Ballast Point Homework Series #6 Robust Porter

Ballast Point brewing has made a lot of news lately. They started a wide release of the flavored variants of their signature Sculpin IPA, the grapefruit version in particular seems to have started a grapefruit infused IPA trend. Even bigger news was their sale to Constellation Brands for a reported price of 1 billion dollars. With the increased production and distribution they are quickly becoming one of the most widespread and recognizable beer brands. With all of these changes it was nice to see one of their newest series of beers go back to their roots. Like many professional brewers the founders of Ballast Point started as avid homebrewers, the brand was started in a local homebrew supply store. To connect with other homebrew enthusiasts Ballast Point is now releasing the Homework Series, a set of beers that each come with a recipe scaled for a traditional homebrewing batch. I spend a lot of time researching potential homebrew recipes, and I love the idea of having a potential recipe attached to a bottle of beer you can sample. The sixth beer in this series is a robust porter, perfect to sample for porter week on Hoppy Boston. Ballast Point Homework Series #6 Robust Porter is available now in 22 oz. bottles.

Ballast Point Homework Series Robust PorterBallast Point Homework Series #6 Robust Porter pours a deep brown with a solid khaki-colored head. The scent is a full hit of roasted malts. The beer is malt forward, notes of dark chocolate, coffee, toffee, plum and brown sugar. This is complemented by a touch of earthy hops that add balance and some late bitterness. The beer has a medium-full body but is smooth and easy to drink even though it packs some punch at 7.8% ABV. The finish is clean with some crisp hop bitterness and lingering malty flavor. I could definitely use this recipe as a basis for a future homebrew batch, I would probably make some adjustments to fit my personal preferences (and because I love to tinker), but this is a very good place to start. Hoppy Boston score: 4.25/5.
Previous Ballast Point Reviews:

Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin

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