Brewery: Ballast Point Brewing Company
Beer: Big Eye IPA
Style: American IPA
ABV: 7.0%
Character: American Columbus and Centennial hops are used to flavor and dry hop
Metal Connection: CANNIBAL CORPSE – Staring through the Eyes of the Dead
Ballast Point Brewing Company is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, as most of the beers I have had from this brewery have been top notch. I was excited to see that I had this bottle in my fridge. I had to reach behind a few beers to get to this one, but I’m glad I did. As I was prepping the bottle for the photo, I noticed there is a stamp that says “enjoy by 11/07/13,” which is in two days. Coincidence? I think not! (Yes, I did drink this on 11/05/13)
I used my newly purchased IPA glass for this one. I love this glass, as it’s design is meant to amplify and balance the aroma and flavor of an IPA. Big Eye IPA is a slightly hazy copper/orange color with an off white frothy head, which remained in tact, leaving fantastic lacing down the glass.
The aroma of the beer is full of citrus fruit notes like grapefruit, lemon and orange zest. There is a faint hint of caramel malt behind the hops. It is very crisp, clean and inviting. I love my IPAs to have this characteristic in the aroma.
The taste of this beer follows the nose with citrus hop flavors, with a good bitter bite to it. There is a good balance of flavor as there is a slight caramel malt character that peaks through behind the hop flavors. There is a lingering grapefruit/orange zest flavor left in the after taste.
The body is a good medium thickness with a oily mouthfeel. There is a good amount of carbonation. Big Eye finishes with a bitter bite, and leaves my throat dry in the end.
Overall, I will say that I really enjoyed this beer a lot, as I will with most IPA’s. I am a huge fan of Sculpin, which is another IPA made by Ballast Point, and I do like that one a bit more than Big Eye, but Big Eye is still a very solid beer. I recommend this beer to any of you reading this, from your novice craft beer drinker to your expert Jedi level beer drinker.
Metal Connection: Yes, I went with a song that used the word “eye” in the title to go along with the name of this beer. Seriously though, you can go wrong with the classic song by one of the biggest Death Metal bands of all time, Cannibal Corpse. This song was the opening track on 1994’s The Bleeding full length album, which was the last album to feature Chris Barnes (Six Feet Under) on vocals. Here is the official music video for the song “Starring through the Eyes of the Dead.” Enjoy!
Dead on the Table,
BeerMetalDude!
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