Sixpoint Brewery Resin Imperial IPA: Brewed in Brooklyn, New York this beer comes in at a strength of 9.1% abv and a whopping 103 IBUs worth of resinous hops. Sixpoint’s beers come in these tall, skinny 12 oz cans (as pictured above) which makes them very convenient and easy to store in a fridge or cooler. I’m really enjoying seeing bigger IPA’s in can format, as I find that they travel across the country much better in a can versus a bottle. It’s nice to receive a fully flavoured, non stale beer from 1000’s of miles away and still have it taste fairly fresh.

Flavour: Resuin is very floral and herbal upfront, featuring some very nice bread and toffee malts to accent the initial hop burst. In the middle, nuances of grapefruit citrus meld into mandarin oranges before being overtaken by a massive face slap of pine resin that’s rather pithy on the finish and showcases impressions of spruce needles and forest floor throughout. Finally, the dry bitter resinous aftertaste really lingers on and on, exposing throat tingling notes of nettle at the top of your throat as it warms your stomach slightly.

Overall Impression: It really does live up to its name, which was an intense forest floor focused resinous experience.

Rating: I give it an excellent rating of 8/10, a great option for those who really enjoy resinous bitter hops.

Food Pairing: Given the intensity of this hops, this is a tough one to pair with food but I think it would work quite well with a chicken pesto pasta, especially if it uses a pesto loaded with pine nuts and basil.

Here’s a video from their Facebook Page that they made to help tell the story of Resin. In the video they discuss what they were going for, give a bit of information about how they got there and share some interesting notes on hops too.