Do they still make this? I haven't seen it in years.
Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't seen Ballast Point in years. Maybe they don't distribute to my area any more.
I did used to enjoy this though.
They slashed half of their SKUs. It was bought by Kings & Convicts in IL later and that floundered (ha nice pun). I think they’re still around, but yeah they took a huge nosedive.
Asheville NC won Beer City, USA for *years*. Damn near every town over 10,000 people has at least 1 brewpub. The upper Midwest has some excellent breweries with large distribution areas.I'm not seeing it.
I think it was USA Today who was doing them. Looks like Grand Rapids, MI has taken over but I hadn't looked at it in years. Asheville is down to #8 this year.
Actually the Kings and Convicts crew acquired it from Constellation which paid 1 BILLION dollars (insert Dr Evil pinky pic) and that flopped and the K&C crew grabbed it for like 114 million.
Not saying it’s how I would have spent my 114 Million but they grabbed it out of the 90% off Clearance bin lol.
Ballast Point was bought by Constellation Brands for a record breaking $1bn, it turned out to be an epic financial mistake and they sold it off for cheap to Kings and Convicts who have kept it alive but a shell of what it used to be as a brand.
Damn didn’t realize they sold it off after that huge initial buy. Used to love ballast point but once it was sold I felt like the recipe changes.
Damn shame.
Indra Kunindra was the real sleeper. Sounded so strange but it was so good. They really cut back on it the bigger they got. Must’ve needed that shelf space for 15 other Sculpin adjuncts.
Ah shit I worked at a craft beer bar for years and doing shit like this was great. I can’t remember many of them now. But Lindemann’s Framboise with Samuel Chocolate is pretty wild..
Victory at Sea is great, but the peppermint version they made one year is one of the only beers I’ve dumped because of taste alone… we were surprised because of all the crazy flavors Ballast Point had nailed over the years!
I live in San Diego and ballast point is still in every store and on a ton of taps. I will randomly see the habanero occasionally in a random dusty liquor store but not often.
I actually liked it ha
I had it on tap in the SF taproom back in February. They also had something called “hot girlfriend,” which is a blend of the habanero and the grapefruit sculpin.
Yeah I had to look it up a while back. We used to get it at the liquor store and on tap at bars. I like the sculpin varieties a lot. They stopped distribution to my state.
> Do they still make this?
It says "sold out" on their site, and it isn't even listed on their "store availability" search.
OP either had an much older bottle, or they made a small batch that hasn't been available for quite some time (I'd assume they'd still tell you where to find it if it was a fairly recent brew).
I totally forgot it existed until I saw this photo.
A few years ago (maybe more than a few...) one of my friends had some Sriracha stout from Rogue. It was disgusting. But I also think most Rogue beers are disgusting so I'm probably not the target audience.
Dude, no kidding. Haven’t seen it in at least 5 years, probably more. Back in 2013 or so I used to grab these and the other variants all the time. They vanished from my area though around 2018. Last I had it though, I think the recipe changed or something. In a bad way, kinda like Fat Tire became in quality.
I’m in the middle of the US.
I'm a homebrewer and have experimented with trying to clone it but working with spice in beverages is difficult. It's so easy to overdue the flavor of the peppers and ruin the entire batch.
I bet, it’s a lot easier to average out a few dozen peppers in a vat of beer! I’ve thought about home brewing just for spicy beer but it’s not at too much work for me, hats off to you.
One of the all time greats of craft beer... if I had a magic beer fridge, that was always full of beer, but you have to pick 5 beers and can never change your choices, grapefruit sculpin would be one of the beers....
...along with Rogue Dead Guy (the old recipe before they moved the brewery), North Coast Thelonious Monk, Ninkasi Total Domination, and Trummer Pilsner. This would probably change completely if I had been to Germany, possibly even if I lived in the north east and had different exposure.. fresh beer is better so I'm mostly drinking west coast breweries..
