Sixth Sense Brewing masters hazy

For lovers of the newer juicy hazy IPA styles, you owe yourself a visit to Sixth Sense Brewing in Jackson, Ohio. Now beginning its 3rd year in business, this little Appalachian region brewery is definitely a worthy destination on a road trip for beer.

Sixth Sense is home to the popular Murk Juice IPA and a ton of other good brews. The beer making is led by head brewer Mike Davis, who has developed quite the magic touch with the hazy IPAs. But that’s not all — Mike’s accomplishments with traditional beer styles are solid too.

“We’ve been very fortunate because a lot of our beers have been accepted, and we don’t take it for granted,” said Davis.

Bring on the juice

When first starting his brewing with Sixth Sense, Davis said he thought his flagship would probably be a traditional IPA, something like Jackie O’s Mystic Mama, but the market took him in a different direction.

Murk Juice started as a special small batch beer brewed for World Of Beer–Easton’s 5th anniversary event. About a year and a half ago, WOB had asked Sixth Sense to be the featured brewer for its event, and Davis sent six or seven beers up to the restaurant. One was simply named WOB Tavern 33. People just kept coming back for more and telling Davis how much they loved it.

“As soon as I tried it, I knew it was a special beer,” Davis said. He knew he would make that recipe again, and make it he did. That beer became his flagship Murk Juice IPA.

Talking with Davis, you quickly learn that he is a brewer who pays close attention to detail and technique. Talking about mastering the juicy hazy IPA style, he says, “It’s a learning curve, but it’s a learning curve that has a lot to do with water chemistry and temperature control.”

For water chemistry he carefully contols the levels of things like chlorides and sulfates. He says the hopping technique he uses is critical to the juicy hazy New England-style IPA’s flavor and appearance.

“We put a very tiny little charge in the boil at 60 minutes and we don’t put another ounce of hops in until we’re whirlpooling at flameout. Even then we wait until the temperature is 175 degrees.” At that temperature, he feels he gets maximum juicy hop flavor but does not extract more bitterness.

He then adds three hop additions while the wort is between 170 and 175 degrees. He carefully controls the temperature of that addition, because getting below 170 could lead to pasteurization problems, meaning unwanted wild yeasts and bacteria could end up in the beer.

We do hazy well

Sixth Sense’s list of popular hazy IPAs is long and has included such names as:

• Murk Juice
• Murkimus Juicimus (2X version of Murk Juice)
• Tropical Murk Juice (w/ pineapple & coconut)
• We Don’t Need No Stinking Coast
• Hurtin For A Squirtin (extra big & juicy)
• Cosmic Sun
• Lickity Split
• Televittles (current collab w/ Jackie O’s)

At any given time you are likely to find one or more of the above, or something very similar, on the taproom taplist.

Davis also ventures into the world of Milkshake IPAs. He produced a trendy beer that became the hit of last year’s Ohio Pawpaw Festival: Pawpaw Murkshake. The beer was the double IPA version of Murk Juice (Murkimus Juicimus) with lactose and “a boatload” of pawpaw pulp added in the secondary. “It was like 14 pounds per barrel of pawpaw pulp,” Davis says. The result was a creamy, fruit-sweet, big 9% beer that went down easy.

Last year’s murkshake lineup also included Passionfruit Murkshake and Pineapple Mango Murkshake. It will be interesting to see what this year has in store.

Hazy IPA is not all the brewery does well. Its traditional Tossin’ the Caber Scotch Ale suited the taste of the Brilliant Stream tasting crew during our visit. Other popular brews include Insight Hefeweizen, Foresight Porter, Vision Pilsner, Telepathy Pale Ale, and Prodigious Imperial Brown Ale, among others.

Distribution

Your best bet finding a big selection is to go directly to the brewery taproom. You can also often find a couple of Sixth Sense brews in Athens and occasionally in other locations around southeastern Ohio. Davis said, however, he discovered his best market is the Columbus area. Currently around 70% of his production goes to Columbus. Beyond draft, Davis does an occasional small batch canning run. You will find these four-packs of 16 oz. cans primarily for sale at the taproom.

Sixth Sense taproom & food

The brewery taproom is open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. The taproom also features some very good build-your-own burritos, burrito bowls, and salads prepared in the brewery’s food trailer. For more food selections you can go next door to Arch & Eddie’s Restaurant, which happens to be owned by the same folks as the brewery.

The brewery has a good selection of branded merchandise for sale, and growler and Crowler fills are available. When you discover how much you really love this brewery, you might want to join their official Sixth Sense Beer Club, which provides its members with a list of benefits for an annual fee.

Sixth Sense Brewing
175 East Main St
Jackson, Ohio

Brewery Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/sixthsensebrewery/