Ballast Point Brewing Company - Dorado Double IPA

What's up my fellow beer drinkers? Happy Thursday! I don't know about you, but I'm totally stoked that it's almost time for the weekend. What's on tap? Good beers, good beers and.... probably more good beers. Honestly, probably a lot of relaxing.

So why not intro to the weekend with a new beer? Sounds like a great idea!

Tonight I'm drinking Dorado Double IPA from Ballast Point Brewing Company down in San Diego. This is a 10% abv DIPA. I've actually never had this beer so I'm totally going into it blind. I'm a big fan of Ballast Point. They make some great beers and I'm hoping that this beer is no different. So enough intro, let's get this poured and drink some Dorado!

Dorado pours out a beautiful golden color. Totally see through. There's a ton of carbonation streaming up from the bottom of the glass. I've had this beer for a while now so I'm happy to see this. There's about a two finger extremely fluffy white head. Tons of tiny white bubbles. Very nice retention time as well. As it starts to dissipate it's leaving behind a ton of sticky, thick lacing. This is a really nice looking DIPA. Let's get the nose on Dorado.

Big peach. First thing I'm hit with is a big blast of peach. Sugary, syrupy peach. There's a nice bit of citrus. It's not overpowering because the peach is just so prevalent. There's maybe a very slight lemon zest (to be more specific) here as well. There's a big sweet bread like character behind everything. Smells a lot like a sugar cookie. I'm getting some caramel sweetness as well. Not a lot of hop bitterness on the nose. Just sugary sweetness. For 10% I'd expect something a bit more aggressive on the nose but this is very mellow. Let's see how Dorado tastes.

Wow. First thing I get is a grassy kind of character. There's surprisingly almost no peach on the palate. There is a pear like sweetness with that grass initially. The pear and grass disappear pretty quickly and are washed away by an intense rush of bitterness. It cleans things out and doesn't really leave a lot behind in it's wake. Maybe some subtle sweet orange and tangerine like characteristics. Sides of the palate there's some hints of alcohol. Back end of this there's some syrupy sugar sweetness which immediately subsides to a very dry finish.

So overall, this is just so-so for me. The appearance and nose were really nice but to me, the taste of the beer just falls a little short. For 10% you do taste some of it on the sides of the palate but it doesn't really do much damage. Not warming going down either. Its pretty easy drinking for a DIPA. Aside from that, honestly, this is just sort of ok for me. A bit of a letdown considering BP is such a good brewery. It could be my bottle is a little too old. I am drinking it before the best by date, so we're good there. Maybe super fresh this is better. I'd imagine it is.

Rating: B-

Side note, here's a link to an Instagram Video of my wife trying this. Enjoy!