Reports from the trenches of the San Diego beer scene

Beer & Sandals

San Diego is home to some of the finest beers, breweries and brewmasters in the world.

We relish the opportunity to be your companions in navigating these glorious waters.

Head-to-Head: Ballast Point Big Eye IPA vs. Blue Frog Grog & Grill Big DIPA

Posted January 23rd, 2009 by Nate

This week we’re pitting a local favorite against an out-of-town challenger.  Blue Frog is a brewpub in Fairfield, north of San Francisco.  We’ll see how they’re double IPA fairs against the tried-and-true quality of Ballast Point’s offering after the jump.

Ballast Point Big Eye IPA

Nate: Drinking this beer is like visiting a friend’s house where you know he’s always got some carne asada going and it’s just going to be good times.  It’s predictable and completely welcome.

This IPA has a very fruity nose.  It pours with a nice head.  The flavor is excellently balanced: citrus tones with a nice hop finish that isn’t overpowering.

Chris:Like Nate said, this beer is “good times”. Although this was good, there wasn’t much else that really made this IPA stand out from others. I thought it was complete, refreshing, complementing and delicious but nothing more to make it my go-to IPA.

Blue Frog Grog & Grill Big DIPA

Chris:What a disappointment! I find something on the shelves that i haven’t seen before and I think, “Wow, what a cool looking bottle. And look it’s a double IPA, this should be good.”
Big DIPA wasn’t bad, it poured a burnt orange with a nose of pear, orange, and toasty malt. The taste was also the same as the nose but missing the hop blast that usually comes with an IPA. Overall, a good beer, a tad too sweet, and definitely not an IPA (let alone a double) by my standards.

Nate: So this is what Norcal thinks a double IPA is?  This is why I’m glad I live in San Diego.  This beer has a very weak nose, and mild hoppiness at best. Hop-wise it’s the weakest “IPA” I’ve ever had.  I’d like to drive a Ruination up to Fairfield just to see the look on their faces when they realize that hops are supposed to add flavor to a beer. The one redeeming quality here is that as it warms you get a bit more of the alcohol coming out, almost like a barrel-aged beer, but without as much character.

Conclusion

We may be biased, but hands-down Ballast Point takes the belt here.  Better scent, better flavor, better experience all around.

Tags: , ,

Filed under:Reviews

3,837 Responses to “Head-to-Head: Ballast Point Big Eye IPA vs. Blue Frog Grog & Grill Big DIPA”

Leave a Reply

To use reCAPTCHA you must get an API key from http://recaptcha.net/api/getkey