The Results are Shockingly IN!

Well my first ever blind taste has come and gone, other than a missing cornhole bag, eventually found some 15 feet under my deck the next day, it came off without a hitch.

First I would like to thank the wiminz who ran the show for 2 hours for us.

8 blind tasters and not all were hop heads like myself.
4 groups of 3, 1 winner out of each group heads to the semi's then those four become two in the finals.

I had Stone as my favorite and Bell's, Bear Republic and Greenflash right behind them. Starr Hill was my last beer chosen, thought I'd have a Virginia beer to give a local flavor.

Remember we had no clue which beers these were, we even tried to guess and well ... to a man we all sucked balls at these prognostications. Shameful. A point scoring system, 3 beside your favorite, a 1 beside your second favorite. I did this in case of ties, but I did not need to, each group had a clear winner in the first place voting. The number behind each is their points in the first round.

Group 1
Starr Hill Northern Lights - 18
Victory Hop Devil - 6
Greenflash West Coast IPA - 8

Group 2
Bell's 2 Hearted - 8
Founders Centennial - 8
Sweetwater IPA - 17

Group 3
Bear Republic Racer 5 - 9
Tyranena Bitter Woman - 5
Loose Cannon - 17

Group 4
Stone IPA - 16
Sierra Nevada Torpedo - 10
Dogfish Head 60 - 5

Dogfish Head, Tyranena, Hop Devil were not well thought of at all.
Northern Lights and Loose Canon coming out of nowhere to beat Greenflash and Bear Republic. Wow. Sweetwater and Stone had the hardest draws in the first grouping, guess that makes them the favorites.

Notice that 3 of the 4 are east coast beers.

Semis
1&2
Northern Lights - 5
Sweetwater - 3

3&4
Loose Canon - 5
Stone - 3

Damn, the underdogs from the Mid-Atlantic just took out the favorites. Northern Lights in a George Mason like run ... would they keep it up vs Balmer's finest?

Finals
Northern Lights -5
Loose Canon - 3

From BCO Pix2

Wow, a Rocky like shocker. My jaw dropped when they held up the Starr Hill beer, the last one chosen as a nod to a Virginia beer.

What does it mean? Not much, when drinking these beers in 2 oz tastings, back 2 back 2 back (clearing with water) is hard and not a true taste of the beer when taken 12oz a pop. It is sorta cool, as almost all the beers had a unique taste while similar it was very, very different too. Given my choice, I still want a Stone even though I voted for NL first every round. With a case and half of extras, I will drink them over the next few weeks and then decide how I rank them that way, but for a night NL was the best.

From BCO Pix2

Best thing outta Charlottesville since Thomas Jefferson. If only the Al Groh could produce a winner like this, haha.

More thoughts on this tomorrow night as I get a chance to think more clearly on it.


Cornhole followed and the night belonged to bobble, though it helped that the rest of us got blistered and he stopped drinking. Even still his bags owned the hole and the board all night. Bobble and Will da Thrill won the mini tourney and took home $20 each.

Not one picture was taken, misstep on my part.

Next year will be easier and shorter ... 8 Double Ipa taste test. Can Hop Rod Rye slide into this group?