Who doesn’t love a delicious 4-bean salad? Fresh legumes, savory spices, and packed with fiber. That’s exactly what Sixpoint Brewery of Brooklyn, NY was going for when they made their newest creation: 4BEANS. Brewed with garbanzo beans, green beans, kidney beans, and lima beans, this beer is truly something special.

LOL, JK. This beer doesn’t use any of those beans, but you bet your sweet ass I would still try it if it did. Of greater importance than the two Master’s degrees I earned at graduate school in New York was my discovery of Sixpoint Brewery. Their Bengali is a rock star IPA, their Resin is even better, and their Global Warmer is one of my favorite red ales. But perhaps their most highly regarded beer was their 3BEANS, which was a super delicious Baltic porter. Notice I said “was.” Sixpoint, for some unthinkable reason, has semi-retired 3BEANS. Well, hold onto your butts because Sixpoint has added a FOURTH bean to their old recipe. Introducing Sixpoint 4BEANS!

Sixpoint 4BEANS is brewed with… well, four beans. Those beans are the romano bean (whose proteins add texture and complexity), the cacao bean (which infuse chocolate notes), the coffee bean (which will make you hyper), and the newest addition: the Madagascar vanilla bean (which is purported to link all the flavors together).

I drank this beer last night and the first two notes I wrote were “Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla” and “Good.” I’m not exactly a poet when it comes to describing beer. Given all the flavor infusions and the 10% ABV, I was expecting a much more robust porter. This beer has a surprisingly light and drinkable body and mouthfeel. Alcohol presence isn’t discernible at all, which guarantees I will be drunk dialing Dominoes by the end of the night. While the description had me thinking “Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream,” I didn’t find this beer to be all that sweet. Any major sweetness from the vanilla is balanced by the cacao – like a semi sweet chocolate. The vanilla adds a creaminess that smooths everything out beautifully. There’s a huge dark roasted coffee backdrop behind all of this. The flavors in this beer are as advertised, as each addition plays a role in the final product.

While the flavors are on point, I was still expecting something more complex. This is a pretty straightforward beer, which isn’t a bad thing. I wanted a heftier and chewier body to this porter given what I remember of 3BEANS. If you like a) iced coffee with vanilla creamer, and b) getting drunk, you won’t be disappointed with this beer. While I prefer the flavor of 4BEANS, I still lustfully long for the body of 3BEANS. To make this a little heavier, I recommend that Sixpoint consider adding the following beans:

5) Pinto Beans
6) Jelly Beans
7) Pork & Beans
8) Mr. Bean
9) Bean Bags
10) Beano

The More You Eat, The More You Fart Rating: 3.5 out of 10
How Hard I Just Copyrighted 10BEANS Rating: 10 beans out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10