Ballast Point Tasting Room, Part I

I’ve had the privilege of visiting the gorgeous new Ballast Point restaurant and tasting room a couple of times in recent days.

This place is slick, especially beside the surrounding beige, tract office blocks.

Alongside other San Diego breweries like Saint Archer, Mike Hess, and Alesmith, Ballast Point has turned Miramar into an unlikely, sort of quasi-nightlife area near the suburbs.

This headquarters location offers R&D (research and development) brews among their 78+ taps. Also two-dollar tasters, usually poured generously past the 4 oz. line.

On this expedition my brother and I tried the East to West IPA, Tongue Buckler, Grapefruit Sculpin, Fathom IPL, and the Barometer Drop Baltic Porter.

East to West IPA 7% So Sculpy is still the reigning Regina George of IPA’s but the good folk at Ballast have not rested on their laurels. East to West is a lovely tropical IPA with high fruity esters and an understated cereal malt profile and crisp finish. Mild cloudiness. To me a candied fruit taste transitioned into some punchy, piney hop bitterness. Apparently this beer is a collaboration with Japan’s Coedo brewery and features brown rice among its grains and late kettle Meyer lemons. Very fresh, very Pacific. Presentation:

• a tulip glass for sure

• any restaurant that self-identifies as “asian fusion”

Pairing:

• powdered sugar sand

• an antique map of the Pacific Rim

• the film Pacific Rim

Tongue Buckler Amber Ale 10% ABV

It's there in the name, really.

High hop bitterness with both hop and ester flavors of citrus and grapefruit. The malt profile is toasty/caramel and has that candy molasses sweetness to balance out the hop bitterness of this beer. It’s a big taste, not a fresh spritzer. I’d be curious to hear what y’all have say about the balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness in this brew.

The slight medicinal (ginger? sarsaparilla?) character could be unappealing to some but I liked it.

Presentation:

• In a saloon.

• Not a bar but a saloon. Like if Epcot center had a mini Blood Meridian-land.

Pairing:

• the musk of mine labor.

• that steak you’ve been keeping under your saddle.

• your own saliva in the vast, arid, oasis-less frontier.

• Scalps (free-range).

More notes on Ballast Point tasters coming up in Part II…

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