Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

355 ml bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 7.0%. Deep golden colour, large white head. Aroma of grapefruit and pine. The flavour is distinctly hoppy throughout, like the "normal" Sculpin, but with the grapefruity and piney notes from the hops enhanced by added grapefruit. Good stuff.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

12 oz bottle. Pours hazy golden orange with floaties and a big frothy white head that retains well and laces the glass.

The aroma is subdued - bready malts, piney hops and a quite a bit of chili pepper.

The flavor is bready malts and some fruit that is quickly overwhelmed by a ton of heat from the pepper. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with smooth carbonation.

Overall, nice spice heat, but that overwhelms the base beer. Good chili beer, not much IPA.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Pours clear amber with a nice eggshell head. Hoppy aroma has a definite peppery note. Flavor is peppery and hot, but not as bad as I feared. Definitely not for the faint of palate, but won’t make your mouth feel like a set from "The Towering Inferno" either. Form, fizzy mouthfeel leaves a hot pepper finish. Hot hot hot!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Sculpin IPA is one of my favorites, but this one was tough to drink. I've noticed this before with spicy beer, where I bought a crowler and let it sit about 3 months so the heat built intensely over time. This may have been the case with this bottle. Buddy from GA had a few extra that he couldn't really drink, so brought down to try. You could tell with the first sip, that the heat was there as it lingered on my lips for quite a bit. Didn't affect the palate that much, but after a few sips you can tell the heat for sure. I would try to sample a fresher bottle next time though. He wound up using the last bottle in a chili recipe!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Deep orange body with some haziness, the cap is thick and pillowy, and it leaves some moderate lace. The peppers dont show in the aroma but hit about mid first drink, spicy but not overbearing, the tropical fruitiness of the hops are still in the picture. Overall a decent spiced beer but i still prefer the regular and grapefruit version.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

I had a fresh sample of this beer at the Barrel Chest in Roanoke, VA. This beer was amazing! It was Sculpin but HOT. There was pepper in the nose and throughout the pallet. The grapefruity hops shine through. This was a fantastic beer!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

Wow. Ballast does it again. One of my very favorite IPAs spiced up enough to notice, but not so much it takes away ANYTHING from the hoppy tropical goodness that is Sculpin. Light peppers on the nose, a little more in the flavor. Sublime!!