Beer of the Week: Ballast Point Victory At Sea

Good beer can be very inspiring. Tangible, edible proof is provided in confectionary form via The Cravory, a company popular for plump, delectable cookies encapsulating flavor profiles of popular desserts into compact, two-to-three bite servings. The Cravory’s long list of taste experiences includes red velvet, chocolate truffle, birthday cake, and a coffee- and vanilla-infused imperial porter. That’s right, a beer. But not just any beer — Ballast Point Victory At Sea.

One of Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits’ most sought after brews since its debut in 2009, it is brewed with coffee sourced from North Park’s Caffe Calabria and comes on strong with semisweet dessert-like flavors, especially when served on cask and infused with everything from milk sugar to berries, cacao nibs and chiles. It was an annual event where many such variations are unleashed on the beer geek population — Victory At Sea Day — that inspired Ballast Point to ask The Cravory chef Derek Jaeger to use it as the base for one of his creations.

In taking up this request, Jaeger mixed in dark Callebaut chocolate chips (read:, the really good stuff), caramel, sea salt, and, for good measure, applewood smoked bacon. That last one doesn’t come in nearly as prominently as one would expect. If anything, the caramel, chocolate, and beer join together to create a cookie that tastes quite traditional. Moist and chewy with a malty, Cocoa Puffs-like chocolate character that’s countered nicely by the occasional salt flake, you’d never know there was beer in it. But when the cookie is paired with the beer, it’s unmistakable the flavor bridge that exists from that porter’s use as a core ingredient.

The cookies are currently on sale at Ballast Point’s Scripps Ranch tasting room (10051 Old Grove Road, Scripps Ranch). For tastes of The Cravory’s other dozen or so gourmet dessert cookies, go to the company’s newly opened location (3960 West Point Loma Boulevard).