HI-RES in high resolution.

According to the good people at Wikipedia, movie trailers are called trailers because they used to be shown in movie theaters AFTER the end of a feature film. Once movie studios figured out that people weren’t staying around after the feature to watch previews, they started showing them BEFORE the start of a feature film. For whatever reason, previews are still called trailers, but they’re not just used to advertise movies anymore.

A few days ago, while perusing the Rotten Tomatoes website, I clicked on an ad for what I thought was a movie called The Ride of Her Life (it looked like a knock  off of The Fast and The Furious or maybe even Need for Speed). Here’s the trailer for what I thought was a soon to be released trashy movie:

As you can see, this wasn’t a movie trailer at all. It was basically an advertisement for the 2015 Subaru WRX. As a guy that appreciates clever advertisements and fast cars, all I can say is “Bravo!” to Subaru for doing a great job of tricking me into clicking on their ad.

It seems that not just car companies are jumping on this “movie trailer” business to promote their products. Here’s the “trailer” that Sixpont pulled together for the release of one of their newest beers:

Now that you’ve seen the trailer, here are a few words about HI-RES taken directly from the Sixpoint website:

We crafted HI-RES as a testament to ceaseless, intrepid human nature. RESIN, our first slim can release, is an embodiment of the sticky quintessence of hops. It’s a beer soaked in snappy, energetic bitter compounds. Hi-Res, though a heftier formulation, uses a softer touch. It further clarifies hop perception by displaying a different component of the essential fiber of hops. With massive amounts of late-addition, new-age hops, Hi-Res eschews raw bittering force in favor of lush aroma and hop essence.

It still holds to the spirit of Resin, carrying its heft cleanly, and drinks far easier than its 11.1% ABV and 111 IBUs. A full golden body, and a flavor profile driven by mango and passionfruit notes make Hi-Res a bittersweet ode to hops, and perfect for smooth sipping.

Let’s get on with the review…

• Appearance: Hazy red orange color. Thick off white head that maxes out at half an inch and dissipates slowly. Minimal lacing.
• Aroma: The predominant thing I smell when I stick my nose in the glass is orange marmalade, i.e. it’s lightly sweet smelling (think honey and cane sugar) but also has that slightly bitter orange zest scent.
• Taste: Not much in the way of carbonation, but what’s there is of the slightly fizzy variety. The mouthfeel is a bit syrupy. Starts off with a slightly sweet biscuity malt quality and quickly transitions to moderately bitter thanks to the citrusy hops. The finish is a well balanced combination of sweet malt and lightly bitter hops with just a touch of booziness showing up at the very end. Slightly astringent aftertaste.
• ABV: 11.1%

I never really cared for Sixpoint’s Resin since I found it to be overly hoppy, i.e. it was a one note beer that lacked balance. Thankfully, I found HI-RES to be infinitely more enjoyable. At 11.1% ABV, I would NEVER call this beer session worthy, but it goes down so easily, and hides it’s alcohol content so well that you might be lulled into a false sense of security and have more than two of them in one sitting. If you like a potent and well balanced Imperial IPA, then I definitely recommend giving HI-RES a try. Just be sure to sip and savor it. Don’t say I didn’t warm you.