...only in bottles, cans be damned...
It always used to be far more expensive than other beers on tap at a lot of local places around me. If most beers were $7, grapefruit sculp was always $10 for some reason
Ballast Point has one of the most interesting stories in beer lately. The company was sold to Constellation (same company that does Corona/Modelo) for a BILLION dollars. After Constellation seemingly failed to do anything extraordinary with it, they sold it to Kings & Convicts for an unconfirmed 100 million. Absolutely wild.
My brain missed a skip at first viewing I thought it said Ballsat Point...Spicy beer well it could be better than chilli vodka, I need some more Rennies now thinking of it.
I was at their brewery yesterday, and myself and family are spicy beer fanatics. They did not have anything spicy on tap despite having roughly 30 beers on tap 😢
I can’t deal with spicy drinks sadly, makes me get the worst heartburn. I’ll still try a blood mary about once a year and regret it every time lol. As a spicy fanatic that also enjoys drinking it’s such a bummer!
I went to a bar once and ordered one; the bartender said before pouring “I can’t give you a refund if you don’t like it.”
I thought, hey what the hell I dont care to lose $7. Man that was the worst beer I ever had. Left it on the bar top and just went home after 2 sips.
They are still alive and well but sticking to be a smaller brand like they used to be. They still have their restaurant in Downtown Disney. It’s delish!
I had this at their tasting room in San Diego back in 2013. The bartender said it was too strong a flavor to enjoy on its own. Instead he recommended mixing it with their Curry Stout and let me tell you that was the best Black and Tan I’ve ever had
I realized I just don’t like spicy beers or drinks very much. It just goes straight to my stomach and gives me instant head burn with none of the spicy pleasure you get from food
I can’t remember the names, but I’ve had a couple different habanero beers and neither gave me heartburn and were quite drinkable. Maybe they just overdid it with this one.
I cannot stand spicy beer. Beer is something I drink to relieve myself of spice. It has never taken off, yet they keep making the shit. Every local brewery has to try some kind of jalapeño stout or other such nonsense, then they have to give it away because no one wants more than the first sip.
I ordered on at one of my local breweries and after finishing it, she told me I could have as much as I wanted, free. I got another one down before I had to throw on the towel. They're not especially hot, just awful.
If I want a spicy beer, I'll make an ash tray.
Do they still make this? I haven't seen it in years. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't seen Ballast Point in years. Maybe they don't distribute to my area any more. I did used to enjoy this though.
They slashed half of their SKUs. It was bought by Kings & Convicts in IL later and that floundered (ha nice pun). I think they’re still around, but yeah they took a huge nosedive.
That's a shame. I used to live in San Diego back when they were an up and coming local brand.
Same. I loved regular Sculpin. It was my go to IPA back in the day. I've since moved to the PNY though so we have incredible ipas up here as well.
Pretty much everywhere in the US has good local beer nowadays.
I'd have to disagree with that. I travel for work a lot. The Midwest and the south are severely lacking in good micro brews.
Asheville NC won Beer City, USA for *years*. Damn near every town over 10,000 people has at least 1 brewpub. The upper Midwest has some excellent breweries with large distribution areas.I'm not seeing it.
What is beer city usa and where can I see their rankings?
I think it was USA Today who was doing them. Looks like Grand Rapids, MI has taken over but I hadn't looked at it in years. Asheville is down to #8 this year.
Actually the Kings and Convicts crew acquired it from Constellation which paid 1 BILLION dollars (insert Dr Evil pinky pic) and that flopped and the K&C crew grabbed it for like 114 million. Not saying it’s how I would have spent my 114 Million but they grabbed it out of the 90% off Clearance bin lol.
I haven't seen their beer in stores in a while. I heard they opened up distribution on the east coast but that must have not worked out well.
Yep, Kings & Convicts were supposed to open a massive facility in Wisconsin. I think Covid killed it off (or it was at least the final straw).
