Battle of the Beers (DIY session)

[too far gone]

Its getting to be close to March. We are gearing up for our second annual BoB Beer Madness tournament. (Thread to last year's event here (http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?threadid=6637&perpage=15&highlight=&pagenumber=1).)

1. Will realbeer.com be having its BoB this year? When will it be announced?

2. Would anyone care to do parallel tastings with us? (Caution: the whole tournament was quite an endurance run of quaffing last year!)

3. Anyone have a beer to suggest? We'll be leaning hard towards hoppier ales, stouts & porters, and the occasional "other."

Briefly, we are looking to make a tournament bracket (24 beers this year) of styles we like (no Belgians this year) and do head to head, blind tasting over a period of several evenings.

Last year the winner was Three Floyds Alpha King, besting the other final four contenders: Smuttynose Porter (porter/stout region), Flying Dog IPA (ipa region), and SN Bigfoot (open region). Full bracket here (http://home.twcny.rr.com/jtonole/madness05.pdf).

Cheers!

[Edit: fixed broken link to madness 2005]

[chazwicke]

I'd be up for joining you for the tasting if I can get the slate of beers. Keep us informed. I enjoyed your postings last year. I'm pretty sure Realbeer will have it's annual BoB.

[too far gone]

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in posting this. Work and etc. has been h-e-double-lishly busy.

After much discussion, debate, potential familial strife, we decided, and I quote, "to give in to our inner hoppiness." If you are a fan of the hop, grab a couple of the head to head match ups that we have arranged (if you can get 'em), get a blind pour of each (very important), and ask yourself: "If I could only have one more beer tonight, which would it be?"

The 2006, Revenge of the Hops, March Madness Battle of the Beers bracket is posted here: http://home.twcny.rr.com/jtonole/madness06.pdf (thanks Jeff!).

[Goban]

Wow, it’s like I’m a football commentator.

“I can see Stone’s colossal Ruination battling it out with the Three Floyds dreaded Dreadnaught to take the Big IPA Region. Could this spell ‘Ruin’ for the Triple F”?

“In the Pale Ale Region, will Ithaca’s monstrous Cascazilla lay prostrate and claim fealty to the FFF's tyrannical Alpha King? My opinion: hail to the king baby”!

Unfortunately, many of these brews, FFF in particular, aren’t available to me as of yet. Otherwise, I would love to take part.

[TheCrank]

I'd love to participate, but selection is so limited in NYC.
The two best stores closed! (If anyone knows a good one in Manhattan, please share).
Anyway, I'd nominate Smuttynose Robust Porter.
Underrated brewery, this was the best beer I had all of last year.

[ClockworkOrange]

My nod in Pale Ale Region goes to Three Floyde Alpha King.

[too far gone]

Alpha King was the smooth winner last year and is showing *very* well so far. I was shocked at how well it did over Casadilla, a home town fav.

We finally got ahold of Racer #5 and our Wisconsin-supplied Bitter Woman is now chilled and ready to go.

Next tasting looks to be Friday night and the next on Sunday. Stay tuned for updates!

[Alidade]

Now, is this a bottle vs bottle or draft vs bottle or etc? (snobbing it up!)

[too far gone]

Alidade--its a bottle v. bottle thing. We pour 2X 12 oz or 1X 22 oz into (separtate of course) pitchers. We work it so only one of us knows which match up it is and then that person doesn't know which pitcher is which. Nobody else knows which match up it is.

We might try one day to replicate some of the match ups with draft beer since we have one good beer store and two beer bars with good selections to go via growlers. And we have on many occasion wondered about the effect of varying bottle freshness, etc.

[too far gone]

I spoke to soon--we never could get Racer #5. But that was ok because its replacement South Hampton was one I had never had before and pretty decent.

The best match up of the weekend was by far AleSmith v. Hop Ottin--two beers right in our wheelhouse. AleSmith advanced, but I bet Hop Ottin gets a better seed next year.

Previously under the radar for me and now flying high was Avery IPA, returning after a lack luster first round to best Stone IPA.

The Elite Eight is scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Dreadnaught v. Runiation
Alpha King v. Brutal Bitter
AleSmith v. Hop Devil
Hopitical Illusion v. Avery

The 2006, Revenge of the Hops, March Madness Battle of the Beers bracket is posted here: http://home.twcny.rr.com/jtonole/madness06.pdf (thanks Jeff!).

[ClockworkOrange]

Go Three Floyds! Go!

[too far gone]

Whoa, some close calls last Wednesday.

Though it was a pretty close call, Runiation blanked Dreadnaught 5-0.
The remainder of the match ups were all vote splitters:
Alpha King stays in with 3 votes over Brutal Bitter's 2 votes.
Alesmith just snuck by Hop Devil 3-2.
Hoptical Illusion beat out Avery IPA 3-2 in overtime (last minute vote change).

Final four and championship will be held Sat. night. If you can get ahold of any of the venerable beers, taste along with us.

Like last year, just for fun, I'll try to post the matchups LIVE here on Realbeer.com!

The 2006, Revenge of the Hops, March Madness Battle of the Beers bracket is posted here: http://home.twcny.rr.com/jtonole/madness06.pdf (thanks Jeff!).

[too far gone]

We're fed and assembled. The first round is being poured. AleSmith vs Hopitical Illusion and Alpha King vs Stone Runiation. We have lots of left overs too for post tourney tasting--lots of people coming over too.

[too far gone]

Alpha King swept, 5 votes to nil
AleSmith over Hopitical Illusion 3-2, strong showing for the tourney new comer HI.

A bit of a palate rest, then off to the finals.

[too far gone]

Alpha King wins again! 4-1. I inadvertently voted the wrong way--the one vote for Ale Smith--got blue beer in my red glasss.

Great beers.

Great tourney.

Lots of fun.

[chazwicke]

Yeah Alpha King!! FFF makes fine beers.

[ClockworkOrange]

3 cheers for 3 Floyds!