Beer Bracket Madness: Cast Your Vote For The Sweet Sixteen
By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 12, 2013 3:00PM
The votes are counted and two things are clear: Chicagoist readers really love beer and everyone loves picking their favorites. Last week, we opened up round one of our Chicagoist March Beer Madness competition with 32 brews. Thousands and thousands of votes later, 16 beers move on to the next round of the competition. We plan to quaff each and every one of the sixteen "losers" this weekend in memoriam, to show there are no hard feelings. We're all winners, folks.
Some of the results (and the margins of victory) were expected, while others were quite surprising. The whole bracket is below, but we particularly wanted to call out those contests that were so very close. Founders Red Rye only beat Two Brothers Cane and Ebel 52% to 48%, and 5 Rabbit 5 Vulture beat Greenbush Distorter Porter by exactly the same percentage. In the closest match of round one, Great Lakes Dortmunder beat Metropolitan Krankshaft Kolch by just two votes. To anyone who tries to convince you that voting doesn't matter, we say: take a look at our beer.
What was the most popular beer? Well, the margins of victory tell us something. The highest margin of victory, at 86% to 13%, was between Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale and Emmett's Brewing McCarthy Red Ale. There were a few other 80/20 contests, but what was the biggest vote getter of the entire first round? That honor goes to Half Acre's Daisy Cutter, which drew more total votes than any other beer in the competition.
A new set of polls for the Sweet Sixteen are below. As often happens in bracket competitions, there's now no real rhyme or reason to the pairings. Our sophisticated matchups have gone out the window and now it's straight preference. The match-ups may be tougher, but you have to choose.
Voting closes on Thursday at noon - may the best beer win!