Ok, so technically it isn’t October until tomorrow.  But with that whole time zone turn-of-the-Earth thing considered, it’s already October in the some places of the world.  And October means beer.

Oktoberfest, Märzen, pumpkin, cool weather, college football, the glorious return to Chili, the changing of the leaves.  I love October, and October makes me want to return to beer.

It’s been a long break from the regular routine here at Brewlimination – far too long.  It turns out that running two consecutive 64-beer brackets, tasting two beers a day, day in and day out for the better part of a year is quite exhaustive, and was somewhat responsible for our hiatus.

But, the hiatus is coming to an end.  We’ve thought long and hard about the future of Brewlimination, and we have some great things in store for the future.  You’ll see some changes coming to the site in the coming weeks, as we resume our Quest for the Ultimate Beer!

So, I’ll kick things off with an impromtu review of the brew I’m currently enjoying – the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.  I’m not overly experienced with a multitude of pumpkin beers under my belt, but I’m setting out to change that.  Having had a number of Dogfish brews in the past, and almost universely enjoying them all, I figured the Punkin Ale was a great place to start.

The Punkin Ale pours an intriguing off-copper color, with a combination of tinted orange and burnt red.  In the center of the glass, a tiny stream of almost microscopic carbonation bubbles rise to the surface.  The head isn’t overly large, maybe about a quarter inch is all, with a light brown to off-white coloring.  It settles at a comfortable pace, leaving a thin layer of froth behind on the surface, almost compelling a taste.

I was almost tricked by the appearance to dive straight into tasting this brew, but was able to pause long enough to take in the aroma.  The aroma packs a punch, with malty, spicy notes – nutmeg for certain and perhaps some allspice as well – and you can’t forget the mandatory pumpkin (although it is much more subdued than the more-overpowering spices).  The taste is similarly spicy up front, yet sweet and almost savory at the same time – a combination of mostly nutmeg and brown sugar.  A stronger hint of pumpkin comes through toward the finish, which is light on the tongue with a near-perfect length.

The Punkin Ale is a wonderful beer for relaxing, kicking off the fall season, and ending this unexpectedly long hiatus.  Cheers!

Tomorrow we commence the third round of the second tournament of Brewlimination! We began this bracket back in December, and have to this point narrowed the field from the initial 64 contenders down to 16 remaining beers. Over the coming month we will continue to eliminate brews one by one, ultimately arriving at our medalists! We couldn’t have gotten to this point in the bracket without your overwhelming voting and support, so once again thank you all! From looking at the remaining beers on the bracket, your votes will become more important than ever in deciding the upcoming matches.

The Schedule is posted for the third round, and includes a type of “shopping list” to aid you in tasting along with us (with brewery location and beer type, depending on your local beer store’s sorting method).

As an engineer, I’m a huge fan of numbers. So here are a couple quick facts about the upcoming round:

• Tournament 2 initially contained 64 beers from a grand total of 37 different breweries.
• Of the 16 beers remaining, they represent 13 different breweries (The three breweries that still have both initial contenders on the bracket are Stone, Founder’s, and Allagash).
• 11 different styles of beer remain in the tournament.
• 3 styles (IPA, porter, pale ale) comprise 50% of the remaining beers.
• 10 beers call the east coast home, while the remaining 6 represent the west coast.
• 2 former Fermented Four breweries – Troegs and Southern Tier – remain in the competition.
• And finally, for the first time ever, the upcoming round will involve two beers from the same brewery facing off in 1 match (Allagash, on 3/7/2011)

We’ll see you tomorrow to get the round started. Voting for the third round is open on the Current Matches page, so make sure to cast your votes! Vote early, vote often!

Last week we wrapped up the first round of the second bracket, and here we are roughly halfway through the tournament.  The sixty-four initial beers have been trimmed down day-by-day, match-by-match, leaving only thirty-two competitors remaining.    On the eve of the second round, we figured we could take a brief moment to highlight a few key moments from Round 1, as well as to forecast the upcoming second round.  We’ve gone back and looked over the recent results, and spent some time studying the current bracket, so let’s get started!

First and foremost, we have to thank you all for your continuous voting efforts.  Without casting your votes day in and day out, the two of us here would have no way to settle our frequent disagreements on many of these matches.  From looking over the archives, it seems that the vast majority of the first round matches were either heavily one-sided, or literally came down to some last minute votes.  It will be interesting to see how the voting continues to unfold, as the apparent first-round favorites begin getting paired up together.