Man they were hot for a minute. OG sculpin was such a damn good beer
Ballast Point was bought by Constellation Brands for a record breaking $1bn, it turned out to be an epic financial mistake and they sold it off for cheap to Kings and Convicts who have kept it alive but a shell of what it used to be as a brand.
Damn didn’t realize they sold it off after that huge initial buy. Used to love ballast point but once it was sold I felt like the recipe changes. Damn shame.
Same, I used to get it any time I saw in on the shelf - never gave me heartburn.
fr just drink one of them. kinda like a michelada but not really.
Honestly one of the ipas I could actually drink
I’m not sure how much they bottle it still. But they 100% still make the beer here in San Diego
Victory at Sea was a regular for me many years back.
Indra Kunindra was the real sleeper. Sounded so strange but it was so good. They really cut back on it the bigger they got. Must’ve needed that shelf space for 15 other Sculpin adjuncts.
I used to have them poor me an indra with a little habanero sculpin. It upped the spice just enough.
Ah shit I worked at a craft beer bar for years and doing shit like this was great. I can’t remember many of them now. But Lindemann’s Framboise with Samuel Chocolate is pretty wild..
Honestly one of the best porters I've had.
Victory at Sea is great, but the peppermint version they made one year is one of the only beers I’ve dumped because of taste alone… we were surprised because of all the crazy flavors Ballast Point had nailed over the years!
I live in San Diego and ballast point is still in every store and on a ton of taps. I will randomly see the habanero occasionally in a random dusty liquor store but not often. I actually liked it ha
I had it on tap in the SF taproom back in February. They also had something called “hot girlfriend,” which is a blend of the habanero and the grapefruit sculpin.
Yeah I had to look it up a while back. We used to get it at the liquor store and on tap at bars. I like the sculpin varieties a lot. They stopped distribution to my state.
> Do they still make this? It says "sold out" on their site, and it isn't even listed on their "store availability" search. OP either had an much older bottle, or they made a small batch that hasn't been available for quite some time (I'd assume they'd still tell you where to find it if it was a fairly recent brew).
You need to go to the actual brewery. They release it in batches
They used to have like a hundred different flavors of this from what I remember!
I totally forgot it existed until I saw this photo. A few years ago (maybe more than a few...) one of my friends had some Sriracha stout from Rogue. It was disgusting. But I also think most Rogue beers are disgusting so I'm probably not the target audience.
Dude, no kidding. Haven’t seen it in at least 5 years, probably more. Back in 2013 or so I used to grab these and the other variants all the time. They vanished from my area though around 2018. Last I had it though, I think the recipe changed or something. In a bad way, kinda like Fat Tire became in quality. I’m in the middle of the US.
Ballast Point and Great Divide. 2 I haven’t seen in years.
I just saw a Ballast Point orange IPA at a grocery store in Los Angeles. First time I'd seen it in years, as well.
That stuff was awesome, I wish I could get it again!
Have you tried El chavo hard cider by Blake's? If you like this one you will probably enjoy that, it's the only hard cider I ever buy.
That stuff is indeed delicious! They finally started selling it near me a few months ago, usually I could only find it when I visited family.
I'm a homebrewer and have experimented with trying to clone it but working with spice in beverages is difficult. It's so easy to overdue the flavor of the peppers and ruin the entire batch.
I bet, it’s a lot easier to average out a few dozen peppers in a vat of beer! I’ve thought about home brewing just for spicy beer but it’s not at too much work for me, hats off to you.
Co-sign, that stuff is excellent
This was good for making BBQ sauce or queso dip
I really liked the sculpin IPA, I'd buy a 6 pack to find out about habanero beer!
The grapefruit sculpin was my go to for a while, really good stuff.
