Sierra Nevada / Ballast Point Beer Camp Electric Ray
2014 Beer Camp Across America Release.
As ever, San Diego’s Ballast Point looked to the sea for the inspiration behind Electric Ray. A play on the fish’s scientific name—Torpedo californica—this beer pays homage to our mutual home state, as well as to our Hop Torpedo, the source of much of the big flavor in this high voltage, hop-forward Imperial Pale Lager.
Ballast Point brought their homebrewing dreams to the big leagues and started brewing professionally, but they never forgot their roots. They still run a successful homebrewing supply shop in San Diego. A love for hops and the ocean inspire incredible brewed and distilled offerings, and their one-of-a-kind labels boast some beautiful, and sometimes gnarly-lookin’, fish.
As ever, San Diego’s Ballast Point looked to the sea for the inspiration behind Electric Ray. A play on the fish’s scientific name—Torpedo californica—this beer pays homage to our mutual home state, as well as to our Hop Torpedo, the source of much of the big flavor in this high voltage, hop-forward Imperial Pale Lager.
Ballast Point brought their homebrewing dreams to the big leagues and started brewing professionally, but they never forgot their roots. They still run a successful homebrewing supply shop in San Diego. A love for hops and the ocean inspire incredible brewed and distilled offerings, and their one-of-a-kind labels boast some beautiful, and sometimes gnarly-lookin’, fish.
3.5
398 reviews
Chico, United States
Community reviews
Bottle thanks to Leighton. It pours golden with a thick, sturdy white head. The nose is juicy, fresh grapefruit, sweet florals, honey suckle, soft icing sugar, sherbet and lemon parfait. The taste is crisp, bitter grass, toasted straw, creamy, light pepper, pithy grapefruit, sweet lemon and a touch of alcohol. Medium body, moderate carbonation and foamy mouth-feel. Crisp and drinkable. Solid.
Bottle shared in London - thanks to Dr. Sandman. Pours clear gold with a foamy white head. The nose holds some ripe citrus fruits, some pine, pale bread. Medium sweet flavor with pale bread, tangerine, marmalade, pine, grass, hay. Medium bodied with fine to average carbonation. Lightly resinous on the finish with some piney hops, crackery pale malts, strong grassy bitterness. Not bad.
Bottle. Orange. Very malty, pale malty, with a pleasant grainyness. Some malty sweets, light piney. Medium bodied, sort of soft bitters. Pale malty, green hops. Easy for the abv. Quite nice. Flavourful, malty, but with a noticable hop presence. IPLs tend to be just lagers with a good load of fruity hops stacked on. I find this refreshingly different. Here the body has been amped to match an IPA, but while keeping lagery maltyness and feel.
Edit: seems meant as an Imperial, not Indian, PL. Well, doesn’t change the fact that it is pretty good.
Orange in color with a thick head. Aroma of piney hops and slight fruitiness. Has some lager characteristics. Get a little corn sweetness. Interesting style but not one I’ll be reaching for often.
This beer is super, super good. The hoopyness is not overwhelming. The lager comes through. Love the label and high alcohol content. No surprise...Ballast Point is a great brewery. Good combo.
Copper color, resinous grapefruit and pine nut aroma, smell that slight lager corniness. Very pleasing. Tastes cereal like fruity pebbles.
Amber/Orange with a thick off white head. Aroma is pine, mild alcohol, light fruit. Taste is reasonably fruity, heavy maltiness, mild background hops, light-medium alcohol warming. Good stuff for a cold day.
35,5 cl bottle @ tiong, BBE 03.06.2014
Aroma is somewhat heavy and messy with caramel malt, toffee and some mellow hops. Flavour has caramel, fruit candy, mellow hops and some fruit juice. Also grapefruit-like hoppiness. Heavy, feels like American strong ale.
355ml bottle from Saveur-Biere
PKGD: 06/03/14 - Pours dark orange with a smooth white head. Aroma of caramely malts, toffee, aged hops, grass, hints of hay and citrus. Taste is sweet, malty and caramely with notes of hay, toffee, citrus and grassy hops. Finish is bitter, sweetish and malty with notes of caramel, toffee and aged hops. This could have been awesome when fresh, but now it’s quite messy and unbalanced.
Pours bright golden-orange with a thin white head. Aroma is tropical fruity hops (mango, mandarin, pineapple) and bubblegummy esters (Belgian yeast?), floral, and light sweet malt. Taste is citrus, grapefruit pith, slight tropical fruit (much less than aroma), slightly sweet grainy malt, medium bitterness. Medium body, smooth palate, resinous bitterness. Finishes with just a slight lingering sweetness. Really nice aroma with some lack of follow-through.
Tasted from bottle. Pours a hazy orange with white head. Aroma is citrus and piney hops. Taste is moderately bitter with piney notes. A little citrus. Also get a bit of a medicinal taste. Good for an IPL but average to below average compared to most IPAs.
December 19, 2014. Bottle at home.
Hazy dark golden with a small white head.
Aroma is sweet malty, caramel notes, pine, floral and citrus. Taste is medium sweet, light bitter. Finish is smooth sweet, very light bitter. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation.
I liked this but not as much as others I’ve tried in this style. Compared to DFH My Antonia and Rogues Morimoto, I thought this was maybe a little syrupy and lacking the crisper, dryer finish. Maybe just a little too high in ABV. But still quite good, nice bright hops aroma, great hop flavor, slight;y resiney and satisfying.
