hooray beer!

the wapo had a genius idea to have a beer madness tournament. and i had the genius idea to copy their plan and initiate the first annual manhattan place beer madness tournament. and wow, was it a success or what?! the premise was simple. everyone brought a six-pack of their choice and we randomly picked them out of a hat (aka my hand) and put the beers in a bracket. and naturally the two brackets were orange and blue - i mean, would you expect anything less from the hoos house. (who's house?) we figured we didn't have the patience for a blind taste test so instead we tasted two beers at a time and the verbal consensus won.

first up in the orange bracket were tsingtao and young's double chocolate stout. i think we all were in agreement that the chocolate stout was delicious (but not nutritious), but it was a little too heavy to beat out the chinese beer. so, tsingtao moved on pretty easily.

the next match-up was magic hat #9 vs. red hook copper hook spring ale. these beers were a little more similar - but the fruitiness of magic hat easily beat out the red hook.

the third taste test was shiner bock vs. natural light (aka natty). i mean, do i honestly have to tell you how this round turned out? surprisingly it wasn't a unanimous choice, but shiner bock easily beat out natty light to move into the next round.

the last round in the orange bracket was left hand sawtooth ale vs. fuel cafe coffee flavored stout. like the other stout, this one didn't stand much of a chance against the smoother, more refreshing ale. but, it did taste just like coffee. weird.

onto the blue bracket. first up were leinenkugel sunset wheat (surprisingly from chippewa falls, not from germany or something like that) charlottesville's own starr hill amber ale. i guess the crowd was a tad bit biased towards charlottesville (well that, and/or the fact that the leinenkugel beer was a tad on the fruity side), but nonetheless the starr hill unanimously moved onto the next round.

next up were frederick, md's old leghumper robust porter and heineken. honestly, how could plain old heineken stand a chance against leghumper?? especially when we realized that leghumper's tag line was, "so many legs, not enough time."

after that were flying dog tire bite and dogfish head raison d'etre. this was the battle of the dogs. and this was a tough one. they both were rather delicious, but tragically only one could advance. and it happened to be flying dog.

last in the blue bracket were the chili beer and red stripe. and wow, was the chili beer spicy. i guess the giant pepper floating in the beer bottle should have been somewhat of a clue, but no one believed it would be THAT spicy. and it really was THAT spicy. not even the cool, refreshing red stripe beer could wipe the spiciness out of our mouths. so obviously, the jamaican beer easily moved onto the next round.

and then it was onto the elite eight. first up were tsingtao and magic hat. this was a close one, but the asian beer reigned supreme. however, i voted for magic hat - and probably because of the fun bottle tops ("hocus pocus...i can't focus," "the urge to create is always great," and my personal favorite: "and no oompa-loompas.") the other orange bracket match-up was shiner bock vs. left hand.

the blue bracket began with starr hill and leghumper. uva's basketball team might have bowed out early, but charlottesville's starr hill beer kept the wahoo dream alive. tragically the hilarious (and rather yummy) leghumper lost out.

and then it was onto the final four. but it wasn't in atlanta, rather it was in manhattan (place). the orange bracket match-up was asian vs. texan. and as they say, "everything's better in texas," (or is that "ninjas on the roof?") so, shiner bock was in the final. the blue bracket final was starr hill vs. flying dog. and this is where starr hill lost out. bummer. but, honestly flying dog is very delicious!

the final match-up was set. shiner bock vs. flying dog. and this was definitely the closest contest of the night. the final vote was 6-5, but in the end shiner bock was victorious. the shiner was crowned champion of the first annual manhattan beer madness.

and i'd say the first annual tournament was quite a success! if you weren't there you missed out. but, i think we'll be doing it again soon - with 16 new fun and yummy beers to try.

from the way our night ended up i would honestly suggest doing a beer tasting before heading out next time. just to give you a glimpse in the rest of our st. patrick's night: interpretive dancing while playing ping pong, dancing down the up escalator at the metro, meeting new friends (mainly mark and that girl) at garrett's and bartering with the cab driver on the way home.

also, that ride to the metro in the porsche was pretty crucial. thanks, andy.