Ballast Point Tongue Buckler

My buddy Adam brought over a bottle of Ballast Point Tongue Buckler to share on a brew day. I previously tasted this beer on cask and dry-hopped at Al’s of Hampden, but this was a great opportunity to try the beer as intended. The beer pours a red-amber color with a frothy eggshell colored head. The aroma consists of caramel, lemon, and tangerine. The taste is bitter and dry with a caramel and toasted malt base. Bitter tangerine, orange, and grapefruit provide a citrus freshness and the finish has pepper, pine, and hop oils. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. I enjoyed this beer very much on the second go-around, as it had a great hop focus with a solid backbone that can carry the taste the entire way throughout the experience.

Ballast Point Tongue Buckler Summit Hop Cask

On a day in which Al’s of Hampden tapped a ridiculous amount of beer including KBS, I ordered a glass of Ballast Point Tongue Buckler. This was served on cask and was dry hopped with Summit hops. The beer pours a dark amber color with a frothy beige head. The aroma consists of lemon, caramel, pine, and spruce. Overall, a faint aroma, but I credit that with the cask serving. The taste is really dry with lots of spruce and pine on the front end. There are hints of caramel in the background before a warming finish with some pepper and oak finish. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. This was a really dry and well-hopped beer that focused the Summit hop nicely. I think the cask serving helped round out the edges of the beer and made it that much more drinkable.