This tournament’s first medal matchup is a battle of two very strong and consistent brews. Both of these beers lost by a hair in my opinion and were more than worthy of moving on. Let’s take a look at exactly what made these brews stand out in the earlier rounds:

First, the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale was a beer noted for its consistency. But lost in that praise somehow were the remarkable flavors. After all, if a beer is consistently bad, well that doesn’t make the ultimate brew does it? The Rye Pale is a great example of both styles of beer with its malty caramel and brown sugar notes that are tempered by the pale hop spices that keep this beer grounded and give it a very natural flavor. The mouthfeel itself seemed to be dominated by the malts as it was very smooth and not so much carbonated, which I think is refreshing for a pale and much better than a lot of over carbonated laziness that is out there. That’s great, but what really sets this beer apart as a legitimate Fermented Four threat? That would have to be what I assume was a very methodical selection by the brewmasters because not only do the flavors embody their genre, they are very pronounced. That is to say you can taste all of the flavors that I have mentioned very easily. With a lot of beers the flavors just mush together and you are left searching for flavors because it is hard to tell where the malt ends and the hops begin. This beer is truly great because of the strength of the flavors. Not to mention that all of these well-selected flavors pair well with almost any food as well as by themselves to make a beer you can have anywhere, any time and you will not be disappointed.

Unfortunately for the Terp, it faces another beer with great and well-pronounced flavors for the bronze, the Founder’s Porter. The Porter may present the strength of flavor that the Terrapin has, but the Porter has a great many more strong flavors. As has come to be my usual warning, if you do not decant this beer, it will taste like root beer, so let it breathe for a minute before drinking. When you let it breathe this beer opens up to rich fruit sugars, and incredible hop flavors that I can’t place over the deep fruit flavors but it is noticeable that they are there. What got this beer to the Fermented Four were those rich flavors, and a uniqueness of both flavor and overall feel that made it the best porter/stout we had selected. It’s main problem comes in the pairing with food, although it is not as big of a hang-up as I had originally made it out to be. This is a relaxing and laid-back beer once you get over that the initial taste is going to be powerful. This may be the most complex beer in the tournament, and I’m certain my words don’t do it justice, so drink today’s matchup and let us know what you think, you’ll begin to understand the complexity.

UPDATE: Click Here for Match Results!