The Iowa beers' Sweet 16 is set. Vote for your favorite in Beer Brackets.
The competition for Beer Brackets heats up. The second round of Beer Brackets voting ended on March 13, and now 16 Iowa beers remain to vie for bragging rights. This marks the fifth installment of letting readers vote to discover Iowa’s favorite craft beer brewed in the state.
We invite readers to vote for their favorites, sorted into four brackets with four breweries and their beers remaining in each. One bracket focuses on lagers and ales, another IPAs, a third features stouts and porters, and the fourth is a wild card category that could feature a fruity sour, a lambic, or any other type of beer.
So far, 1,587 people cast 33,636 votes to trim the contestants down to 16.
The closest race featured Backpocket Brewing Tipsy In Tijuana beating Lionbridge Brewing Živá Voda Czech-style Pilsner by nine votes.
Who are the Cinderella stories in Beer Brackets?
Confluence Brewing Co. Farmer John's Multi Grain Ale, a 14 seed, made it to the Sweet 16. Other Cinderellas include SingleSpeed Brewing Ring Around the Gose, a 10 seed, facing Confluence as well as Confluence Brewing Co. Milk Man Milk Stout, a 13 seed, facing 9 seed West O Beer Coco Stout Chocolate Stout. Peace Tree Brewing Get a Little Hazy hazy IPA made it through to the Sweet 16 as a 13 seed.
Which Iowa breweries remain in Beer Brackets?
Ales, pilsners and similar bracket
1. Exile Brewing Co. Ruthie vs. 4. Millstream Brewing Co. Schild Brau Amber
3. Backpocket Brewing Tipsy In Tijuana vs. 2. SingleSpeed Brewing Co. Gable Munich Helles
IPAs bracket
1. Big Grove Easy Eddy Hazy IPA vs. 13. Peace Tree Brewing Get a Little Hazy hazy IPA
3. Toppling Goliath King Sue hazy double IPA vs. 2. Confluence Brewing Co. Des Moines IPA
Porters and stouts bracket
9. West O Beer Coco Stout Chocolate Stout vs. 13. Confluence Brewing Co. Milk Man Milk Stout
3. SingleSpeed Brewing Tip the Cow Cocoa Espresso Milk Stout vs. 2. Lionbridge Brewing Compensation English Dark Mild
Wild card bracket
1. Peace Tree Brewing Blonde Fatale Belgian-style blonde ale vs. 4. Laketime Brewery Oreo Speedwagon milk stout
14. Confluence Brewing Co. Farmer John's Multi Grain Ale vs. 10. SingleSpeed Brewing Ring Around the Gose
This year, around 30 breweries elected to participate in Beer Brackets, each recommending a beer or four to compete. The Iowa Brewers Guild helped us find the beers to highlight in the contest. The seeds were randomly selected based on which beer the breweries suggested in each category.
More:Your guide to 20 Des Moines metro breweries, taprooms and their craft beer
Similar to the NCAA hoops brackets, your favorites will battle it out with round-by-round voting through April 3. We’ll keep you posted every step of the way until a winner is declared.
This round of voting remains open until March 17 with additional rounds for the Elite 8 March 20-22; Final Four March 24-27; and finals March 29-31.
In 2019, the last time the Des Moines Register held Beer Brackets, the winner was SingleSpeed Brewing, which originally opened in 2012 in Cedar Falls. Fenders Brewing in Polk City won in 2018. Confluence Brewing Co. in Des Moines won in 2017. And in the first competition in 2016, West O Beer from Milford won.
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Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 16 Iowa beers remain in Beer Brackets 2023
