Ballast Point Victory at Sea

Brewed By: Ballast Point Brewing Company in San Diego, California 
Purchased: 22oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in IL; 2013

Style/ABV: American Porter, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: 70

It's finally Summer in Chicago, and the weather has been pretty legit. It has been very humid though. Also, hockey in June? To be honest, I'll take it! Because right now baseball in Chicago is abysmal. About Ballast Point Brewing: 

Like a lot of craft breweries, Ballast Point began as a home brewing outfit. Founder Jack White (not the Jack White) began home brewing, only to realize that sourcing ingredients was easier said than done. So Jack opened up Home Brew Mart, a home brew shop, in 1992. From there, Jack met Yuseff, and the two began brewing in the back of the home brew shop. In 1996 the brewery was born. Because Yuseff loves fishing, the brewery names all their beers after fish. You can read more about the brewery and its history here. 

Tonight's beer, the Victory at Sea, is a "Coffee Vanilla" Imperial Porter. This beer combines coffee from Caffé Calabria, vanilla flavoring, and Ballast Point's hefty Imperial Porter. Should be good stuff. 

Ballast Point Victory at Sea

As you might expect with an Imperial Porter/Stout type beer, this pours into a dark black body, and kicks up a pinky of bubbly, carbonated, brown/khaki head. The head settles into a nice cauldron effect. There's some nice lacing on this, and swirling the beer kicks up a centimeter of head...which is sustaining nicely. In bright light, the beer is still impressively black. There are legs. It looks like a Stout/Porter.

The aroma is awesome, with intense coffee, rich roast, BIG hazelnut, espresso, hints of creamer, chocolate/molasses/caramel, and some hints of dark fruits and booze.

There's a whole lotta roast and coffee in this one. I'm looking for the vanilla, but it seems to be a balancing character on the back end if more than anything. There's a ton of roast, coffee, hazelnut, earthy bitter, dirt, dark roast, burnt sugars, pecan/burnt nuts, and then some boozy complexity. There's incredible complexity to the booze here, hinting at dark fruits, burnt sugars, nuts, and spirits (rum comes to mind).

As the beer lingers, it eventually gets to be a bit sticky, but for the most part the body betrays the 10% ABV. The mouthfeel is somewhere between medium-full to full-bodied, but is driven by the added coffee which softens the carbonation and adds a bitter density to the drink. Palate depth is okay, but complexity is off the charts. As I drink more of this, some vanilla is starting to peak out. You get coffee, hazelnut, hints of dark fruit, and molasses up front; that rolls into big roast, intense coffee bitterness, wood, dirt, earth, hints of vanilla; the back end is trailing bitterness, hints of nuts, burnt sugars, dark fruits, boozy complexity...nice dry and roasty finish. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

 

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is a very nice coffee beer, and the more I drink this, the more I'm picking up on some subtle vanilla bean in the mix. This one definitely leans on the roast and earthy coffee, so if you're looking for a earthy, bitter, coffee-forward beer, look no further. This doesn't mess around with the sweeter malts/sugar, and the 10.0% ABV simply adds boozy complexity to the mix. This is clearly a sipping beer, or a beer to share with friends. But you could definitely pair this with some dry rubbed ribs, coffee-braised meats, dry chocolate cakes, coffee desserts, breakfast foods, Tiramisu/Baklava, or an earthy cigar. This is actually really nice stuff, especially at the price, which was less than 10 dollars a bomber.

Random Thought: Tomorrow: hockey, work out, hockey, sleep. In that order.