Sixpoint Recovers from Hurricane Sandy, Hires First Female Brewer
Sixpoint Brewery, nestled in Red Hook behind a big, green farmhouse gate with the yellow Sixpoint star emblazoned proudly above, has been responsible for some of our favorite local beers since 2005. Its location near the water also placed the brewery in one of the most flooded neighborhoods in Brooklyn. (This photo showing waters in Red Hook before the storm even hit was taken three streets away.) A week later, Sixpoint now has power, and is working hard to get the brewery up and running. “Shining on once again! Once we have gas restored and finish with the remaining repairs, we’ll be brewing again,” said their most recent Facebook update.
Sixpoint has exclusive brews on tap in eateries like Roberta’s in Williamsburg, and their beers are turning up in locations all over the U.S. (Texas, Chicago, and Florida in just the past year). “The neat thing in New York,” says Sixpoint community ambassador Kristen Ridenour, “is that the shelf life of a resident is about 5 years, so they spend however long drinking us, and then they bring that back to wherever they are from. You always wear that on your sleeve, that you spent five years in Brooklyn.”
Sixpoint welcomed its first female brewer this fall, Heather McReynolds, whom we talked to right before Sandy stormed into town. Fresh out of the brewing room, in a black Sixpoint tee and pink galoshes, McReynolds explained why she came to Sixpoint and what it’s like sloshing around with the gents all day.
So what drew you to Sixpoint? You’re from Florida, and then Georgia.
I came up here for an interview and met Pete [Dickson], the head brewer, and Jan [Matysiak], the brewmaster, and we all really jived. Sixpoint is also in this interesting transitional phase; they are really growing. Pete told me, ‘We can make this whatever we want it to be. We can make it our own kind of thing,’ and I was really interested in that. Sixpoint wasn’t in Florida or Georgia then, the first time I had it was when I got up here.
