Here we are, the Final 8. Looking for some beer or at least non-copyright infringing puns to use for our final rounds but alas have had no luck yet. So today we have two beers that are not as similar as they appear. Look here for the info on the first I will discuss, the DogFish Head 90 Minute IPA. This beer is THE IPA as far as I’m concerned in this tournament, complex and rich hop flavors but a malted caramel sweetness throughout that gives it redrinkability and uniqueness that has carried it this far. I guess for this round I’m going to play the Devil’s Advocate and try and poke holes in what are otherwise stellar brews in the hopes of finding some kind of difference that would merit one advancing over another because we are at the best of the best. That said, I think the greatest weakness for the DogFish comes from the 90 Minute IPA having a bit of an identity crisis and could be considered the Jan Brady of the DogFish Brewing Co. In their pursuit of brewing excellence, DogFish also has a 60 Minute, 75 Minute, and 120 Minute IPA which all have similar characteristics. I call the 90 Minute the Jan Brady because its not as light and cute as 60 Minute Cindy and its not as rich and hot as 120 Minute Marsha, it is the middle beer (Ok, bear with me here, I love this beer and I’m doing my best). It is only when looking through this lens that the 90 Minute IPA could be considered the Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

Where DogFish runs into trouble as a beer that is overly defined and has competiton within its own brewery for #1, Southern Tier Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale has the opposite problem. Okay, it is an extraordinary ale that is fantastic, but just calling it an ale may have gotten it this far. This stylistic carte blanche is nice because when one drinks this extraordinary ale, they have no preconceived notions of what an IPA should taste like, or a pilsner, or etc, they know simply that it is an ale. This doesn’t apply to just the linguistics the fine folks at Southern Tier use (and they really are awesome people), but if the beer fit a more specific category, say if it was an Extraordinary IPA, it may not be here because it wouldn’t fit the bill. If something such as beer genre is enough to separate the beers, Southern Tier could be gone. If not, and say, intrabrewery excellence is the deciding factor then the Extraordinary Ale could process to the Fermented 4. I’ll get back to you with the verdict shortly.