Cosmic Handshake
Sixpoint Brewery

A thanks to the amazing woodychandler for this beer. Poured from a 16 oz. can. Has a golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of lemons, limes. Taste is tart, grapefruit, limes, lemons, alcohol is well hidden. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a solid beer.

 

This is a delicious and surprising beer. Hazy with a decent head and mild lacing. Tropical nose with light malt. A bit of tartness. This is a sour and tropically juicy beer. Mild hop bitterness with lots of hop flavors. Light medium weight and crisp carbonation. A delightful and innovative beer. The high abv is completely masked and allows you to gulp this down. Refreshing and thirst quenching. So good.

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on July 12, 2020.

 

I like the can art, great use of color. The pour is similar to pineapple juice. The taste is quite sour liquid lemonhead hard candy, as well as some cereal grain notes, lupulin powder, & sharp citrus. Moreover, the 9% abv is masked well in this beer btw. This was a stellar collab between some NY & PA brewers. What can I say i'm a sucker for a good sour beer on occasion & this was an interesting tasting NE IPA. Cheers! A-

 

Big 'ol two finger pour splays out atop a pale pear cider-ish body. Very active carbonation. Head takes its time in receding, but leaves minimal lacing. Smells of grains and lemon. Tastes deeply of lemon - wow; mouth-puckering. I'm just now noticing the "sour" distinction on the label. Further sips reveal pear and young white grapes. Its awful fruity. And tasty. Overall, this is an interesting experiment, though I'm not sure I'd have picked this up if I'd noticed what it was. Some creep was hovering a little too near me (in the age of COVID, no less!) and I just kind of grabbed this at random. That said, I'm glad I did. It's like a big malty lemon shandy.

 

 

 

Look: Pours a pale translucent yellow color with a big three finger head of satin white foam. Good retention. Patchy lacing.

Aroma: Sour white grape juice predominantly. Some semisweet sour orange and lemon. Some mild breadynes.

Taste: Follows the nose with lemon and sour grape. Very tart upfront, almost unpleasantly so. Things calm down midway through, as bready notes of lightly malted grains come into play. The orange/grapefruit on the nose is lost in translation on the palate. Some warmth from the ABV. Ends with moderate floral, dry spiciness, almost like parsley or lemon peel.

Feel: Light body for a 9%er. Strange feel, low carb, high alcohol content. Alcohol profile is apparent, but I wouldn't call the ale boozy or heavy handed.

Overall: Not my favorite but enjoyable. It's 80% sour ale 20% NEIPA, not really much hop flavor going on, mostly just dominated by the tartness. This would have worked a lot better at a lower ABV as a session style sour. I wouldn't really even go so far as to call this an IPA. Just a weird beer. Not really sure what I was expecting when I bought this but still glad I tried it.

A - Light hazy gold color with thin dense white lacing.

S - Juicy, tangy, and tart citrus and berry hits the nose.

T - The citrus is tangy and tart for miles in this beer and borderline puckering. Sour and tart pineapple, berry, lemon rind, and sweet grapefruit.

M - Thick with mild carbonation, dry on the back of the tongue while the rest of the mouth waters.

O - This one is an odd and confusing duck but Sixpoint got it work. If I based this strictly on taste I would have rated it lower but considering what's going on here I think it's pretty well executed (and I don't care for Sours).

As I finish up with Victory for the time being, it is only fitting that my next CANQuest (tm) beer is a CANlaboration between Victory & Sixpoint (or vice versa, since Sixpoint takes credit).

From the CAN: "Sour New England-style Double India Pale Ale"; "Brewed in Collaboration with Victory Brewing Company"; "A Universal Dap. An Intergalactic High Five."; "The handshake that reverberated through the cosmos ... we're coming together with our partners at the esteemed Victory Brewing Company to create a beer of planetary proportions - part soft, juicy, hazy IPA, part tart and tangy sour beer. See what happens when TWO WORLDS COLLIDE."

I Crack!ed open the vent & beCAN a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into one of my new glass beer steins. I was getting a LOT of rolling foaming that formed just under two fingers of foamy, soapy, rocky, bone-white head that quickly dissipated into wisps. 8=( Color was a hazy, not cloudy, Straw-Yellow (SRM = > 2, < 4). Nose had a pronounced citrusiness of grapefruit & lemon. Mmm. Mouthfeel was on the thin side of medium, not watery, but not on par for the style. The taste was very ... tart, NOT sour! It was really acidic with a pronounced lemony-grapefruit flavor that left my lips pursed tightly shut following every sip. 8=O Whew! I had to reach for both a water chaser & my antacid pill at some point as it was more than I was expecting. It was not bad, per se, but I was ill-prepared for it. Finish was lip-smackingly tart & dry as a result. It may not be everyone's cuppa joe, so be prepared. YMMV.

Pours an opaque light lemon custard color,with a white foamy head. Smell is some funk,some hops, as if an orange sat in manure barnyard like. Taste at first is confusion, a sour with an IPA? Turns out to be a wonderful collaboration on both fronts; Sixpoint/Victory score. Feels medium bodied finishes dry. Overall a really good beer. Feels like a much lower ABV than 9%. Overall excellent-

I don't know. Just weird. I used to really like six point. I still very much enjoy Victory. I enjoy sours and I enjoy all sorts of pale ales. But this, as a 9%? Meh

 

The brew presents as a bright yellow and cloudy pour with a 1cm foam cap that dissipates immediately leaving no discernible carbonation.
The aroma of grapefruit, lemon and is mildly tart. The flavor follows with grapefruit zest predominant. More nuanced tropical fruit flavors follow. The kettle sour tartness overrides all other aspects.
This is quenching, but the 9% ABV precludes that regular use.