that was on sale for $9.99.

 

I am on board that Sculpin is overpriced at most places, but in looking at Total Wine, if and when this gets to Houston it will be ringing in at $14, about a buck more than regular Sculpin. I just got thru buying a 4 pack of Leo V. Ursus for $13. So the pricing on that is Leo: $0.20 an ounce and Sculpin $0.19 an ounce. There is like 1.2 % ABV difference on these and I actually rated Sculpin higher than Leo so I will pick this up when it comes thru and give it a try

 

Today I've drank a tasty Odell IPA and a surprisingly good New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA that I got for $9 and $8 per six-pack, respectively. I can readily buy IPAs from Melvin, Odd 13, and La Cumbre that stand head-and-shoulders above Sculpin at a lower cost. So I'll pass on this one, as with all the other Sculpins.

 

I haven't bought BP beer in years because of their steep prices, but I might splurge and buy one pack of Unfiltered Sculpin while it's fresh.

 

If you have ever bought a bomber, then you have over-paid more for a beer than this $15 six pack.

 

If that same beer is available in a 6 pack.

Otherwise you are comparing the price someone paid for a bottle to an imaginary world. A world where they chose to pay for something that doesn't exist in this world.

Not really a solid argument. A beer can't be more than $15 a six pack when you can't buy a six pack.

 

I have never purchased a packaged Sculpin in any form and I never will.

More beer for you!?!

Cheers!

 

Picked up a 6pk. yesterday, finally hit shelves here this week.
$13.99, less than 2 weeks old. Enjoyed the hell out of it. Assuming it was the extra hopping, but it gave me a flash back to about 6 or 7 years ago when I thought the world of this beer. Pretty to the eye, super aromatic and a nice hop bite. I wouldn't mind paying the price here and there as long as I could continue to get this stuff fresh.

Cheers All....

 

Exactly... this is what I think is stupid about the whole "haze" craze... I think people are missing the intention/point here....

 

Nice post, you brought up several great points. I especially liked your statement about " hop freaks think an IPA needs to be murky to be good". I agree and the haze hype has really reached the casual, uneducated, IPA only- "so juicy bro"- crowd.

That being said I really enjoyed Firestone's Fortum this weekend It was delicious and if you drink it from the can you can't tell it's hazy.

 

I'll be on the look out for it.

Cheers!