12 ounce bottle from Hayduke that we had together via facebook chat. This beer is almost clear golden and has a decent white head. The foam never completely left. A hugely hopped aroma is fruity. As I look at the ABV I wonder if this is an imperial IPL? Is that a style? Maybe it will be soon. Flavors are almost all hop based. Fruit out the wazoo. If I had a wazoo hops would be coming out of it. Tropical fruit with some citrus and some floral. Ron called it grapefruit zest and he might be right. Something bringing dry bitterness with some mint like breathiness. The feel was oily and I found myself smacking my lips and mouth from it. This was completely different from anything I have had before and it challenged my taste buds in ways that I loved. When I grow up I want to go to Beer Camp! If I ever grow up.
Shared with Strykzone on Facebook Chat. Poured dark gold. Big long lasting white head. Thick lacing. Nose of ripe fruit and some floral hops. Medium plus bod and a very smooth creamy mouth feel. The flavor is tropical fruit, citrus and floral hops, and light bitterness. The finish is very flavorful with a hint of what seems like grapefruit zest. A tiny bit of alcohol was tasted early but faded into the rich flavors. This is a very nice beer.
Poured a clear orange amber with about a 1 inch foamy off-white head. There was a light amount of carbonation bubbles rising up in the glass. Surprisingly the aroma was not that strong. There was a hint of citrus/grapefruit along with some caramel malt sweetness. The beer had a nice creamy texture. There was a big caramel sweetness up front followed by a blending citrus flavor. A big hops bitterness began building well into the finish. The head left a little bit of lacing thru the glass.
Bottle thanks to sonnycheeba. Transparent golden with cream colored head. Aroma and taste of hops and malts.
APPEARANCE - light golden color. Bright, white, fluffy head dissipating quickly.
NOSE - Stronger hop than expected for an IPL.
FLAVOR - Strong lager flavor comes through from beginning to end. English style hops come through strongly.
NOTES - The flavor of the alcohol comes through more than expected. The earthly & herbal flavor is strong.
Bottle poured into a shaker. Pours an almost clear medium orange with a half finger of slightly off-white head. Aroma is huge citrus hops. Taste is medium bitter, follows aroma with huge citrus and tropical notes. Getting a whole bunch of grapefruit and a hint of pine. Medium bodied with a very slightly sticky texture. Lively carbonation and a super long finish. Pretty darn good, probably one of the best IPLs I’ve tried.
Thought I’d dig this one more after having the Sam Adams IPL. But I do not like this as much. Bitterness is over the top. It borders on harshness. A little malty. The have a lot of grapefruit. But mixed with floral, the combination is too intense. With certain pairings the beer tastes better. I happened to be having a cheesy chicken casserole, and the beer was significantly sweeter and more enjoyable. The beer is well made (obviously), but for my palate it does not work that well.
Bottle - average size foamy head, slightly hazy light copper color, big grapefruit hop aroma an flavor, mild biscuity malt backbone, good overall
Bottle poured into snifter. A hazy orange body with a soft white head that hangs around for a bit. Faint aroma of some tropical fruit, then a strong lager smell. Lagers have such a distinct smell, especially when you grow up around Yuengling. Palate is hit at first with a pleasant fruitiness, then hit with the lager portion. The tropical nature of the first impact is enough to get past the lager portion. Overall a nice lager, but I would not race back to this one.
Pours out a nice orange color with a small white head. Aroma is of floral, citrus and lightly grassy hops, grainy malts, and some bread. Taste is well balanced, grass, citrus nod floral hops, doughy bread, sweet biscuit notes and a little, dry warming alcohol on the finish.
bottle. Golden with one finger head. Light bodied lager with big hoppy bitter kick. Pretty well done. Finishes rather clean.
Pours two fingers of head on a hazy light straw colored body.
The aroma is refreshing: lemongrass, lemon and dry grains.
The taste is mild overall. Starts sweet, some lemon bitter, then finishes sweet and dry.
The texture is light and crisp.
Interesting and enjoyable.
Interesting collaboration brew. Pours a bright dark golden with a palate that comes after a few seconds. Good hop/malt balance.
Bottle. Amber beer with a cream head. Woodsy and spice aroma. Grapefruit and light summer fruit aroma with light spice. Medium bodied. Grapefruit and pine linger with light spice.
Pours Amber with thick white head. Smell is hops, citrus, orange and resin. Taste starts off malty an smooth with notes citrus, resin and pine on the finish. Very complex and smooth. Light body, medium carbonation.
Type: 12-oz.bottle
Glass: Firestone pint glass
From: Albertsons in Alpine, Calif.
Price: $25.99 for the variety Beer Camp Across America 12-pack
Purchased: Oct. 17, 2014
Consumed: Oct. 19, 2014
Misc.: Collaboration with Ballast Point Brewing Company; Packaged June 3, 2014
Poured an orange, caramel, semi-clear color with 1-to-2 fingers of off-white frothy head. Good amount of streams of bubbles coming up from the bottom. Poor, uneven spots of lacing along the sides of the glass on the way down. Poor retention on the top all the way down. (Sight - 3.63)
Smelled hidden hop flavors behind a malty front. Got lime, pine, light floral hops, caramel, other Citra hops, sharp, albeit brief, grapefruit punch and sugary, sweet malts. Reminded me slightly of a malty IIPA. (Smell - 3.88)
Tasted close to the nose, maybe slightly better. Could taste the boozy 8.5% ABV right away though. Got lime, pine, caramel, Citra hops, bitter grapefruit rind, faint orange creamsicle and some tropical hops. (Taste - 4.13)
Medium body. Oily-to-thin texture. Average carbonation. Long, warming finish. Booziness went away as the beer went down. (Feel - 3.88)
This was my favorite of the five I’ve tried so far. It really grew on me. I guess American Pale Lager is the right style, but it still reminded me more of a smooth IIPA. (Overall - 4.00)
4.00 90 B+
Light amber/gold with a thin lacing of white head. Aroma is light pine hops. Flavor is crisp pine hops with a light finish. Slightly malty finish.
Wife: 3.7