Ballast Point / Kelsey McNair / Stone San Diego County Session Ale
Ballast Point/Kelsey McNair/Stone San Diego County Session Ale was inspired by homebrewing and exceptional quality of life found in San Diego County. A collaborative effort between three San Diego brewers, this aromatic and flavor-driven beer can be enjoyed during any "session."
San Diego offers a variety of memorable sessions. Surfing, dining out, homebrewing and conversing with fellw beer enthusiasts are some of my favorites. Positive experiences and good conversations require a careful mix of good people, a little time and more than one tasty beer.
As a homebrewer, I was fortunate to have been a customer of both Stone and Home Brew Mart. Now with thirteen years of professional brewing experience, I am honored that Kelsey McNair picked Ballast Point Brewing Company as his inspiration for this award-winning recipe.
Created to evoke San Diego County’s best sessions and favorite beer ingredients, this beer was infused with an ample amount of hops. Bright and floral, this brew will leave you inspired and ready for your next session!
Cheers to the Stone Crew and Beer Drinkers everywhere,
Colby Chandler, Specialty Brewer
Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits
Hi, I’m Kelsey, and I am a hophead.
There’s definitely no shortage of well-hopped India Pale Ales here in San Diego. The local craft brewers are true masters of the style, making some of the finest examples in the world, and a lot of them! If you’re a hophead like me, that’s a pretty good problem to have. These big, aggressively bitter and intensely aromatic brews are the ones I crave the most, but they often pose a dilemma: you can only have a few, yet those bright, complex flavors leave you wanting more.
BUT, what if you could find a smaller, more sessionable beer that could really scratch your itch for hops? An "all-day-IPA?" Quantity and quality at the same time! Within this bottle, I think you might find just that. From one hophead to another, I give you Ballast Point/Kelsey McNair/Stone San Diego County Session Ale! A deceptively small beer that is bold, aggressively hopped, assertively bitter, and captures the essense of our local brewing culture. Cheers!
Kelsey McNair, Homebrewer
North Park Beer Co.
San Diego offers a variety of memorable sessions. Surfing, dining out, homebrewing and conversing with fellw beer enthusiasts are some of my favorites. Positive experiences and good conversations require a careful mix of good people, a little time and more than one tasty beer.
As a homebrewer, I was fortunate to have been a customer of both Stone and Home Brew Mart. Now with thirteen years of professional brewing experience, I am honored that Kelsey McNair picked Ballast Point Brewing Company as his inspiration for this award-winning recipe.
Created to evoke San Diego County’s best sessions and favorite beer ingredients, this beer was infused with an ample amount of hops. Bright and floral, this brew will leave you inspired and ready for your next session!
Cheers to the Stone Crew and Beer Drinkers everywhere,
Colby Chandler, Specialty Brewer
Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits
Hi, I’m Kelsey, and I am a hophead.
There’s definitely no shortage of well-hopped India Pale Ales here in San Diego. The local craft brewers are true masters of the style, making some of the finest examples in the world, and a lot of them! If you’re a hophead like me, that’s a pretty good problem to have. These big, aggressively bitter and intensely aromatic brews are the ones I crave the most, but they often pose a dilemma: you can only have a few, yet those bright, complex flavors leave you wanting more.
BUT, what if you could find a smaller, more sessionable beer that could really scratch your itch for hops? An "all-day-IPA?" Quantity and quality at the same time! Within this bottle, I think you might find just that. From one hophead to another, I give you Ballast Point/Kelsey McNair/Stone San Diego County Session Ale! A deceptively small beer that is bold, aggressively hopped, assertively bitter, and captures the essense of our local brewing culture. Cheers!
Kelsey McNair, Homebrewer
North Park Beer Co.
3.7
340 reviews
Escondido, United States
Community reviews
These are old notes of when this was fresh. P:Bronze with a nice white head. A: Pine, grapefruit and grass notes. T: Know this is where it got me. Big ass hop bomb, pine and grass, mango, white grapefruit, herbal nots and a bit of sweetness from the malt. O: this has to be brewed again and I want to see this in cases. Would also like to reviste and see how I would feel about this one today as my palate has also grown since this was brewed.
Bottle. Pours mostly clear amber with a large, frothy and bubbly off-white head, medium-long retention with good lacing. Aroma is fruity, floral, grapefruit, and pine hops with biscuit and straw malt, and tropical fruity esters of mango and pineapple. Flavor is heavy hops and bitterness, light malt and fruity esters with a dry finish. Medium-light body and moderate carbonation.
