Beer For Beasts Recap

This past Saturday, Sixpoint and Beer Advocate came together for an event to benefit the NY Humane Society at The Bell House in Brooklyn. Sixpoint brewed over 20 one-off beers to be poured at the event. Along with food from Calexico Cart among other local vendors, it certainly sounded like a recipe for a great time. Well, the event wasn't without its hiccups, but since its all for a good cause, I'll give this event a thumbs up with hopes for future improvements.



It certainly didn't help that I was about an hour late to the event, although comrades informed me that it took quite some time to get in after the doors opened at 1. Beers were organized around the walls of the main room according to the layout of the program. This was Issue #1 as there were no labels or signs indicating which beer was pouring at each station. You would have to either keep track of where you were (which can be difficult while drinking) or continually ask the pourers which one you were about to imbibe.

The beer I was most excited to try at the event was the Baltic Street, which was a collaboration between Sixpoint and my friends Stevie from LadiesOCB and Lee from Hoptopia. Unfortunately by the time I came around to that brew, it was already kicked. This was at about 3pm, only about 2 hours into the event. As it went on, more and more beers were kicked, until a majority of them were finished before 4pm, with still an hour left in the afternoon session. I understand that they probably needed to ensure they'd have enough of each beer for the 2nd session, but it seemed a little early for all of these to be disappearing.


Calexico Cart guys working hard in the cold.

The food situation was also a bit of a problem. All of it was located outside in a cramped, fenced-in area directly in front of the venue. The chefs were making as much food as quickly as they could, but the wait times were still too long to endure in the cold. But once you got your hands on the food, it was quite delicious. I only managed to have a few tacos from Calexico, as I couldn't spend any more time in line with so many beers disappearing so quickly inside.


A bit overwhelmed, but still a happy drinker.

Sixpoint brews some fantastic beers. There were so many that it was hard to really distinguish the subtle differences, especially when worrying about getting around to try all of them before they kicked. Even though I love the rustic feel of The Bell House, perhaps Sixpoint and BeerAdvocate need to find another larger venue to allow for adequate room for the large amount of attendees. Overall, this event was to benefit the NY Humane Society and that is an awesome cause...so all of my petty complaints are still with an appreciation toward BA and Sixpoint. But lets hope they do it again next year with some improvements, because the only thing better than drinking good craft beer is doing it for charity.