MAKING IT UP AS WE GO (Sixpoint Brewery’s Spontaneous Construction at Barcade)

My search for the best beer in New York continues….

All the breweries in Brooklyn take risks with their beers. Brooklyn Brewery does some interesting brews with their Brewmaster’s Reserve Series, using wild yeasts or special honey or maple syrup. Kelso has been aging their regular beers in different types of barrels (whiskey, wine, sherry, etc.) to give a new spin to an old favorite. And Coney Island invites home brewers over the summer to test out a new concoction (like Cardamom Porters and Korn Dog Kolsch). But Sixpoint certainly gets the award for being the most experimental and borderline gimmicky.

Their new creation is called Spontaneous Construction and it’s inspired by improvisational jazz musicians. I guess they thought if those artists could make it up as they go along, so could they. The beer is brewed blindly, which means that each of the brewers at Sixpoint added their own ingredient without the knowledge of the other ingredients. And I guess they just hoped it would come out successful.

I led a recent Brewed in Brooklyn Tour for Urban Oyster and discovered the beer on tap at the tour’s last stop, Barcade. I absolutely adore Barcade. It’s the perfect bar in my opinion – great craft beer selection, ample room to hang out, and old arcade games. That’s right! Just like the bowling alley back in 1988. They have Q*Bert, Dig Dug, Tapper, Rampage, you name it they probably have it. And they’re all just 25 cents just like I remember. Except back then, I certainly didn’t have a beer in my hand.

Now whenever I’m at any Barcade (there are three locations, including one in Philly and Jersey City), I have a joystick in one hand and an interesting beer in the other. This visit had to include the completely unique Spontaneous Construction. I’ve done some research on the web and unfortunately can’t find a list of the surprise ingredients. I wonder how bizarre the brewers got or if they tried to play it safe to make a palatable beer. I suppose we’ll never know.

My guess, based on my experience with the beer, is that they purposefully got a little wacky. The light amber colored beer had a very unusual nose. I told the folks at my table that it smelled like sausage. They didn’t seem to believe me so I had to pass my glass around the table. It was smoky and meaty and the flavor pretty much matched that. The first sip certainly screamed smoky pork (sausage or bacon) and that stuck around for a while, but mellowed out with a hint of grapefruity hops and some sweet baked bread.

It was a wild ride of a beer. It’s something most people will either really appreciate or really hate. I mostly enjoyed it, but the aggressive umami flavors made it unlikely that I could handle a second. I don’t think this is what I’d want to drink during an improvised jazz concert, unless that concert happened at a BBQ festival.

I’ve tasted beers that hint at smoky barbecue before but nothing quite as out of control as this one. It makes me wonder what the ingredients actually were and what the gang at Sixpoint are smoking (aside from the malt).

Is Sixpoint Brewery’s Spontaneous Construction the best beer in NY? I can’t say it’s the best, but it might currently be the most interesting with strong bacon flavors, a mellow, bready finish, and a 7 out of 10.