Sixpoint Hi-Res

Wow, thanks for the informative post!

 

Just exactly what hops are used in this, or is it top secret?

 

Just had one of these for the first time .. Jesus H. THAT is a killer beer. Premium hop flavor and aroma along with smooth bitterness and 11% ABV ? Yes sir... that is a tasty bitch. Straight up.

 

Just had it on tap. Massive beer. Nice balance with all the classic ipa hop flavors; pine, citrus, "dank". Bi bitterness. just great all around. A touch boozey and slightly more sweet than I like my ipas, but what can you expect from over 11% abv?

 

A fresh bouqet of tropical fruits for sure! Balanced by a earthy, herbal, green tea medicinal likeness. Beautiful aroma and a taste that makes you want to pucker but lets you pick out a wide assortment of flavors. Very well done sixpoint and thanks for another great brew!

 

Why can't Sixpoint just use a canned on date instead of a best by? I feel like your best by dates are misleading to consumers. I mean 9 months for Resin is a bit out there.

 

Had this for the first time last night and liked it more than HopSlam. Great beer and a fantastic way to quench a hop craving.

 

Not top secret at all. We use a huge blend of the classic "C's" (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook)

First of all, Resin currently does not have a 9 month code date. Rather, it is set at 180 days from packaging, which is a little less than 6 months.

Second, we use code dates on our packages for the benefit of our three separate customers: our wholesalers, our retailers, and our end users. The issue is these three different customers do not all have the same objective. The two customers upstream (distributor and retailer) need to know when the product is no longer merchantable (or at least should be sold), whereas the last customer (the end user) does not necessarily have the same objective. They are often looking for optimal flavor and freshness.

A "canned on" date may indicate freshness but it doesn't indicate when the product is no longer optimally merchantable. Counting on the upstream supply chain to do the math themselves and rotate and destroy their old inventories accordingly, and enforcing this provision from our end is futile and nearly impossible. On the contrary, a "best before date" will clearly tell them when the beer is no longer merchantable and the packaging date can be deduced by the end user by doing the reverse math.

This is not revelatory by any means, as you see it in other parts of the food industry.

Would you want to buy milk from a store if all you had was a packaging date? Or is it more useful to have the best before date?

Now put yourself in the shoes of a wholesaler or grocery store owner, who assumes part of the liability to the customer. What's more useful to you? A packaging date or best before date?

 

Obviously I'm in the minority here, but this beer was a HUGE letdown for me. It tasted more like a wheatwine than anything else... I just got a ton of caramel and sweet cotton candy like flavors with minimal hop profile. I'm gonna try another one out later today without drinking anything else before it (had it for the first time last night after a Limbo, which was excellent) and see how I feel. It's fresh too, has a best before date of 7/12/14. I don't know if I had an off can or what, but I was extremely disappointed. Liked Resin much better. I'll report back later when I try the second can.

 

Hi Res is good just like Resin

 

Well first off milk perishes a hell of a lot faster than beer so of course you want a best by date. Second off why are the wholesalers and Retailers receiving so much product that they would be holding onto the same batch of resin for 6 months? And lastly these dates don't help them as much as you imply because they continually sell product past your so called expiration date, which is not the case of something like your example of milk.

It just seems confusing to me that you would use different expiration periods for different beers (why I thought resin was 9 months like other beers you sell) but not say how long that period is. Even more confusing is why those periods are that long when most other brewers use closer to 3 months.

Not trying to attack sixpoint because I love your beers but can hardly ever get them fresh.

 

Different beers have different expiration dates for very good reason. Some of our beers have as little as 30 days, some have 90 days, some have 120, some have 180+. It all depends on the 1) type of beer, 2) type of treatment the beer had prior to packaging (is filtered or unfiltered, pasteurized or unpasteurized), and 3) the recipe specs. Generally beers that are higher ABV are naturally more stable even if the vibrancy of the hops diminishes over time.

