Q&A: Shane C. Welch of Sixpoint Brewery
Shane shares the details on his company's forthcoming Wu-Tang Clan-inspired beer.
Sixpoint Brewery will be producing a Wu-Tang Clan-inspired beer starting in January.
If you follow the daily doings of craft beer—or if hip-hop is where your heart’s at—a recent Google search may have turned up this unexpected, unheralded nugget. But how Wu is this brew? We briefly checked in with Shane C. Welch, co-founder of Sixpoint Craft Ales to see if his company’s concoction will or won’t be something to f—- with:
In a nutshell: What inspired a Wu Tang-inspired brew?
It’s more of an allusion to the acronym, and a play on the breakthrough “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” song by the Wu from the early ‘90s. It’s basically driving home the point that Craft Rules Everything Around Me, i.e. “craft” beer, “craft” food, “craft” hip-hop, or “craft” anything is not a trend or a gimmick as a part of our culture – it’s a way of life. Respect.
Please describe the flavor and make-up of the forthcoming C.R.E.A.M. Is it to be seasonal?
It is planned as a limited offering for now. The beer will have a creamy sweetness to it, but with the unmistakable aroma of quality roasted Finca El Injerto coffee beans. Your nose and taste will play tricks on you.
A glass of Sixpoint's forthcoming Wu-Tang Clan-inspired beer: "C.R.E.A.M."
If it’s coffee-inflected, maybe it also goes with bacon-and-eggs? Is this a breakfast beer, maybe a brunch beverage?
Beer is very underrepresented at breakfast, and you just gave us a fantastic idea.
My pleasure! When scanning the Sixpoint website, the “Mad Scientists” keep coming up. Who are these people, and how much of the Sixpoint brew menu comes from their work?
The Mad Scientists are all of the folks who work at Sixpoint, and therefore, the entire beer menu is the result of their creativity.
Back to the Wu brew. You must have touched base with at least one member of the Wu Tang on this—have you spoken to anyone? Any of the Wu artists showing support for the product?
We have not spoken to them yet, but anytime they want to stop by we’ll be happy to host them.
A sixpack of Sixpoint's forthcoming Wu-Tang Clan-inspired beer: "C.R.E.A.M."
Wu Tang recently sold its single copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” for millions, and unless you know the anonymous owner, it can’t be heard…and now Sixpoint is dropping a Wu-Tang craft beer? You guys aren’t the secret buyer are you? Don’t hold out…
No, but I do have an original pressing of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on wax.
Just goofing around Shane…or trying to anyway. So now that you have this beverage on the way, should we be looking forward to more hip-hop inspired drinks from Sixpoint? With all the MCs that hail from Brooklyn, it seems like a natural move.
A lot of our beer has been inspired by hip-hop, going all the way back to the homebrewing days. Till this day if you come in early at Sixpoint you’ll hear some Wu blasting out of my office at 7 a.m. Their stuff is perma-relevant.
