Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, New York

We are on another one of our brewery streaks here at BarBEERians. Sixpoint Craft Ales has been all over a radar and we have been drinking a variety of brews from them lately, resulting in back to back reviews from the same brewery. Sorry to all our readers that aren’t located in New York since this is probably not readily available, but alas, we can’t just review Pacific Northwest beers forever. My favorite thing about the Sweet Action has got to be its name. For some unknown reason it just sounds so appealing. It also helps that its big brother is called Double Sweet Action, I mean come on guys, that almost sounds like a threesome!

Although it wasn’t quite as good as a threesome, the Sweet Action wasn’t a bad beer, probably even better when its fresh off the tap. Dirty blond, and promising luscious gratification, the Sweet Action had a hop-front aroma with some definite sweet notes floating around, perhaps even some green tea somewhere in there. The hop flavor was more mild than the nose, with slightly pronounced citrus and lots of sugary honey. A weak bitter finish cleaned the palate nicely, but the overall mildness of the flavor was a bit disappointing.

Although Sixpoint Sweet Action was quite sessionable, it was pushing the boundaries of mild. Given that it is a blonde ale, this may not be overly surprising. I guess the name Sweet Action threw me off just a bit. I was expecting something with a little more zip, but man, that Double Sweet Action just sounds oh so tempting.

Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, New York

Sitting down to watch the United States vs. Canada hockey finals for the Olympics, we were left with a quandary: what beer to drink? We wanted something special, but also something we could drink during the game and not end up too drunk to pay attention to the third period. Turns out the best way to do that is to drink a smattering of different beers, which is exactly what we did. We started off with a real treat of an ale: the Bolshoi Imperial Stout from Sixpoint Craft Ales. We weren’t exactly sure what it was at the time. It was in a waxed dipped bottle without a label, but after some twittering with the folks over at Sixpoint, we discovered it was a four year aged bottle of the Bolshoi Imperial Stout! What a great surprise this was. I’m guessing it is pretty hard to get your hands on a bottle of this, but man, if the opportunity comes up, do it!

Between the dark bottle and not knowing what sort of beer was in the bottle, this one was certainly an adventure. The stout itself was black enough to block out the sun, if I were to pick a color it would have to be total eclipse. Wafting from the espresso foam head was a delectably sweet aroma of malty chocolate and almond with some charred coffee going on to. It was a very complex nose, and I’m sure I have missed some of it, so feel free to drop us a line and let us know what you thought. As alluring as the smell was, it didn’t compare to the rounded, balanced taste of the Bolshoi. The blitz of sweet booze opened up into a garden of bitter bakers chocolate, heavily roasted coffee, and some berry/cherry flavor. It had a smooth, heavy mouth feel, but totally pleasant.

I wish I could tell you all to go out and pick a bottle of this up, but alas, I couldn’t even tell you where to begin looking. It was a superb brew. Congratulation to you guys up there at Sixpoint. We’ll be out there in a few months and plan on stopping in.

Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, New York

When we first started this whole blog adventure, we all kind of thought of it as a hobby, and who knows, maybe there will be some free beer in it too! Very soon after starting, even before we really knew what we were doing, we were contacted by Sixpoint Craft Ales. We suggested that their beer isn’t available out this way, but we would dearly love to try some. Well that day has come. We recently tried a number of fine brews from out in Brooklyn and are very excited to bring you some reviews from the east coast over the next few weeks. Today we bring you a real treat with the Sixpoint Masons Black Wheat.

I’m not sure exactly where the Masons Black Wheat would fall in a style category, but I imagine it is somewhere around a dunkleweizen or weizenbock. Wheat beers are generally the last beers I’ll search out or even try, but some of the darker ones have really grown on me, so I was fairly pumped to crack open the bottle and get at it. The Black Wheat was unfiltered, giving it a dark, silty appearance, like muddy waters (I’m not talking about McKinley Morganfield here folks). The aroma was dominated by roasted grains with hidden notes of coffee, and a slight booziness, which I was surprised to find given it is only 5.7% ABV. This all gave me high hopes for how it would taste, and I wasn’t disappointed. Heavy sweet, grainy flavor transitioned into a slightly bitter finish with a bit of an acidic tang to it. The Masons Black Wheat is definitely a beer that benefits from letting it warm up a bit. The flavor profile expanded significantly to include more bitter chocolate and coffee notes, but remaining well balanced the entire time.

Sixpoint Craft Ales has done its share to convert me over to darker wheat beers. I found this one to be a delightful adventure into the beers of Brooklyn and look forward to finding some more brews like it in the future. Although it didn’t have the body I expected, it was light enough to be a sessionable winter beer, and is up there on my lists of recommendations.

So maybe it was Optimism Day at BarBEERians, but this New York Times article may put in dent in your good mood, if you’re ever looking to start your own, large-scale brewing operation, that is. The article’s a few weeks old, but it discusses the rigors of starting your own brewery in these trying economic times. Using Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn as the article’s jumping point, J. Alex Tarquinio finds that creativity and originality in brewing beer is the key to weathering the storm.

“We are not going to pursue the traditional brewery path,” said Mr. Welch [owner of Sixpoint Craft Ales], who grew up in Milwaukee, a city steeped in beer-making history. “It doesn’t make sense to ship it halfway around the world. That is an antiquated business model.”

The economics of the beer business can be daunting. Microbreweries need to sell thousands of barrels of beer a year before turning a profit. Until they do so, small business loans can be hard to get. And ingredients like hops have gotten pricey.

Not surprisingly, the article also shows that microbreweries have taken a slight hit with the economic downturn.

Paul Gatza, the director of the Brewers Association, said that the pace of new microbrewery openings had slowed this year with the recession. Last year, 56 microbreweries were opened, and 10 closed. Three of those that closed had opened in 2008. This year, the association has tracked 25 microbrewery openings and five closings.

Even among America’s craft brewers — as aficionados call the independent breweries — some have grown into larger operations. The Brewers Association reclassifies microbreweries that exceed 15,000 barrels of production a year as regional breweries. In this way, nine microbreweries became regional breweries last year.

Even so, that was still a positive number in the number of breweries going into operation in America. However, what will be interesting to watch is if we ever hit a plateau in terms of beer makers. Looking at the number of wineries that exist in California alone, I find it hard to believe that microbreweries are even close to skimming the ceiling in terms of market saturation. Of course the economic slide will limit the number of new openings, but it’s encouraging that we’re not losing breweries as quickly as we gain them. However, if you are looking to start your own big-time brewing center, you might want to think twice.

Kathleen and Mike Dewey founded Mt. Carmel Brewing four years ago. Ms. Dewey manages the office and distribution, while her husband is in charge of production. They started the business with a $10,000 family loan, which they supplemented with credit cards while they got their brewery off the ground. At one time they had roughly $40,000 billed to credit cards, all of it for business-related expenses. But they have paid off those cards.

Ms. Dewey said that anyone who wanted to start a microbrewery should either have a substantial sum of money to begin with — or a great deal of patience. “It can be very dreamy thinking about starting your own microbrewery,” she said. “But unless you have several million dollars, be prepared for a lot of hard work.”

So who’s in the mood for donating a small sum of a few million dollars so we can start the BarBEERians Brewing Co.? You know we’d make great beer!