Sixpoint March Release: Power Ballad and V Righteous

That is some awesome looking can art, looking forward to both of these beers. Starting to get to time of year where we could have decent weather, although as we have seen March can still be a bear.

 

hoping to get you some sample images of the 4.3 refactor later this week or early next week....

cheers

 

I'm going to the Atlantic City Beerfest that weekend so i'm gonna miss the pick up party for the first time. Thankfully you have additional pickup times so i won't miss any beer, that's (V) Righteous.

 

Whoops, I forgot to check in after the Resin release!

Fortunately the doorguy didn't recognize my name and I was able to sneak in. Surely Shane wouldn't have allowed it, but he had already left for the day. I've got glasses and a fake mustache for the next one.

I'm underwhelmed by Anti Resin. It isn't the most disappointing DIPA I've picked up in that part of Brooklyn recently but it's far from the best. It's too sweet and doesn't burst with hops like I was hoping.

As per on tap, one of the beers I wanted to try had kicked before I got there (guess I should've lined up early!) Everything else I tried was fine. The pale ale didn't force me to stop and reconsider everything I've ever known a pale ale to be. It was a fine take on a fruity, hazy pale ale.

 

The guy on the Righteous can will be stationed at the door @RobNewton to make sure you can't sneak in at next release !

When is the last time you had Anti-Resin? The beer is getting better as time goes on. Everybody is different, I didn't get any sweetness at all. Ironically, I had one of the latest hyped collab beers from another brewery in Brooklyn that although I liked it, it was too sweet and thick. And people waited in line over night for that one!

If you are coming to next release, let me know.

 

For what it is worth, I tried one Sunday, enjoyed it fine (matched it up against an Equilibrium Chinook) but not enough to want another, and not enough to trade what I traded for it!
Given the size/success of Sixpoint, I was curious how much access you brewers had to some of the technologies that are out there. Seems like some of our most respected area brewers have been able to really lower oxygen counts or similar successes with water chemistry. Is that something you all have more access to, or, paradoxically, maybe less, given the scale of brewing that your setup is built for? I assume your access to quality ingredients must be a strength.

The thing that continues to perplex me-- and it is not by any means limited to Sixpoint-- is how some of these midsize and highly respected brewers (Sixpoint, Blue Point, Captain Larwence have all recently attempted these "Hazy" smaller batch IPA/DIPA) seem to dissapoint me (some of the non-Sixpoint ones were actually awful!), at least compared to many of the best local offerings we get. I understand completely there is personal bias and hype, but often I taste these blindly myself, and the person I taste with is tasting these double blind most times. I can only hope that as time goes on and things get more "dialed in" it will get better. Also, personally, I prefer less the session-level beers (with a few exceptions, Baby Genius maybe being the best). I chalk that up to personal preference (although a regression of beer ratings vs alcohol percentage within IPA/DIPA would be a great project for a math person), and in Six Point's defense, many of these new beers are more in that classification. (Anti-Resin was not).

Separate note, having a great brewery experience, caring about people and their time, improving all the aspects of the experience are all laudatory and make sense on all levels. Particularly when seeing some of the issues that other breweries are having in towns with lines and the blowback from the communities (Sand City is more complicated, but Hudson Valley for example seems to now have lines that may cause issues).

Cheers!!!

 

Well stated. We are lucky to have so much great beer in this area! Given your last paragraph, try to make it to the brewery for a release, it is a great time!

 

Will do but this one looks like a pass. I'm sure eventually they'll pull off a righteous neipa, but the past 2 have left me wanting for more.

 

Recent Untappd ratings for Anti-Resin going up, sounds like time doing wonders for this beer, looking forward to having more soon.

 

I agree 100% that the beers have been getting better, much the same way OH 3rd anniversary was a letdown next to 4th anniversary imo. I also agree with what others have said, that there's no reason to think Sixpoint won't continue to get better.

Anti-resin was 9.1% ABV, I dunno how much more body they need to support a hoppier beer. Among a narrowly defined category of beer, Anti-Resin and OH beers might still be apples and orange because OH beer is usually a bit more dry. Anti-Resin reminds me much more of an EQ beer with its sweetness, just one with it's a lot of the hoppy flavor stripped away. I didn't get any of the juice or explosive fruitiness on it, just a sweet take on the style with subdued hoppy flavors.

I drank one, I've given away 3, and I'll likely give away one more before checking in on my last can some time in a week or two.

Also agree to disagree on the Idaho 7 beers! OH Idaho 7 was one of the most deliciously surprising beers I've had. Other iterations of the hop including Grimm's and my own homebrews have left me underwhelmed but now I'm a believer in what it can do.

It's kind of interesting Shane commented last month on being surprised by the popularity of lower ABV offerings. It isn't that surprising if you survey the NYC beer scene, particularly the very near scene. What niche isn't being filled to the degree that hoppy dipas are? Hoppy (non sour) beers lower than 7%.

 

Pretty funny how different our palates can be...I personally found OH 3rd Anniversary to be significantly better than 4th Anniversary. I also didn’t find Anti Resin to be very sweet. I had a can yesterday before cracking open an OH 4th Anniversary to share with a friend. I’ve been enjoying 4th Anni a bit more than Anti Resin but I’d say it’s significantly sweeter. I don’t think I’d be able to have a full can by myself without struggling (it almost drinks like a boozy fruit smoothie) My friend actually liked Anti Resin more. But honestly the star of this release for me was DDH Resin, great change of pace from all of the estery fruit forward ipa’s...hope they bring it back again soon

 

Had another Anti-Resin, if there are any old school Alpine fans out there, this reminds of Exponential Hoppiness. Those were the good old days when NEIPA wasn't even a word and Alpine ruled the IPA world. But Green Flash went and ruined Alpine and of course NEIPA rose to prominence also.

 

West Coast NEIPA, not that there is anything wrong with that !

 

I don't know I've ever tasted someone harness the beauty of Nelson hops like Alpine did . . .

 

I wonder what I would think of OG Nelson if it was still around.

 

Everyone has their own subjective palate, but Anti-Resin is anything but too sweet and thick when measured by objective data points and apparent extract/attenuation. In addition, the aggregated qualitative analysis does not indicate too sweet/thick either, but for the purpose of this discussion, let's just focus on the incontrovertible data:
ANTI-RESIN
Original Gravity:
19.40 °P, 1.080
Final Gravity:
2.80 °P, 1.011

This gives the beer an apparent attenuation of 86%. That's about as high as attenuation as you can get in craft beer without adding enzymes or using wild yeasts & bacteria to ferment.
We've also run other competing IIPAs through our GC/HPLC analysis and confirm that ours is on the drier end of the spectrum. Many of the beers we tested had finishing gravities in the 3.00 °P - 4.50 °P range. One outlier was even 5.6 °P.
Anyways, we appreciate the disguised, backhanded compliments - its encouraging to see the fanboy migration! We have been following the data closely on how these beers are being perceived (even with cognitive bias), and the cat is out of the bag at this point. People are already waking up to the fact that these beers are now amongst best-of-breed in the area, and naturally, the trend is on our side to make them that way for a larger audience as well.
That does not mean we won't be taking your honest, constructive feedback into account. As evident by the small-batch beers and app's evolution over the past six months, we are devoted to continuous improvement. If we've already come this far in six months, by the end of 2018 things are going to be rocking!
cheers