MAXED OUT: Sculpin

Maxipher dives back into his top 10 with a fine, fine choice.

Alright, my bevy of beer drinking beauties, thanks for joining me for another installment of debauchery. The topic of this week’s article? BACK TO THE TOP 10! I know you’re all so excited! Okay, let’s recap, shall we? So so far we have Jolly Pumpkin’s Oro de Calabaza, The Hitachino XH, Pizza Port OB’s Cho Saiko, Delirium Tremmens, The Geuze Grand Fond Tradition, and Moonlight’s Reality Czech. Am I missing anything? I think not. Okay, here we go!

So number seven on the list, in no particular order, is Ballast
Point’s Sculpin IPA. I was really trying to change up my list and not
involve two beers from the same category but with the amount of money
I have put into Ballast Point’s pockets over the past year due to this
beer alone forces me to include it to the list. Sculpin is a
sublimely well- balanced IPA (India Pale Ale for those of you new to
the program) coming in at 7% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 70 IBUs
(International Bitterness Units.) The bartenders at both The
Neighborhood and Small Bar even stopped asking me what I wanted and
just pour me a Sculpin when I walk in the front door. That tells me
two things: 1. I go to these bars too often. And 2. THIS BEER IS
FREAKIN’ GOOD!

So, I am sitting outside of Toronado San Diego as I write this on a
rare Wednesday off for me. It is around 90 degrees outside and I am
dealing with the heat in the best way possible; by crushing a couple
of Sculpins. Boo ya!

So what does Sculpin do for me? Well from what I understand Sculpin
blends four different hop strains, which is a lofty endeavor in its
own rite. It has a lovely deep golden hue to it with bubbles slowly
drifting to the top. This beer is NOT over the top in any way. It
has a well balanced hop flavor that is never overwhelming. It is
always well-carbonated and never over-carbonated. One of the best
things about Sculpin is the fact that, even when it warms up, it never
gets too skunky. This cannot be said for many IPAs out there. To me,
Sculpin is the PERFECT warm weather beer. It’s also a great cold
weather beer. It’s also a great mild weather beer. So, I guess what
I’m trying to say is that Sculpin is a great beer. Ballast Point
does not do a ton of great stuff, but the stuff they do great is
truly great.

I am now seven beers into my top ten and there WILL be another
Ballast Point entry. There will also be a Stone beer, so I guess I’m
a little San Diego-biased, now that I think about it. But alas, we
are in the greatest beer city in the world, I live here, and, oh yeah,
DEAL WITH IT! Speaking of the San Diego beer scene, stay tuned next
week when I wax poetic on Port Brewing, and the copious amounts of
medals that San Diego won at the last Great American Beer Festival, or
GABF. I will be collecting accounts from first-hand survivors,
talking about the beers that did win metads (that I’ve had) and
shunning the beers that did win medals that should never win anything.
Should be fun.

Until next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.

(ed. note: Alas, Max top 10s a beer we can give a complete unqualified endorsement towards as Sculpin is indeed one our absolute favorite beers as well. And one of the best things about it is, as unlike others in the top 10, you don't have to go all Indiana Jones in order to track it down, rather stumble into about any reputable establishment in town as it is that available. Don't believe us? Check out Tap Hunter.com. It's at 41 locations here in the San Diego area. 41! Is life great or what?

And we're glad Max will have something to say about the GABF that went down a couple of weekends ago in Denver as we were going to blog about it ourselves. Spoiler alert... San Diego kicked ass... again! But you've been conditioned to expect that, no? To reiterate, we are the micro/craft brew capital of the world and you are certainly entitled to your right to object, Portland, Boston and Denver/Front Range, but you would be wrong so just deal with it. You're all a pretty distant second.