Valkre’s Friday beer gardens are legendary, and this past April
we sought to take it to another level with our own NCAA tournament-style Beer
Bracket. Everyone named beers they wanted in the tournament until we got to a
list of 64 beers. Then each beer was assigned a seed (based on their ratebeer.com
and beeradvocate.com rankings, along with Valkre opinions and suggestions) and we
divided our beer into 4 regions. For each pairing, we each voted for the one we
liked best in order for the beer to advance to the next round.
Just like the NCAA tournament, most of the higher seeds dominated, but we did have some Florida Gulf Coast-like upsets with a couple of 15 and 16 seeds getting to the sweet sixteen. Truly the biggest upset for the Company was the loss of the sentimental Valkre favorite North Coast Red Seal to Great Lakes Eliot Ness, as many predicted Red Seal would go all the way. Fittingly enough, after knocking off Red Seal, Eliot Ness made it to the championship.
After an intense 4 month competition, the final matchup saw number 2 seed Eliot Ness faced off against number 4 seed Green Flash Hop Head Red. Winning by a slim 2 vote margin Hop Head Red was crowned Valkre Beer Champion and now holds a special place in the Valkre fridge. Hop Head Red came from nowhere and held its own against the likes of formidable beer like 3 Floyds Robert the Bruce and number 1 seeded Half Acre Daisy Cutter.
While each person in the office had their own favorite, what
made the Beer Bracket special was to be able to experience new beers and discuss
how they compared to each other, and root for our own personal selections to win. So stay tuned for next year when we do
the Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir bracket!
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