Sixpoint Collaboration Beer

Last week, we had the opportunity to team up with Sixpoint for a collaboration brewday. The fine folks up there in Brooklyn were about as gracious and hospitable as they come, welcoming us to their awesome brewery to run wild. After much back and forth with Ian, one of the Sixpoint brewers, we decided we would brew a double ipa. How can you go wrong with more and more hops. We settled on a nice hop schedule that included simcoe, centennial and nugget, with a malty backbone for support.

We worked with Pete, former engineer and brewer extraordinare for our beer, which included the addition of honey (Dave tried to eat before it made it to the kettle) for flavor and an increased abv. The pre-fermented beer tasted pretty stellar and we’re looking forward to getting a taste.

If you’ve never been to the Sixpoint brewery, I must say it’s pretty cool.  Located in an old warehouse space in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the place has a lot of character.  They brew on a 15bbl system and just about everything is done by hand.  The equipment is squeaky clean and the process is efficient.

Here is Sheila on quality control patrol.

I must say, we had a really fun time. It’s always great to get out and see the breweries that produce the beers we love. People envision breweries as big factories, pumping out bottles (or cans or kegs) in mass quantity, surrounded by chaos. But the true picture is vastly different. Brew days are about technical specs, cleaning, efficiencies, and old fashioned hard work.  The glorious life of a brewer looks more like construction work from the inside. It’s still pretty cool and if someone came by and offered us a brewery (*ahem*) I’m sure we’d snatch it up in a hot Maryland second.

Here are some more pics, for your viewing pleasure. Cheers!

And the final product!