Each Fermented 4 brewery from the previous bracket managed to send one brew on to the next round – Southern Tier, Smuttynose, Great Divide, and Troegs.  In fact, Smuttynose moved on both of its initial contenders.   The two of us here are looking forward to tomorrow’s match, when two impressive contenders from Troegs and Smuttynose square off to start the round.

Speaking of breweries sending both initial beers on to the second round, seven different breweries managed to accomplish that task: Allagash, Bell’s, Founder’s, Lagunitas, Rogue, Smuttynose, and Stone.  Those fourteen brews represent a significant portion of the remaining bracket.  From looking at the schedule, however, at least six of those fourteen beers will be eliminated by the end of February.  It’ll be interesting to see which breweries and beers repeat their first round performance.  (And don’t forget the shopping list!)

The second round has the makings of a number of very exciting matches.  Stick with us as we narrow the field down even further, from thirty-two to sixteen beers.  And remember, you can vote once per day!  Vote early and vote often, and remember that each match on the Schedule opens for voting exactly one week prior to the match date!  We’ll see you tomorrow when the Nugget Nectar takes on the Shoal’s!  Cheers!

We just wanted to give you a brief update on the Current Matches.  The last Round 1 pairing opened for voting last Friday, and Round 1 only has five matches remaining according to the Schedule!  The two of us here can’t wait to begin Round 2, and since the first Round 2 poll opens for voting on Tuesday, the second round schedule simply had to be posted.   So, here it is:

• The Round 2 Schedule, available as a PDF.
• The Round 2 Shopping List, sorted by match date and available as a PDF.  (Or sorted by division, here)

If you’re a regular follower, you’ll know that the above schedule/shopping list currently has five “TBD”s, which will be filled in as the coming week progresses.  We’ll keep the files themselves updated, and bump this post as necessary.

We’ll see you tomorrow, when the last week of Round 1 kicks off with a pair of “B” breweries. Cheers!  (And yes, next time I will try to use the word “round” even more in one post.)

The highly anticipated arrival of the next bracket here at Brewlimination is finally upon us!   Using your suggestions for beers, breweries, and formatting, we were able to craft a new 64-seed bracket which you can find on the tournament page.   To sum things up, here’s the important info for the second tournament of Brewlimination:

• 64 total beers were selected from 37 total breweries.  Each brewery has either 1 or 2 contenders.
• The beers were split up into 4 logical groupings, as per your recommendations to move to a “dog show” format!
• The Schedule is posted, so check it out and start planning ahead. The first match takes place on December 20th, just in time for any upcoming holiday vacation time!
• You will be able to vote in one of two locations: the sidebar, or the Current Matches page, where you can also find a more detailed explanation of how the voting process works. Voting for the first match will begin on December 13th, in order to give you 7 days to cast your daily vote!  (This was the same time frame we used last tournament, which we will continue to use.)
• We put together a “shopping list” to help in purchasing the beers of this bracket of Brewlimination. Download them (PDF) either sorted in match order (here), or sorted by division (here).  These files will find a permanent home on the schedule and current matches page for future reference.

Finally, we have to extend a huge thanks to all of you for the continued support and suggestions. This new bracket is a direct product of your comments, feedback, and thoughts – so thank you for all of your help!  We tried to accommodate as many suggestions as possible, but ultimately had to compromise along the way based on a variety of factors (limiting to two beers per brewery, narrowing the field to 64 beers, etc).  But, we feel the end product will be an amazing tournament that will showcase some fantastic brews from all across the country.

Stay tuned for updates, including the first poll going live on December 13th!  Vote early, vote often, and let’s continue the quest to find the ultimate beer!

Just a quick heads up that we’re currently in the process of updating and preparing the site for the second tournament here at Brewlimination!  Over the next few days, we’ll be archiving the results from the first tournament, and making way for the new bracket.  Hopefully there won’t be many dead links that pass through unnoticed after the move-around, but let us know if you find any.  We’re trying to keep the disruption as minimal and pain-free as possible!

While you wait for us to get situated, make sure to pass along any recomendations for beers or breweries to consider, and also to let us know your opinion on formatting over on the Current Matches page.   Thanks for all of our input up to this point!

