Commentist Beer Barrel: Who’s For Curry?

So, let’s just get this out of the way: I promised you all a bonus Beer Barrel on the Fourth, and I didn’t deliver. I had something already picked out, had started writing the post, and then I found out I had a job interview to prepare for and promptly abandoned the whole endeavor. That review will still be posted, eventually, but it won’t be posted today because today I’ve decided to bring you something truly weird instead.

To date, I think I’ve managed to avoid posting more than one review for any one brewery. (Please, everyone, feel free to call me out on this if it’s not true.) This has been a good rule, because not all breweries distribute to all the places that we here at DFO call home, and because it’s helped me strike a balance between writing about the local beers I love and the more widely available ones that you’ll all have a shot at trying. But today, we’re returning to San Diego’s own Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, makers of a surprisingly refreshing coffee ale, and also Indra Kunindra, an export-style stout with Madras curry, cumin, cayenne, coconut, and kaffir lime leaf added.

“Whoa. Whoa. Are you telling me this beer has all the same flavors as a plate of Indian food? Sign me up/Get me the hell out of here!”, you’re probably saying. But yes! The thing we can’t lose sight of, here, first of all, is that the stout itself is just awesome. It’s chocolatey, velvety, really the perfect canvas for all the other ingredients. The curry’s the best bit of it, in my opinion, rich and spicy and satisfying, but every single addition pops like you wouldn’t believe. The cayenne delivers a pleasant low-level burn, the lime’s tart but not overly acidic, the coconut’s sweet and balancing, and the cumin… well, you’ll have to find someone with a culinary degree or something, probably, to describe the taste of cumin as something other than “it tastes like cumin,” but I can tell you that it’s vibrantly, gloriously there. The label says this is a collaboration with an award-winning homebrewer named Alex Tweet, and I don’t doubt he brought a lot preexisting expertise to the design of this specific beer; commercial breweries generally don’t put a lot of effort into formulating stouts to go perfectly with curry, I’d guess. All in all, this is exactly the sort of way-out-there beer that I can imagine a brewery like Dogfish Head or Brewdog—breweries that I like, don’t get me wrong!—tackling recklessly and botching spectacularly. Ballast Point deserves all the credit in the world for being the first to brew a beer like this and for getting it exactly right the first time.

lady snow says: What I love about this is that I feel like I can taste everything that’s on the label.

make it snow says: I know! The kaffir lime is the last thing they mention, and it’s only lime leaf at that, and I think this beer is easily better at being a lime beer than Bud Light Lime is.

lady snow says: I’ve never had Bud Light Lime.

make it snow says: It’s very lime-y. Maybe I’ll review it someday. It is, like, the fourth most popular beer in the world or something.

lady snow says: Just don’t buy too much of it. I love the earthiness of this stout, too. It has that kind of earthy smell like when rain first hits rocks. But at the same time it’s like I’m walking down a dusty road on a warm day, just enjoying nature. Kind of like how I used to feel walking around our farm as a kid.

make it snow says: It reminds me of the Wildflower Center, somehow.

lady snow says: That makes sense. There were wildflowers everywhere on the farm. This beer, for whatever reason, is really, really tied to my sense of nostalgia.

make it snow says: How is it with the Chinese leftovers?

lady snow says: It’s really good. It’s really, really good.

tl;dr: A There’s a bigger chance you’ll hate this than probably anything I’ve ever reviewed, especially if you’re not a big Indian food fan. If you are a big Indian food fan, I think you’ll probably love it? Maybe you love Indian food but don’t think those flavors belong in beer? God dammit, live a little, will you?

Grade: Fuck yeah, curry.

make it snow is an alot of beer and currently an avid Black Sails watcher. He and lady snow split a bomber of Indra Kunindra while writing this review. Stay safe out there, it’s a hot one.