What to Drink This Weekend: Sixpoint Hi-Res
Sixpoint Resin, a year-round offering from the Red Hook brewery, is a renowned Double IPA with a huge, bold hop presence and a massive amount of bitterness. It also packs a substantial punch, at 9.1% ABV. A few years back, I was having dinner with some friends at Bark Hot Dogs, and my wife drank three of them without realizing what she was getting herself into. She wound up drunker than a college freshman after her first game of beer pong. Which is to say, if there’s one thing that beer didn’t exactly need, it’s to be reimagined as an even more intense beer. But whatever. Hi-Res is just that.
Clocking in at 11.1% and 111 IBUs, or international bitterness units (I’m always skeptical when these measurements work out in such a cutesy way, but what do I know?), Hi-Res is, quite simply, a massively amped up version of an already massive beer. You get many of the same notes as you get with the original: heavy pine and sweet citrus from a huge helping of assorted hops, and a big backbone of bready, malts. On your first sip or two, you’ll notice a little bit of burn from the alcohol, which is to be expected, but it fades quickly enough. As with any IPA of this heft, there’s a slightly medicinal quality to it that can be overwhelming at first, paired with an almost syrupy mouthfeel. Once you get used to all of that, though, you’re left with a surprisingly drinkable (but still not that drinkable!) beer that proves once more just how powerful and confounding hops can be when they get into the right hands.
12oz. cans of Hi-Res will be available in 4-packs around the city starting today.