Beer Bracket Madness: And The Winner Is...
By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 29, 2013 4:20PM
It's been a long, long trip (filled with lots of beer drinking) to narrow down the Chicagoist beer bracket. Many of you have been following this since the beginning - we started with 32 beers from all over the midwest and narrowed it down to just one. Some of the competing breweries are large and well-established; others are less than a year old and only have a couple of employees. But someone had to win in the end.
The winner? In an upset victory over one of the most popular beers around (that has a perfect Beer Advocate score), Pipeworks Ninja vs. Unicorn IPA beat Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. Score one for the little guy!
N v. U (or Ninjacorn, as we've taken to calling it around her) had a tough set of challenges along the way to victory, but it blew through the competition. In round one, they beat Greenbush Brother Benjamin 67% to 33%. In round two, they smashed the heck out of Baderbrau pilsner 85% to 15%. Their closest shave came in round three, when they went against Three Floyds Gumballhead and won by a very close 51% to 49%. In round four, they beat Goose Island Matilda by 59% to 41%.
Well done, Pipeworks.
Pipeworks has only been around for a little over a year, but they've already done pretty well for themselves. Back in February, they were named Best New Brewery by Ratebeer.com.
The whole bracket is below. We reached out to Pipeworks for comment and, more importantly, specifics on where to buy Ninja vs. Unicorn. We'll let you know when we hear back from them.