Season 3, Episode 51 – This week, we find out who will rein supreme in the battle between the Light side of the sea, and the Dark side.

Does anyone else smell fish? What is that? Oh, pshht…I know what it is. It’s a Sculpin from Ballast Point Brewing, and an Invasive Species from Beachwood Brewing! We invited both of these underwater dwellers to battle it out on the show this week, with hopes of figuring out which one of these is the bigger fish to fry.

The Beachwood/Ballast Point Showdow

A little back story: once upon a time, Ballast Point Brewing out of San Diego, California, was one the most respected craft brewers in the San Diego beer scene, until the company was sold to Constellation Brands, Inc. for a cool one billion clams (snicker). Since then, many beer geeks have written the brewery off as a “sell out” and stopped buying their products, and some have decided to overlook the buyout and just focus on the beer. But, just because a brewery sells to a larger macro brewery or company doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of their product will suffer, although sometimes recipes and practices tend to change over time to drive down cost and increase profit. In the case of Ballast Point, the beers are still pretty great for the most part.

Enter Beachwood Brewing. Beachwood has been very vocal about their brewing independence and dedication to true craft beer. In a very tongue-in-cheek move, they decided to brew a series of beers that were inspired by Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA and variants thereof, that positioned Beachwood to both comment on and snub Ballast Point and their wildly popular fruited beers. While they didn’t come out and blatantly say “fuck you,” to Ballast Point (for whatever reason, outside of the obvious craft vs. macro battle cry), the line of beers they brewed and subsequently named “Invasive Species” (with a depiction of a dead fish on the beer bottle’s label) sure did imply it. Fight!

So, here we are. We purchased the freshest Sculpin IPA and variants of Sculpin IPA (and Even Keel) that we could find and put them up against the two-week-old bottles of Beachwood’s Invasive Species IPA and variants. Who will prevail? You can probably guess who we’re rooting for…

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Beers from this week’s episode:
Beachwood Brewing – Invasive Species
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits – Sculpin IPA
Beachwood Brewing – Mango Invasive Species
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits – Mango Even Keel
Beachwood Brewing – Grapefruit Invasive Species
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits – Grapefruit Sculpin
Beachwood Brewing – Habanero Invasive Species
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits – Habanero Sculpin

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