Just a quick heads up that the first of the two Final 4 matches is now open for voting on the Current Matches page.  The first match-up (as determined earlier today) will be between the Southern Tier Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale and the Troegs HopBack Amber Ale.  In keeping with the standard operating procedure around here, the match will be open for voting for 7 days, which means voting will close on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010!  Vote early, vote daily!

While we’re on the topic, since we still have two days of Final 8 competition remaining, the second Final 4 match will be completed on Thursday, October 21st, to once again allow for 7 days of voting time.  We’ll make sure to keep you informed of the current schedule, so stay tuned over the next two days while we figure out the remainder of the Final 4!

Well, over the last two weeks we’ve managed to narrow the field from 16 down to 8, and we couldn’t have done it without your help! The Final 8 (or Round 4 as we’ll use interchangeably) will run from Monday-Thursday of next week (Oct 11-15th).  After that, only the Final 4 remain!  As a result, we’re starting to look ahead to the future of Brewlimination.

We’ve said many times before that we want to hand this entire competition over to you, the readers, and we’ll reiterate that once again. As such, we’re asking for your official recommendations! We want you to not only help decide which beers and breweries to include in the second iteration of Brewlimination, but also how to seed the beers and format the tournament.

Over the past few weeks, we have received a lot of feedback. From mentions of favorite beers or breweries that didn’t make the first bracket, to recommendations of styles that didn’t quite make the cut, you have some great suggestions so keep them coming! It seems that one of the biggest points of debate is over the layout of the current bracket – with beers randomly seeded rather than by style.  When we originally made the first bracket, we intended to use the 4 “divisions” for 4 particular styles, before comparing the division champions in the Final 4 (at least somewhat similar to how a dog show works, I suppose).   But, we chose the current format to not only keep things interesting and fresh, but also to spark debate and conversation (which it most definitely has!).  Where we go from here, though, is up to you.

So, let’s hear what you think! The upcoming conclusion of this first tournament at Brewlimination is only the beginning!

As Round 1 slowly draws to a close, it’s time to begin thinking about Round 2.  The schedule has been updated to help you plan for Round 2.  While there are still a number of beers to be determined, a one-page PDF of the Round 2 schedule can be downloaded here.

Now, time once again for the weekly link-up. Actually, this one is actually a two-fer, as it covers the last two weeks of interesting posts from across the beer universe. As a result, this is a rather lengthy post. In absolutely no order, here they are:

• The Beer Examiner sheds some new light on the famed Beer Can Chicken. Regarding safety, while I likewise would urge against using a beer can itself, I did enjoy a most delicious beer can chicken the other day.
• Jay at the Brookston Beer Bulletin gives us a lot of numbers and analysis about drinking habits and data.  If you love numbers and graphs, check it out.
• He was also discusses Beer Advocates Top 100 Beers on Planet Earth for this year.
• This story over at Beernews.org is indirectly related to Brewlimination.  Independent Brewers United, the parent company of Pyramid and Magic Hat (both with beers in our tournament) was recently acquired by North American Breweries Inc.
• Check out some great photos over at The Hop Press.  Ken Weaver posted some pictures from the road in southern Oregon, from Sierra Nevada to Crater Lake.
• Like Cider?  Never had Cider?  Pete Brown takes a moment to talk about Cider, which I found to be very informative.
• Want some more beer-related numbers?  Shut Up About Barclay Perkins stumbled across data of beer consumption in 1877.  Very interesting indeed.
• Brewpublic sat down with Greg Koch, the co-founder of Stone Brewing Company, for an exclusive interview.  Stone’s IPA was the first beer to advance to Round 2 of our tournament, and their second beer, Levitation Ale, is coming up next week.  See the interview here:  Part 1, and Part 2.
• Is a beer price crisis coming?  Head on over to A Good Beer Blog, where Alan discusses the bad news of an impending Russian crop failure.
• Finally, Appellation Beer talks about the definition of a “nano brewery.”

See you Monday for the continuation of Division 4!

As we mentioned earlier, Division 3 play will kick off on Tuesday of next week.  In order to help out those of you playing along, we’ve gone ahead and put together a “shopping list” for the remainder of Round 1.  There are two PDF options available below:

• Round 1 Shopping List (Sorted by Division/Match)
• