Each year, the teams at beergarden and PublicHouse duke it out to see who drafted the best IPA. This year’s event will feature 4 categories: West Coast, Hazy, Juicy and Wild Card. The Beer Teams choose the beers. Your vote decides the favorite.
The 3 week event features 4 blind flights of four, 2 flights at beergarden and 2 at PublicHouse, comprising the Sweet 16 IPAs. The four corners of the bracket represent the 4 Beer Buyers: Team Brianna and Deidre from beergarden & Team Dustin and Geo from PublicHouse. You’ll have two weeks to taste all 4 flights and cast your vote for the tastiest brews in a blind taste off from March 14th - March 26th.
The Final 4 will take place March 27th through April 2nd. The favorite IPAs from the original Sweet 16 will move on to the final 4. You’ll have that final week to try the final flight at either of the pubs and cast your vote. The votes will be tallied to reveal the winner on Monday, April 3rd.
In addition to the fun of it, each time you complete a flight … you have an opportunity to win one of 4 raffle packages. Try all 5 flights, and you’ll have 5 chances to win excellent prizes including gift certificates to the pubs, food purveyors and merch from participating breweries.
The 4 Beer Buyer Teams have chosen the 16 IPAs for this years’ competition. From this Sweet 16, each team has chosen 4 IPAs to represent their corner.
From Team Brianna, Brianna Gordon is the beer buyer for beergarden and she’s really been a fan of Ruse lately. Her line-up includes:
Single Hill- Polymorph: Gorilla- Hazy Wild Card- Brianna
Von Ebert- Volatile Substance- West Coast- Brianna
Double Mountain- Juicy, Clearly Not Hazy- Juicy- Brianna
Ruse- Spirit Receiver- Hazy- Brianna
From Team Deidre, Deidre Brown is the assistant beer buyer for beergarden. Her line-up includes:
Little Beast- Pine Top- West Coast- Deidre
Coldfire- Cumulus Tropicalus- Hazy Wild Card- Deidre
New Belgium- Juicy Haze- Juicy- Deidre
Fort George- Magnetic Fields- Hazy- Deidre
From Team Dustin, Dustin Heilig is the beer buyer for PublicHouse and he is stoked to have the ONLY Cold IPA on the board (the OG Cold… and he is a big Wayfinder fanboy)
Dirt Road- Juicy IPA- Juicy- Dustin
Wayfinder- Original Cold IPA- Wildcard- Dustin
Breakside- IPA- West Coast- Dustin **Winner from 2022
Gratitude- Hop Galaxy- Hazy- Dustin
From Team Geo, Geo Carcamo is the assistant beer buyer for PublicHouse and he loves the recklessness of his 2023 IPA line-up:
Grains of Wrath- Vapor Lock- West Coast- Geo
Hen House- West Coast IPA- Wild Card- Geo
Wild Ride- Juicy Gorilla Snax- Juicy- Geo
The Wheel- Intergalactic Hazy- Hazy- Geo