It is just about time for March Madness, which means the Brewing News is also bringing back their National IPA Championship (NIPAC).
Head to http://www.brewingnews.com/nipac/ to sign up and see all of the details, including a list of this year’s contestants. Whoever picks the most matchups correctly will receive a case of the winning IPA (Green Flash West Coast IPA was last year). All entries must be submitted by 9pm PT on Saturday, February 21.
Great Lakes Brewing News is thrilled to annouce the 2nd Annual National IPA Challenge. As with last year, participating IPAs from across the nation will be randomly chosen for a 1:1 single elimination bracket tournament. Winners of the first round will advance to the next. The complete IPA tournament bracket (see outline on back of this page) will be published in the February/March issue of Great Lakes Brewing News and posted on-line. The events will be held at beer festivals across the nation, beginning February 22. The judges will all be brewers.
As with last year, IPA lovers will be able to choose their winners for each round on-line. They will log onto the web and read a brief description of your beer as well as view an image (be sure to fill out the description on the entry form, as well as send an image or logo via email). Prizes will be awarded for readers with correct NIPAC brackets. The top prize will be a free case of the 2009 NIPAC championship IPA. (A repeat congratulation to last year’s winner, Green Flash Brewing Company’s West Coast India Pale Ale.) Results of each round will be posted on-line within twenty-four hours of each round. Final results and winners will be published on-line and in our April/May 2009 issue.
Participating NW IPAs include Big Sky IPA (from Missoula, MT), Boundary Bay IPA (Bellingham, WA), Full Sail IPA (Hood River, OR), Deschutes Inversion IPA (Bend, OR), Redhook Long Hammer IPA (Woodinville, WA), Pike IPA (Seattle, WA) and Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (Newport, OR).
For the record, I was the winner of the Brewing News staff competition….which, got me zilch:-) I would have loved a case of that West Coast IPA.
Besides the two top finishers last year — both transcendent — I like the chances of Bear Republic’s Racer 5 & Laurelwood’s Workhorse …both are wonderful west coast IPAs. I haven’t had Bear Republic’s Apex but it sounds intriguing. Also will be interesting to see how Boundary Bay does.
A sentimental favorite for me is Lakefront Brewery’s IPA …Lakefront is a cool Milwaukee brewery started by two very friendly guys. One Saturday afternoon on a day trip from Chicago, I noticed they had started charging a few bucks for the ‘tour’, which basically consisted of one of the owner brothers giving a talk about the tiny brewing operation (which has now grown quite successful), and of each visitor pouring their own beers from the taps. You could easily have 4-5 beers during the hour tour. They said they had to start charging because the same college guys were coming every week. The tour would start with owner Jim Klisch saying (in a good-natured way) “If you’re here for the 3:00 tour, pour yourself a beer & c’mon over here…if you’re still here from the 2:00 tour, get the hell outa here, you got your two dollars worth! 🙂 …good times!
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