Sports superstition says that when you do something and it leads to wins, you better do it again next time. Last year, Misconduct Tavern and Conshohocken Brewing partnered on two beers — one that paid homage to Joel Embiid and one that saluted Ben Simmons — and then both Sixers had stellar seasons, leading the team to its best finish in more than a decade.
So this year, another basketball-inspired collaboration was inevitable, said Fleming Kerr, Misconduct general manager. Who to honor? Never a question: Markelle Fultz.
“This guy was out for almost a whole year with the yips,” Kerr said incredulously of the second-year guard, who was acquired with high expectations as the first overall pick in the NBA draft. In his rookie season, Fultz developed issues that sidelined him, including some kind of shoulder injury and a general glitch in his floor shooting.
“Sixers should want me to make a beer for them — look at how well Embiid and Simmons played last year,” Kerr bragged. “So of course I want to help Fultz get his jump shot back.”
The limited-edition brew he came up with, which is being tapped on Oct. 16 for the first time in advance of the Sixers’ season opener, is called “The Emperor’s New Jump Shot.”
In the Hans Christian Anderson fable The Emperor’s New Clothes, the whole idea was that the emperor didn’t actually have any clothes on. So is Kerr saying that Fultz doesn’t actually have a jump shot? Not exactly.
“It’s all in his head!” Kerr explained. “It’s all mental. We just have to convince him he has a jump shot — just like the subjects convinced the emperor he was wasn’t naked — and Fultz will do fine.”
Either way, watching the results of Fultz’s intense off-season training come together with a bulked-up Embiid and the rest of the team will go well with the new beer. In contrast with the previous two Sixers brews, this edition is more accessible.
Hinkie’s Sweet Revenge, the Embiid beer, was a bit weird because it was made to mimic a Shirley Temple. (Embiid never tasted the beer, Fleming said, but did come into Misconduct a few times to watch the rest of the playoffs and sucked down many real Shirley Temples while there.) The Simmons beer, All About the Benjamins, was a thick, cloudy, New England-style IPA.
Fultz’s beer, on the other hand, is clear and easy-drinking. The Emperor’s New Jump Shot is almost a classic pilsner, but it has a bit more malt flavor from blonde wheat added to the grain bill.
The result, which rings in at 5.7 percent ABV, ends up tasting halfway between Yuengling and Budweiser — while still being actually good. It drinks sharp and smooth and clean. It’s the kind of beer you could easily down multiple pints of during a game, Fleming noted. “We wanted something easy, for the average sports fan.”
If you want to try it, the only place you’ll find it is on the taps at Misconduct’s 1511 Locust St. location. It sells for $7, or $5 during all Sixers games. With each purchase of a glass over the next few days comes a raffle ticket to win a pair of tickets to the home opener on Thursday.
Don’t miss the artwork for the beer, which was drawn by Dimitrios “Jim” Denaxas and is based off the famous image of Notorious B.I.G. with a crown perched atop his head. (All the collaboration beers so far have artwork inspired by hip-hop albums). You can even pick up a Fultz-as-emperor t-shirt to wear for good luck.
