Folks, let’s all raise a beer! The 2019 Beer Bracket Challenge is returning February 11th. Duking it out for the title of Best Beer of Memphis 2019 will be Crosstown, Meddlesome (last year’s champ!), Wiseacre, Memphis Made, High Cotton, and Ghost River.
The bracket has been shaken up a little this year, with new categories.
Toby Sells, who is in charge of the editorial side of this gig, explains, “Instead of limiting selections to just dark, light, IPA, and seasonal, we want to let our breweries choose which four beers they want to compete. It’ll be a sort of Royal Rumble, winner-take-all kind of thing.”
Sells says, “This year, we’re giving each brewery on opportunity to change one match-up they don’t like. Is your beer up against 201 Hoplar (last year’s winner)? Breweries can swap with another beer in another match up. But they can only do that one time.”
Voting begins Wednesday, February 13th with the first round. Rounds last two days, with the last and fifth round running through February 22nd. Basically, it’s Beer: Thirty all the time!
Beers face off NCAA-style. The beer with the most votes moves on. The final two beers left go head-to-head. The winner will be announced on Thursday, February 28th via Facebook Live.
And if that’s not interactive enough for you, you can get in on the action by taking a picture with one of the competing beers to be entered for a prize. And, all those who vote are entered to win a prize.
But wait that’s not all! All Memphis beer fans are invited to Aldo’s Downtown to watch the seeding on Monday, February 11th, at 4:30 p.m. p.m. And then back again at Aldo’s for the awarding of the VanWyngarden Cup to the winning brewery on February 28th, 3 p.m. Be there!
“We started the Beer Bracket Challenge to promote (and have fun with) Memphis beers and those who make it,” says Sells. “Brewers are fun and hard-working folks and they’re making some of the best damn beers in the U.S.of A. right here in Memphis, Tennessee.”