In honor of their heavy involvement in New York City Good Beer Month AND in honor of how much The Beer Friends love what these guys put out, we decided to review one of Brooklyn’s best breweries: Sixpoint Craft Ales. Sixpoint Craft Ales was founded in 2004 by Shane Welch and is located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Despite their youth, Sixpoint has continually put out excellent product after excellent product, all while maintaining one of the most prominent images in the New York City craft beer scene. They recently did some work on their brewhouse so that they could start accommodating their growing legions of fans. You can catch tours at their 40 Van Dyke Street location on Saturday afternoons, they are highly recommended.
Before I talk about the many top-of-the-line Sixpoint I would like to try to page homage to their creative, artistic and Old School Brooklyn philosophy. Sixpoint represents the characteristics that have embodied the borough of Brooklyn for what is now centuries. On their website you can check out their beautifully worded explanation which will far out-weigh anything I have to say about them. What I will say though is that Sixpoint Craft Ales represents the piece of Brooklyn that is hard work, good craftmenship and unbridled creativity where anything that is done with quality and heart is respected among the rough edged, but artistically minded denizens of this great second city.
Sixpoint’s flagship brew is their Sweet Action. Sweet Action pours a nice Orange/Amber color that gives you your first desire drink it. After that the aroma imparts a slightly hoppy, malty sweetness with some touches of pine and earthiness. Sweet to the taste, with an underlying hint of fruit that melds nicely with the fuller malty flavor. The hops aren’t as present as the smell would lead on, however the strong quality of the malt and the sweet hints at both the beginning and the end are enough flavor to keep one coming back for another.
My personal favorite Sixpoint Craft Ale is their leading IPA: The Bengali Tiger. Perfect golden orange hue that a light can shine through but is definitely not transparent, which leads one to believe it is on the fuller mouthfeel side of things. The smell is full of citrusy hops. The first taste you are rewarded by getting a chance to enjoy a plentiful bouqet of those citrus hops. The body is closer to the medium side of things, but still drinkable enough to have several. Same with the hops, if you had three of these, they still wouldn’t overpower your palate. It’s harder to find Bengali Tiger than it is some of the following Sixpoint Craft Ales, however I thought this one, if not for my own personal love of it, deserved a bigger write up.
Sixpoint has a few other flagship brews including Righteous Rye, a rye brew with a big rye malt flavor and a good dose of hops. Brownstone is a deliciously malty brown ale with generous roasted malt flavor. The Otis is a fantastic oatmeal stout that is full bodied, with a rich creamy head that flows into a generous chocolate-malt flavor. Finally, their Apollo Wheat is the most easily drinkable, while keeping in full flavor and body, of any summer wheat that I’ve had. Goes down without a heavy wheat flavor which leaves it refreshing, but the beer is still substantial enough to know you’re drinking a beer. You can also find their Old Krusher Barleywine around if you’re lucky.
Sixpoint Craft Ales are a company who’s brews are new takes on classic American beer styles while keeping them incredibly drinkable and refreshing but never sacrificing in flavor. In fact, the way their beers taste, the flavor probably couldn’t be thought about in terms of sacrifice anyways. Find Sixpoint. Drink Sixpoint. Drink it often.
Tags: Apollo Wheat, Bengali Tiger, Brewery, Brewery of the Week, Brooklyn, July Good Beer Month, New York City, New York City Good Beer Month, Old Krusher, Righteous Rye, Signal Ale, sixpoint, Sixpoint Craft Ales, Sweet Action
July 27, 2010 at 2:51 pm |
[...] ****Sixpoint Craft Ales has been a Beer Friend Brewery of the Week. Check out the article!**** [...]
February 24, 2011 at 1:33 pm |
[...] Check out our review of Bengali Tiger and other Sixpoint Brewery live blogs from Barcade, Rattle N Hum, The Stag’s Head, Blind Tiger and when Sixpoint was featured as the Brewery of the Week. [...]
July 10, 2011 at 3:08 am |
[...] – the Beer Friends like beer, a lot, and we like good beer, a lot, and when one of our favorite breweries releases their stuff in cans, we are thrilled. We ran around trying to find them and now that all [...]
July 29, 2011 at 11:48 am |
[...] backtracking. Recently I’ve found a few Belgian Pale Ale’s I really enjoyed (see Sixpoint and John Harvard Brewhouse) and figured I’d take a chance on this one. Good flavor but [...]
October 18, 2011 at 11:11 am |
[...] we reviewed the original Sixpoint four (Bengali Tiger, Righteous Rye, Crisp, Sweet Action) and now we move to the seasonals. First [...]
October 18, 2011 at 11:40 pm |
[...] we reviewed the original Sixpoint four (Bengali Tiger, Righteous Rye, Crisp, Sweet Action) and now we move to the seasonals. First [...]
October 21, 2011 at 12:58 pm |
[...] we reviewed the original Sixpoint four (Bengali Tiger, Righteous Rye, Crisp, Sweet Action) and now we move to the seasonals. First [...]
December 18, 2011 at 1:02 pm |
[...] – the Beer Friends like beer, a lot, and we like good beer, a lot, and when one of our favorite breweries releases their stuff in cans, we are thrilled. We ran around trying to find them and now that all [...]
January 31, 2012 at 11:52 am |
[...] drinking beer on camera.” This week we return to one of our favorite breweries – Sixpoint from Redhook, Brooklyn. The Beer Friends have always been huge fans of Sixpoint and it was like [...]
January 31, 2012 at 4:36 pm |
[...] drinking beer on camera.” This week we return to one of our favorite breweries – Sixpoint from Redhook, Brooklyn. The Beer Friends have always been huge fans of Sixpoint and it was like [...]
March 16, 2012 at 8:01 am |
[...] week we return to the very new, very happening Sixpoint in four pack cans! In the second part of our 4 part series we try Sweet Action, Sixpoint’s [...]
March 16, 2012 at 11:55 am |
[...] tried the very sought after Resin, a Double IPA that was just announced as a year round brew from Sixpoint. Sixpoint has always been known for doing killer stuff on draft and last year they started [...]
August 17, 2012 at 10:34 am |
[...] weeks SPotW is part of the seasonal series from Sixpoint Craft Ales in Redhook, Brooklyn. It’s no secret that the Beer Friends love Sixpoint and love what they [...]
August 27, 2012 at 10:37 am |
[...] is in its 3rd Year of serving up all you can eat pork and delicious brews (partly sponsored by Sixpoint). Honestly this blog can’t do justice enough to this great event, you just have to check [...]
September 16, 2012 at 12:07 pm |
[...] Sixpoint Craft Ales has grown up right in front of our face. Remember when you could only find them on draft at a few local craft beer bars, then Sweet Action started showing up everywhere. Then came cans, seasonals, double IPA’s, nanokeg holders and next, the WORLD! Sixpoint has always been a favorite (we try to review all their stuff and usually gush like a sophomore girl talking to the Senior QB) and we are excited to watch its continued growth, with hopefully no Page 6 drama! [...]
September 19, 2012 at 11:37 am |
[...] a brief walk lands you at Blue Point. A few subway and bus transfers within the city puts you at Sixpoint. A subway ride to 14th Street to the L Train can take you out to Brooklyn Brewery. Take the [...]
November 2, 2012 at 10:37 am |
[...] we review a brewery affected by Sandy, Sixpoint Craft Ales. We’ve review everything we could get our hands on from Sixpoint, whether from Growlers, [...]