This collaborative effort appears clear and copper/orange in color. The head is a half inch thick and displays good retention and lacing. The aroma is a blend of hops and malt, and bolder than I would have expected in a 4.2% beer. The flavor is decent, with a bit more of a malt presence than I prefer in a beer of this ilk. The feel is moderately light in body, and the beer finishes with a lingering hop bitterness. A decent brew, but not worth the $4 for a 12 oz. bottle.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 01-21-2011
Bottle that has been lingering in my frig for quite some time and served in nonik: Mostly clean golden hue minus some small yeast floaties, left solid rings of lace around the glassware. The aroma has notes of pale kilned malt, dusty yeast, and grassy herbal hops with a kiss of pepper. The flavor profile is that of basic 2-row and slightly pungent PNW hops. A light citric and spice tone over a bed of mostly clean pale malts. The mouth feel is refreshing and quaffable with a slight metallic dryness.
So how does it compare to Founders All-Day IPA? It is not even close, the Founders worked better on so many levels but to be honest, this beer is past prime and likely better 6 months ago. Now it comes off more akin to a basic British Session Ale... that is not a bad thing.
cloudy orange, small white head. aroma is nice, slightly fruity, slightly belgian, supernice. flavor is malty,flowery, dry, mild.
03-JUN-2012, bottle @Papsø tasting.
Hazy orange with lasting off-white head.
Very fruity nose with a little yeast?
Exotic fruits - banana.
Very funny hop profile. Not a traditional pale ale.
High carbonation, nice and creamy.
Bottled. A hazy dark goldeng beer with a thin lazing beige head. The aroma has notes of over ripe fruits, malt, caramel, and hops. The flavor is sweet with notes hops, malt, and fruit, leading to a dry finish.
12 fl oz bottle. Pours hazy orange with a small white head. Aroma is grapefruity, smooth peachy and dry pine. Bone dry, spiced and herbal. Bitter and bone dry finish.
Bottle 35,5 cl. Courtesy of Doodler. Pours a hazy golden with a lacing white head. Intense, herbal hop aroma. Light body, a little fruity sweetness, loads of tropical fruits and a very heavy, herbal, medicinal bitterness. A very hop forward session Pale Ale. 030612
Originally reviewed: 10/19/10. Saw this bottle on the shelf and actually thought I was getting the other collaboration brew, Saison du BUFF (actually rang up as that). Very surprised, and excited, to see that it’s a low ABV session ale! Let’s get to it.
Pours a fair orange with a finger-width creamy off-white head on top. Retention is decent; leaves some light lace behind. The nose on this beer is absolutely stellar! Big floral notes, lots of citrus with tangerine and grapefruit; big piney smack on the finish. Really standout. I could smell this all day.
The body is fairly light, which is expected as this is meant to be a session ale. Carbonation level is a little on the high side, but smooths out on the back end. Definitely a bitter beer. The hops come forward full force, with definite Cascade in the front. The finish is a bit spicy and grating. As a session ale, this could be tamed for me to want multiples of this beer. I like the low ABV though. Glad I got this beer "on accident." Recommend.
A sparkling 24k gold pour, nice white head. Aroma is big hops up front, very resin forward, some citrus, fresh cut grass, and very light caramel. Flavor is citrus hops, hay, grass, some unripe stone fruit. Damn good brew.
Appearance: Pours a clear amber gold with no visible bubbles, and a big white rocky head. Leaves behind heavy lacing.
Aroma: Huge grapefruit and modest pine, flowers and minerals.
Taste: Dry bready malt, humongous pine and grapefruit. Finishes earthy and bitter. Flavor lingers well past the sip.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, a tad dry, moderate carbonation.
Overall: The biggest little beer in the land. For the past year or so, as father time has been battling me, I have found beers like this, Firestone Pale 31, Mission Street Pale ale to be my go to beers. Big on hops and flavor, easy on the buzz. This beer is not lacking in flavor or aroma.
From the bottle. Not sure of the date on this one. Pours hazy. Pine hop aroma that has slightly medicinal tinge to it. Mouth feel is light and a little thin. It feels a bit muddled really, I get a strange vegetable like taste running through it, somewhat herbaceous, almost like boiled carrots. Perhaps it tasted much better fresh
A year and a half in the cellar unfortunately, it pours golden orange amber in color with some sediment. The aroma and flavor has faded unfortunately to some bland bitter hop notes. There was a bit of a gush on the open and it was super bubbly in body with a big white creamy head on top.
From notes. First reviewed 12/9/2010. Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a pint glass.
San Diego County Session Ale pours a vibrant golden tangerine color, which, although slightly hazy, still allows for visibility of the replenishing carbonation from the bottom of the glass.