What's even more interesting is some beers have an "arc" in their flavor maturity after packaging whereas other beers are on a straight downward trajectory. In other words, some beers are not at optimal flavor right after packaging, but will reach their optimal flavor in 1-12+ months after packaging. In this sense, they require some shelf time.

On the other hand, there are some beers that begin to deteriorate immediately after packaging. Some of them are on a slow crawl, whereas other deteriorate rapidly. We call this the "half life" of beer. :-)

 

Picked up some Hi-Res. First beer I've tried from Sixpoint and enjoying it a lot. Will be buying some Resin next time am at the liquor store.

 

So none of the newer varieties of hops were used in this, just the the classic C hops?

 

It appears that message was truncated by mistake. In addition to a massive blend of the classic C's as described above we use some new world hops as well, like Nelson Sauvin and Citra. The hop blends in both Resin and Hi-Res are often tweaked in subtle ways over time. It is Sixpoint philosophy that formulations should not remain stagnant, but instead, constantly be improving over time to lead our customers in new and exciting directions.

 

Thanks, I love how your not afraid to tweak a recipie if its for the better. I am excited to re-visit resin since its been awhile. I remember hearing some time ago that the resin had been improved upon. I am going to order one from my local distributor. They have one in stock, but it has been there for some time. I now know how important freshness is when it comes to really enjoying hops in all their glory. I can't wait to see what sixpoint has in store next!

 

I admire Sixpoint's desire not to "brew to style," but I do find some of the style classifications that BA lists for your beers rather annoying.

How Apollo could be classified as a Kristalweizen makes absolutely no sense to me. It doesn't look taste or smell anything like a Kristalweizen. Still an awesome beer, but I picked it up with the expectation of a Kristalweizen and then poured a cloudy beer with a funky aroma and tart flavor. So my initial impression was sub-par. When I removed the preconceived nothing given to me by BeerAdvocate that it was a Kristalweizen, I really began to love the beer.

I think if the beer had been appropriately styled as an American Wheat, a Berlinerweis, or even a hefeweizen, I would have been able to get on board with it immediately. One thing I do know, is that beer is not a Kristalweizen and should never be described as such.

Just curious on your thoughts. I absolutely love Sixpoint and pretty much everything I've tried from you guys. Love how everything is slightly out of the box without going overboard.

Cheers!

 

First of all, thanks for keeping an open mind and enjoying our beers based on their merits, not for how accurately we brew according to a preconceived style guideline. We didn't start a brewery to appease BJCP beer judges - we started a brewery to deliver sensational and symphonic flavors in our own proprietary formulations for our customers. Its been like that since 2004.

Its our viewpoint that some of our beers - especially the ones that cannot be pigeonholed into certain styles - might be initially perceived poorly by those who "expected" the beer to taste a certain way. However, we believe now - as we did when we first started - that over time we will be vindicated when those who truly appreciate BEER (instead of merely appreciating taxonomy) recognize a solid formulation and execution when they encounter it.

One final thought - all styles at one point in time did not exist. Think about that. It took the courage for a brewery - or a group of brewers - to take risks and branch off and create their own style. Over time, others followed and it became a style officially recognized by the BJCP and general drinking public and mass marketers. But at one point in time it was nothing. Someone brewed the first pilsner, the first IPA, the first black lager, etc. And undoubtedly some people chastised them for it not tasting like what they were "expecting" or the other styles at the time.

We have no interest in copying what others have done, we'll do our own thing. Come along if you appreciate good beer.

 

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Well put. Just like any great music or band, the best breweries make beers that can be hard to classify and are always breaking boundaries and constantly evolving. Sixpoint is certainly among those with a bright future of truely great tasting brews.

 

Thanks for responding. It just drives me crazy when people (not Sixpoint) can miss the mark so badly when it comes to classifying a lot of these beers out there. Especially when there are so many "catch all" styles to choose from. Then they choose a style that is nowhere near what it should be. As a brewer who tries to brew outside of style guidelines, I would have to assume you find it a bit frustrating.