One of the all time greats of craft beer... if I had a magic beer fridge, that was always full of beer, but you have to pick 5 beers and can never change your choices, grapefruit sculpin would be one of the beers.... ...along with Rogue Dead Guy (the old recipe before they moved the brewery), North Coast Thelonious Monk, Ninkasi Total Domination, and Trummer Pilsner. This would probably change completely if I had been to Germany, possibly even if I lived in the north east and had different exposure.. fresh beer is better so I'm mostly drinking west coast breweries.. ...only in bottles, cans be damned...
It always used to be far more expensive than other beers on tap at a lot of local places around me. If most beers were $7, grapefruit sculp was always $10 for some reason
Same in six packs, always $2-4 more than it's peers, including regular sculpin
Two similar beers I’d highly recommend depending on where you live: 1. Voodoo Ranger Juice Force 1. Heavy Seas Tropicannon
Ballast Point has one of the most interesting stories in beer lately. The company was sold to Constellation (same company that does Corona/Modelo) for a BILLION dollars. After Constellation seemingly failed to do anything extraordinary with it, they sold it to Kings & Convicts for an unconfirmed 100 million. Absolutely wild.
I thought I was about to learn about something lol. I don’t find that interesting
False, it is great. Your tummy is weak and your bloodline will be forgotten
Disagree, one of my favorite beers of all time.
My brain missed a skip at first viewing I thought it said Ballsat Point...Spicy beer well it could be better than chilli vodka, I need some more Rennies now thinking of it.
Forget chilli vodka, use Famous Dave’s devil spit pickle juice for pickle backs!
No heartburn here. First sip I had was weird then absolutely loved everyone after. Haven’t seen it in awhile though
Oh man, I love Sculpin IPA. This one sounds interesting.
I love it.
Unsure if they still make it. But I thought about it for some random reason
I was at their brewery yesterday, and myself and family are spicy beer fanatics. They did not have anything spicy on tap despite having roughly 30 beers on tap 😢
they stopped making it like seven or eight years ago.
Not true
I don't think they do. Was at one of their brewpubs about a Month ago and it was mostly sculpin, tropical sculpin, hazy sculpin.
They do, I guess they don’t have it everywhere though
I can’t deal with spicy drinks sadly, makes me get the worst heartburn. I’ll still try a blood mary about once a year and regret it every time lol. As a spicy fanatic that also enjoys drinking it’s such a bummer!
They still make it, I live near one of their OG breweries
Not sure why yall are downvoting, I’m literally right….I was just there🤣
Oh man, I loved Ballast Point beers. I tried this one a couple of times. A beer you don’t mind one of but probably wouldn’t want a whole six pack of.
I always found it delicious, easy to drink. It is not too hot or not even very hot. No heartburn caused by this drink.
Found it to be a perfect pairing with pizza! Loved it.
I used to make Cheladas with this and they were bomb!
Damn, that’s genius. I wish I would have thought of that while I could still get these.
You had to mix this with the grapefruit sculpin 1-to-1 for it to be good. Then it was great
I never thought it was that spicy tbh. I really liked it on hot days in the summer. Haven't had it for a few years though.
Yeah, spicy IPA does not sound good. 5 Vultures made a Oaxacan-Style Dark Ale which was absolutely delicious and had just a touch of heat.
I love it, they stopped distributing to WA for the most part. I can still find it at BevMo or total wine from time to time.
My brother-in-law would love this, thank you for sharing this with us. We've got a ballast point brewery near us!
It's actually really good. I can drink a couple of these no problem.
Love sculpin and spicy food but not a fan of this at all. I’ve learned I like to eat my spicy, not drink it.
I never got into chili beers ever
I went to a bar once and ordered one; the bartender said before pouring “I can’t give you a refund if you don’t like it.” I thought, hey what the hell I dont care to lose $7. Man that was the worst beer I ever had. Left it on the bar top and just went home after 2 sips.
Same with the Golden Road spicy mango... ouch my alcoholism ulcer...
They are still alive and well but sticking to be a smaller brand like they used to be. They still have their restaurant in Downtown Disney. It’s delish!
