Saturday 28th of April 2012 04:27:03 PM

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The Ballast Point Brewery is located in a low-density, practically rural office park complex. The only obvious indication that you’ve reached the right location is the Ballast Point flag displayed outside the entrance.

The fairly small tasting room has simulated wood floors, a few stand-up tables, and full windows on the street side. The walls are yellow and sea-foam green and various hanging fish and other fish motifs (matching the labels for the various beers) are the decorations.

The bar is a simple counter made of light wood, with a separate stainless steel counter behind supporting nine tape handles and a hand pump. The “bar back” is a window onto the brewery behind the tasting room and a window onto a small lab/brewery office space.

Visiting the restroom provides a better view of the brewery, but even better than that is taking a guided brewery and distillery tour. The brewery is in a large space of very high ceilings with exposed pipes and insulation and unfinished concrete floors. The combination of florescent lights, clerestory windows, and shining stainless steel tanks makes it fairly bright. For legal reasons, the distillery operations are separated from the brewery by a metal wire fence. Inside the fence are stacks of oak barrels with aging rum, gin, and bourbon; and there are two stills, one stainless steel and one made of copper.

There were five regular house-made beers and four special/limited releases on our visit: a wheat, a pale, an amber, an IPA, and a porter for the regulars; another IPA, a web-hop, a double IPA, and a blackberry ale for the specials. The Sculpin IPA and the Sour Wench Blackberry (not normally our favorite style) were both superb and the Big Eye IPA was also very good. The beers alone make this a definitely required visit.

Growler fills, bottles, and miscellaneous souvenirs are available for purchase. There is no food (except for pretzels). Parking is available on the street.

Friday 26th of August 2011 12:24:05 PM

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Went there on a Friday afternoon. I was trying to get there for a brew tour that they had mentioned on their phone message. I had just left Alesmith tasting room and had heard great things about this brewery although I hadn't tried any of their brews. I got there and apparently this location is still under construction...and thus there wasn't a tour offered that day. No big deal...this tasting room was very nice in comparison to Alesmith, looked like a bar, with actual bar stools, tables, Plasma TVs on the wall, friendly bartenders, glass display case for the beer merchandise they had for sale. This tasting room is very small, about 10'x 40'. They had a big board of what beers they had on draft. Each taster was $2 although if taste 4 they give you a dollar discount. I tried the bottom four...including Sculpin IPA which was great. Ended up picking up a couple of sweet pint glasses for $3 each including my favorite Sculpin IPA.