A floral hop bouqet enters the nose with some citrusy hop notes and a touch of light, sweet malt.
In the flavor, there is just a touch of biscuity malt up front, and then this is a surprising hop bomb. Very bitter, particular just after the malt sweetness subsides and as an aftertaste. Some juicy grapefruit citrus, but very strongly floral as well. The sip closes juicy and puckering.
Something is just a little bit off with this feel. Maybe the low (for Stone standards) ABV is doing it, trying to pack so much hop flavor into a tiny alcohol content, but the feel comes off as trying to be creamy but fizzy at the same time. The plethora of hops give my tongue a tingly, almost numb feeling. Leaves a ton of hop oil all over my tongue.
Not sure if this was their intention or not, but they definitely made a mini - Stone IPA here, although just by dropping the ABV I am not sure if they are able to appropriately attach ’Session’ to the name. This is not one I would really want to drink too much of.
Good floral aroma. Copper body with white head. Light bodied brew with some pine and malty sweetener. Smooth on the palate good refreshment.
Highly aromatic hops of citrus, pine, resinous and light pinapple. Orange copper white white not persistent head. High flavor of hops, american flavor of citrus, pinapple, not too hars, but has a lot of aromatic hops. This gives an intense IPA with a lot of american caracter, but could gain by having more supporting malt.
County session pours a cloudy copper color. 2 Finger head is poured. White, fluffy, and crater filled. Leaves lacing all throughout the glass.
Aroma is full on hops and really not much more. Grapefruit hits the nose mixed in with grassy, piney hops. There’s a touch of malt but it’s really overpowered by the hops here. Maybe this is the most hops Stone has ever used in a beer.
In the taste, piney hops take over for the grapefruit. It’s strong and bitter and just sits on the tongue. Mixed in with the grapefruit and a citrus taste I didn’t get from the smell and you have a damn hoppy pale ale. I really couldn’t even find much of a malt backbone here.
Medium bodied and smooth. Goes down way to easy.
A collaboration brew from Stone Brewing, Ballast Point Brewing, and Kelsey McNair, a home brewer. This is a beer that never really made it to my area of Connecticut, but we had a few bottles from a store in Massachusetts. This was brewed and released about a year ago. I’m curious to see how they’ve held up.
The twelve ounce bottle releases a little bit of a “pop” as I break the seal. The brew pours out a great golden-straw color, with a bit of haze. Plenty of carbonation makes for a bright white foam, that lasts quite a long time. The lacing is mild, but sticks forever.
Just as I pour the Session Ale, I can already smell the hops. Of course I’m not surprised, considering Stone is involved. The nose reveals an interesting combination of light citrusy hops, as well as more in-your-face bitter hops. I let the beer warm a little bit and swirl is quite strongly, because I’m trying to find something else in the nose to describe. After several minutes, the only thing I can smell is still the hops!
When I take a sip, the hop complexity changes a little. The nose was dominated by the citrusy hops, but the palate is dominated but the rough and aggressive bitter hops. This beer is over a year old, and it feels like it was bottled yesterday. The bitterness of the hops is mouth-filling, and almost mouth-numbing. I take a few sips, swirl it in my mouth, and I’m going to walk away for a few minutes to see if it changes at all…
As it warms up, and I come back for a few more sips, the San Diego Session Ale has definitely opening a little. The hops is not quite as mouth-numbing. Or maybe my mouth is numb, and I can’t tell that it is still super hoppy. I think this may be one of the most hop-intense beers I have ever tasted. That is to say, I’ve tasted really hoppy, bitter beers before, but they usually have more of a subtle malty backbone. This San Diego Session Ale is hops, hops, and more hops.
I can understand that the lower-than-average alcohol content, 4.2%, makes this a bit of a session ale. However, as a malt-man, I could not possibly drink more than one of these. As a matter of fact, I only poured myself half a bottle, and I’m seriously considering not finishing it. I’m not saying it’s a bad beer at all, but it is nearly 100% the exact opposite of my preferred style.
Name: San Diego Session Ale
Date: October 06, 2010
Mode: Draft
Source: Duckworth’s Stone Tour
Appearance: clear copper, wispy white head, drippy lace
Aroma: big sweet crystal malt aroma, lots of citrus, touch of sweet pine
Flavor: light sweet malt flavor, lots of citrus, touch of crystal sweetness, just enough balancing bitterness, touch of liquid hops
Overall: huge ipa aroma on a lighter pale ale makes a unique take on a session berr and I like it
Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **+ /4
Bottle. When I first opened it, it overflowed and spilled out of the bottle from carbonation. I had not shaken it, or otherwise agitated the beer, so it was a little surprising. The head was white and fizzy, the aroma was hints of grapefruit and citrus. Med bitter, light to no malt on the palate. Light amber orange color. Overall, it was a little thin, over carbonated, with a light aroma. This is like IPAs little brother, so a good intro for those afraid of crazy hopped beers.
