Tournament of Pale Results!- Updated
Cats: Beer Fun|Last Thursday eight selected microbrews showed up at the event, but only one would leave a champion. They showed up early, mostly in order to spend three hours in a cooler full of ice preparing for the showdown.
This much anticipated event has fueled speculation as to who would take away the coveted best pale ale of the night trophy. Only one true substitution had to be made prior to the event. Foothills couldn’t make the long trek by bottle so they opted to let another beer represent the western half of North Carolina. Highlands St. Terese’s Pale got the call late Wednesday night and worked through the night to make sure that they were in the cooler with the others by head counting time. The two other substitutions were less significant. Wolaver’s Pale replaced Otter Creek, as you may know, Wolaver’s is Otter Creek’s organic line, so this didn’t cause too much of a stir. Rogue sent it’s Juniper pale ale in place of it’s Warrior Pale.
The judges showed up at the stroke of 8, donned their blindfolds and we began. The judging was completely blind of brand and color all the way through to the end. Provided only water, beer, and pretzel sticks we proceeded through the head-to-head matchups.
Round 1:
Dale’s destroyed Great Divide - unanimously
Highland beat Carolina Pale Ale - 2 to 1
Rogue defeated Sierra 2 to 1, the two in favor of Rogue raved about it.
Terrapin defeated Wolavers 2 to 1, but mostly the vote seemed to turn on the 2 dissenting judges dislike for the Wolavers “musty” taste
Round 2:
In the end of round One the strongest candidates looked like Dale’s and Rogue, but that proved not to be the case as we forged through the final four.
Highland defeated Dales, 2 to 1, but it seemed to be a difficult choice for the judges.
Terrapin then confidently defeated Rogue, though with only a 2 to 1 vote the pro-terrapin two touted the rye pale’s strength while the dissenter noted the difficulty choosing between the two.
The Final:
Terrapin defeats highland 2 to 1!
April 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Wow, Terrapin! I don’t think I would have called that one. Nice work, beeristas!
April 10th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
This is awesome! I wouldn’t have called it either.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
if such unknown power-houses like Pylon can churn out of Athens, why not a secret ninja like Terrapin?
had the Terrapin Rye Squared the other night…still waiting for a chance to get a bottle of the Terrapin Hop-Shortage. i am NOT surprised that Terrapin pulled it off. it’s a spicy meatball!