Black ballast

UnderDog recently staged a takeover of Ballast Point barrel-aged offerings. It was the place to be if you like 'em dark and strong. I went along the day after to see what was left. Plenty, as it turned out.

Sea Monster (right of picture) is an imperial stout at 12.4% ABV, this being the Willet bourbon edition. The aroma is a gorgeous mix of rich cocoa and creamy Irish coffee plus a slightly savoury autolytic note. Its texture is nicely full, and it generates a subtle warmth without excessive heat. In the flavour I found a dialectical struggle between chocolate and bourbon: both out, loud, and proud. The first few sips were far too easy to drink, but it did turn a little curdling in the stomach before long. Not a session beer, then.

I was thoroughly intrigued by the description of Indra Kunindira, a barrel aged curry stout. I mean, what's not to like? This one is a mere 7% ABV and has spent time in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels. That hasn't muted the mix of curry spices, which are very apparent in the flavour: separate and distinct from the beer flavours. They add a fun savoury complexity and a mild spicing to a chocolate-filled base. The bourbon adds a substantial amount of vanilla to this, and it all narrowly avoids being a complete mess. The chilli pepper and coconut save it, however: that's the bit that raised a smile every time I took a sip. More curry beer please, brewers.

Round two brought a Brandy Barrel Aged Belgian Quad at 12.7% ABV. It's almost as black as the rest and the flavour is much more savoury than I was expecting from the description: an almost acrid, hard, earwax effect. The booze heat rescues it, mellowing the beer and dulling the drinker's senses. There's a certain classy spirit charm in the finish, a happy belly-warmth, but effort is involved to get there.

On the other side, a red wine Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout. It's like all the water evaporated out of the fruit as it fermented and what was left for the beer has a hard and concentrated jam quality. It tastes powerfully of raspberry and strawberry. All that sugar leaves very little room for stout, just a dusting of milky chocolate pudding with a hint of vanilla. I want imperial stout to be big and bitter and boozy, but this is none of those things. It's a fruity milksop. Passable. Fun, even. But not the good stuff.

I actually don't know how we fitted in a third set, but anyway that featured Piper Down, on the left there, a scotch ale here in its bourbon-aged form. It's 7.8% ABV, a deep brown colour and quite flat, with just the thinnest of heads. I thought the texture was a little thin but that could be just in comparison with what had gone before. Oak dominates the flavour, sitting next to an intensely sweet maple syrup effect. Bourboning-up an already sweet beer style isn't a great idea in general and I think Ballast Point have just about got away with making something palatable out of it.

The other brown lad there is Navigator, a doppelbock. They aged this in a brandy barrel, and I'll admit I was suspicious of any attempt to "enhance" a lager in this way, however strong and dark the starting beer may be. It finished at 10.7% ABV -- definitely overclocked for a doppelbock. But it tasted fantastic. The sour aroma was a little off-putting but this translates to a lip-smacking vinous quality on tasting: port or madeira. The wholesome cookie malt base remains in place and you get to enjoy the classic lager aspects alongside the barrel-aged complexity. Very nicely done.

That was it for the barrels, but a couple of weeks later another dark Ballast Point job showed up on tap. Mocha Marlin is a coffee porter at a modest 6% ABV. It is extremely coffee, from the real mocha aroma to the oily ristretto flavour -- sharply astringent and harshly dry -- to the earthy spent-grounds finish. That's all well and good if you like coffee, but some of us like porter too, and there's absolutely no sign of the base beer under this: any roast or chocolate notes from the malt have been unceremoniously subsumed by the additions. No doubt it will have fans, but I found it hard to like.

They don't much go in for subtlety at Ballast Point, and I wasn't really expecting to find any here. There were some interesting flavour combinations, though. If nothing else, it was an education on the ways of wood.