Thanks to IBrew2or3 for sending this one along. Cheers, Dave! Pours a hazy caramel orange with a white head. Nose is big and bright- reminiscent of a West Coast IPA. Nose is pine and floral hops with bits of honey, malt, and some grassy notes. Nice nose. Flavor reveals a bit of a mirage- I know the point is a session beer. I get a little bit of malt followed by some floral and herbal hops with bits of grass and very mild citrus. Light to medium and a decent session beer, but the nose gives an impression that the flavor is a bit more intense.
I’m not sure, but I think this beer should be retired. Looks like it was released about 16 months ago. I purchased 2 12oz bottles at Ledger’s in Berkeley. Each label was slightly different, and each beer was on sale for $1.99 a piece. Both bottles opened with loud fizzes and the foam came pouring out the top. Both bottles poured with a huge foamy head. The aromas on both of these are faint, metallic, grassy, and stale. Definitely some vegetal hints. Surprisingly, there’s still some decent hoppiness in this beer late. Almost an herbal and minty bittering. There are some light citrus notes to begin with and a bit of an astringency in the middle. This is well past its prime, and I would avoid buying this if you happen to see it anywhere. I debated whether or not to rate this due to its age, but I think I will rate it if by chance someone sees this rating and it saves them the money.
Bottle: Bright straw, a little hint of ornage, large foamy white head, nice lacing, little
carbonation. That is one nose of pure hop juice. Very aromatic hoppy aroma. Wow, tiz really
hoppy on the tongue. Seems lighter than others in terms of body, but has tons of hop flavor. Could
use a bit more sweetness, and perhaps a touch more malt. As is, its very hop sided. Not has heavy as
an IPA, rightly so. However, so dominated by hop aromas and flavors that I wished it were a bit
heavier/maltier. Either that or tone down the abundance of hop aroma/flavor as its making this beer very
one sided, and not very sessionable. Body and mouthfeel are average. Hop flavors linger long... but
thats it. Its almost a one sided wonder. Its great they get such aroma and flavor out of a lighter
beer, but its almost too overpowering. Yeah, just bring up the malts a bit, add a touch of sweetness, and
this is pure gold. Decent, but just too lopsided for my tastes.
Pours a hazy yellow color with a thick and fluffy white head that recedes very slowly. Patches of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of floral hops, citrus and malt. Light to medium body with a citrusy hops character and caramel malt undertones. The finish is mildly hoppy with orange peel notes left behind. Above average session IPA overall.
$3 at New Beer in NYC. Here I thought this was a true session beer--didn’t realize it was an APA. Mostly clear orange with a one finger off-white head, fading to a clingy thick ring and miniscule film. after a minute. Citrus pulp and pineapple hops up front (though faded due to--how old is this?) Flavor has the aforementioned hops with a little pine and passionfruit added, a little yeast, and light crystal malt sweetness. Still manages to hold its hops together quite well (only a little oxidized hops noted), and I’m assuming this is at least a few months old. Bravo. Bitterness peaked at a 3, dry finish. Light body with light to moderate smooth carbonation. Pretty tasty. Having this fresher would no doubt improve my score.
From the bottle - purchased at Good Beer in New York. Nice sharp bite on the tongue - lots of citrus namely grapefruit. Goes down very smooth. Could be a bit heavier but that’s just my preference. Over all a good ale.
Bright amber appearance with an average size, off white head and decent lacing. Aroma is soft fruit ( a bit peachy) dominated by spicy, citrusy hops. Hops dominate the taste as well; big, bitter doses of grapefruit and other citrus, punctuated by pine and pepper, with a modest, grainy malt backbone. Medium bodied, well carbonated mouthfeel with a bitter, dry, long lasting finish.
Stone session tap @ pap 12/8/10....lots of bitter gf and citrus,dank and yummy.dry on the finish.4+
12oz bottle pours clear copper with near white head. The aroma tosses up a mix of sweet malts and tart grapefruit that together create a sweet citrus sensation. The taste is refreshing grapefruit and spicy hops as well as a touch of earthy and grassiness off in the background. I get mild snippets of sweet malts here and there. This is what I image a San Diego session beer would taste like.