Ballast Point: Indra Kunindra

On The 8th Day Of Beermas, SWMBO Gave To Me, A Ballast Point Indra Kunindra. Maybe I should have made these post in order or something like that but I just got around to them in the order I decided to drink them… Maybe I went about Beermas all wrong too. Maybe I should have drank each beer each day… lessons for next year? Why drink all of this amazing beer in just a 12 day span? Questions. Always, questions.

It was hard finding much information about this beer and with the laundry list of contact info but not a “general” contact section on the Ballast Point site and no response from their twitter account I just went with what backstory I could find online. From Ballast Point – Via The Full Pint

Brewed with madras curry, cayenne pepper, cumin, toasted coconut, and kaffir lime leaf, Indra Kunindra is a 9% ABV stout brewed in collaboration with homebrewer Alex Tweet. It was brewed for Holiday Wine Cellar’s 46th Anniversary Homebrewers Competition.

Another major brewery doing work with the homebrewing community. I guess they never really forget where they come from and it is cool that there was a contest involved, though I don’t know the details on it.

This beer pours black and has a small tan head. Everything you would already expect from a stout but it was the nose that takes things for a spin. The amount of spice in it and maybe a little limey… I couldn’t wait to taste it.

The curry is the first thing that came across my palate. As that was lightening up some coconut followed by bubble gum. You get a little citrus, lime in the back end but I could not get passed the coconut and bubble gum. That just really worked for me. A low carbonation pretty nice body, an interesting beer for sure.

4/5. I find it very drinkable and I totally recommend this beer to anyone. Several people I already talked to about it said they loved it. I guess good beer is good regardless.

Cheers!

1001 Beers: Pliny The Elder

Beer Number 12: Pliny The Elder

Ok, so this picture is not the one I took… I think my phone deleted it haha but it is one that Louie took and he is the one who gave me this beer… and all the others that we drank together this night. I haven’t seen them in almost a year and I am glad we got to catch up before I left town again. We did a little BBQ’n, Drinkin’, and fun havin’. A great night… even though we all almost passed out from sleepyness. Louie had some very interesting beers and actually one that I was looking for, which was pretty surprising being they do not release it often. I guess he has been holding onto it for some time.

Pliny is one of the best IPA’s I have ever tasted. I had it before and even brought home a growler of it. This is another beer that is hard to explain. Everything about this one is just amazing. Piney, Cirtusy, very clean bitterness and flavor but not overdone in anyway. Just perfect and amazing. There were some intersting facts in the book about this beer. Things I did not know.

Vinnie Cilurzo started Blind Pig Brewing, Started the Double IPA Revolution basically to cover up any off flavors in a beer because thier equipment was not the greatest, He originally aged the beer on oak for nine months, served it on the brewery’s first anniversary, took it to the GABF, continued to make the beer annually until he left to brew at Russian River, and then created a new recipe and scaled it up, then named the beer after a Roman Scholar who created the Botanical Name For Hops! Anyway though, lets get to some other brews.

Next Louie broke out the Knuckle Sandwich from Bootleggers. I have never had this one before. I just missed it when I went to the brewery. I was not a fan of anything they had on tap but their bottled beers tend to be really tasty. I am not sure how that process works… maybe the brewery is just dirty. Knuckle Sandwich was very mellow for what I was expecting… maybe not mellow, but it was malty and bitter. I was expecting a thin hop bomb. I really loved it. I will find it again someday.

Next the Imperial Black Phoenix came out. The original Black Phoenix is my favorite beer from the brewery. Again, in bottles! The Imperial version was very interesting. It was very Toasty… Check out the picture.

The Bruery released a beer called Filmishmish and I love the name of it. I loved the beer too. A very good sour brewed with apricots. You could pick them out in the beer and the sourness was very mellow. I am a fan of big sours but this one was well done and it is nice to change taste the range.

So we were looking at various things on Louies computer over the course of the night and when all the windows were closed I saw a picture of Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter and I got so excited. I have been wanting to try that beer ever since I first heard of it and I asked him if he has ever had it. Louie looked at me and was like, yeah… Hold on… He walks into the back and comes back with a bottle and throws it in the fridge! That was pretty intense, you have no idea. I know I am easily excited by beer but just the randomness of him having it blew my mind. I loved it! I love Ballast Point. He actually gave me a bottle of Sea Monster & Westvleteren 12 before I left as well. He is very good at finding amazing beers.

After this we popped open one of the bottles of my homebrew that I brought over for him. It was my Fat Bastard BarleyWine… pretty much the only beer I have left being I have not brewed in a long time. I built this beer to age and last the test of time. I am hoping that it fairs well for years to come. We will see for sure. This was my second taste of the beer since it has been bottled. The first was in December, and the second was now. It is coming along really nicely. I am going to open up a bottle for review soon but it turned out very well, I’d say.

989 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!