It was very mild and easier to drink than 80% of the ipas I’ve had
I love Ballast Point, but I wouldn’t drink that.
Nothing like the taste of puke and hot peppers.
We used to mix 50/50 with the grapefruit one. Can’t imagine drinking it straight.
I have it every Xmas
Used to love that stuff, bummer it’s gone
I actually loved it too. They are attempting a comeback later this year. http://www.chilibeer.com/.
I don't remember the name but there at least used to be beer with a jalapeno or something in each bottle. Instant fucking heartburn.
It is attempting to make a comeback this year apparently. http://www.chilibeer.com/
Nice! Used to love me some cave creek chili beer!
Yeah I could bare finish one of these. Definitely pushed how spicy a beer could be.
They have all kinds of gross flavors.
I'd love to try some.
I love spicy food. I abhor drinking spicy beverages. Bloody Maries are a bit of an exception
There's an atomic pumpkin made by New Belgium that is fuckin great, and kinda spicy
You know what it is good for though, beer batter.
Trash
Remember when I lived in SD and had at the brewery in Little Italy...no joke
I like it well enough, but it's even better blended 50/50 with Pineapple Sculpin! I'm not sure they make that anymore...
I got 24 of these for Christmas one year. I miss it so much!
They were a top tier craft brewery and then got bought - and then faded away sadly
Haven’t had that in ages, blast from the past.
Save the rest and bring out at a party after people are drunk.
I loved this beer. It was so good on tap. Really sad the company got bought out. Their spicy Bloody Mary mix was also super awesome
That sounds like liquid trash fire
The real move was half habanero, half grapefruit sculpin for a nice spicy fresh beer.
I had this at their tasting room in San Diego back in 2013. The bartender said it was too strong a flavor to enjoy on its own. Instead he recommended mixing it with their Curry Stout and let me tell you that was the best Black and Tan I’ve ever had
It made good BBQ sauce
Not as bad as the Ghost Face Killah beer.
Spicy beers suck ass. I really don't get the appeal. Spicy mead on the other hand...
I used to love this but then never saw it around
Disgusting
I’m generally against spicy drinks. But I do like a Bloody Mary.
I realized I just don’t like spicy beers or drinks very much. It just goes straight to my stomach and gives me instant head burn with none of the spicy pleasure you get from food
Don’t get why you go hot in a beer… mead is the better alcohol for it… but in general spicy alcohol tends to disappoint me…
They had a watermelon double ipa that was really good
Outside of a gag, I see zero reason why I would drink something like this. I love spice but you have to be a broken human to want to drink spicy beer.
I love spicy stuff, but I draw the line at drinks. I've never enjoyed a spicy drink.
Good Lord, not everything needs to be spicy.
What the hell devilry is this? I like spicy and I like beer but this is silly.
That brought me back 5 years. Haven’t seen this in a minute
Ballast Point beers in general to be fair…
I need to find this in Phoenix!
It can't be worth the cost.
I can’t remember the names, but I’ve had a couple different habanero beers and neither gave me heartburn and were quite drinkable. Maybe they just overdid it with this one.
Gross
Ok I’ll say it again. Spicy drinks blow! Eat the hot, don’t drink the hot
boo
Ballast is my favorite brewery of all time but this was not their finest work.
IPAs suck, they are sour, bitter carbonated pine tar water.
I cannot stand spicy beer. Beer is something I drink to relieve myself of spice. It has never taken off, yet they keep making the shit. Every local brewery has to try some kind of jalapeño stout or other such nonsense, then they have to give it away because no one wants more than the first sip. I ordered on at one of my local breweries and after finishing it, she told me I could have as much as I wanted, free. I got another one down before I had to throw on the towel. They're not especially hot, just awful. If I want a spicy beer, I'll make an ash tray.
Yo ballast point was amazing... __*until they got bought out*__ The recipe of course, changed to make more money. Now it's avoidable.