Sixpoint Hi-Res

Brewed By: Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz CAN (best before 12 July 2014) from a 4-pack bought at Binny's in Illinois; 2014

Style/ABV: American Strong Ale/Imperial IPA, 11.1%

Reported IBUs: 111

I had no plan to seek out the Hi-Res, but this beer has been getting a ton of hype on Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate. A lot of people are calling the Hi-Res one of the best mainstream Imperial IPAs to come out as of late, so I was curious to see how this beer stacks up. About Sixpoint:

Sixpoint Brewery is relatively new to the world of craft beer, as they were founded in 2004. The brewery was founded by brewer Shance C. Welch, as he began brewing in an 800 square foot garage in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. Wikipedia states that the brewery was co-founded by Andrew Bronstein, who met Welch at the University of Wisconsin. Andrew provided the cash investment needed to lease the facilities and begin brewing. The brewery is known for its boundary-breaking philosophy. More specifically, Sixpoint is all about not defining their beers according to style guidelines. This point is echoed if you visit their Beers page. They state that they have brewed hundreds of different beers, and they have no plans to stop this proliferation of styles. Of final note, Sixpoint began canning their beer in 2011, which is pretty cool, especially for a craft brewer.

There's not a ton of info about the Hi-Res, but this beer is a jacked up version of the brewery's delicious Resin. I love the Resin. It's one of my favorite beers. The Hi-Res dials things up to eleven. Punching in at 11.1% ABV and 111 IBUs, the Hi-Res is brewed with....??? Apparently with science, if you check out the brewery's website. A whole lotta who cares. Anyway...

Sixpoint Hi-Res

The Hi-Res pours into a surprisingly dark orange/amber body, kicking up three-plus fingers of thick, dense, sticky, soapy head. The head is depositing tons of lacing as it drops off, and head retention is really nice. The body is semi-hazy, with big carbonation bubbles popping upwards. The head is off-white, soaking up the orange/amber tones. The head retention/stickiness gives away the hops.

Speaking of hops...you get lots of those on the aroma. Along with TONS of candi sugar. Let's talk about the hops first: I'm getting tropical fruits, citrus, pineapple, guava, tangerine, kumquat, orange, some resinous and dank pine and hemp, and candied dry fruits. I'm also getting a lot of candi sugar, plums, honey, and assertive sugar sweetness. It kind of reminds me of Green Flash's Barleywine. Anyway caramel sweetness or malt character is totally blunted by the hops and sugar; I'm not really getting any malts on the aroma.

Like the Resin, this beer is an enamel crusher. This shit is fucking up my teeth and I can feel it. This is super sweet...really, really sweet. The sweetness gives the impression of malt body. I'm getting hints of grain, strange nuttiness, and coconut. There is some plum sweetness and candi sugar in the mix as well. But mostly, what you get in this beer are layers and layers of sticky, dank, resinous hops. My mouth is being coated with sugary, resinous hop candy, orange, marmalade, plums, tangerine, tropical fruits, mango, guava, pineapple, and coconut. There's booze in here too, sweet, sugary booze. I'm not getting much bitterness at all, which is kind of disconcerting for a beer punching in at 111 IBUs. If this is 111 IBUs and I'm not picking up much bitterness, how much sugar is in here?

This beer is not an Imperial IPA. It just isn't. It reminds me of a 120 Minute IPA or something similar. It's like a super sweet Barleywine without the malts...or I don't even know. There's a lot of sugar in this, and a lot of hops as well. Palate depth is good, complexity is middling, and the mouthfeel is medium-full with tons of residual sweetness. The 11.1% ABV is largely undetectable. Up front: sugar and hops, plums, candi sugar, pineapple, mango, tropical fruits, guava, orange, tangerine; the middle rolls into more bitter and dank hops, some grain and coconut, more bitter sugar, resin; the back end dials up some weird grain/coconut, tons of sugar, more lingering hops. Hoppy, resinous, sweet...tropical...the finish is sticky and dry.

Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

This is a very Light Above-Average beer. I really want to take my pants off and shit all over this beer for being too sweet and for being way over-hyped on Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate, BUT, this beer does have some appeal. It's not a horrible beer....it's just very sweet. It's not cloying, but the sweetness is so overt that you get these weird grain and coconut notes. And the sweetness completely blunts the 111 IBUs of bitterness. I just don't know what to make of this beer, other than I kind of like it and find that it has an interesting appeal, and I kind of dislike the sugary, coercive, saccharine-rapey cumshots of sweetness. I would pair this beer with super spicy foods, dry wings, and spicy things. The overt sweetness begs for a spicy pairing. 

Random Thought: This is a really weird and intriguing beer...I'm going to have to revisit it at some point. This is not a everyday beer, that's for sure. I hope Sixpoint brews it again, though. It's like a...super sweet Hopslam.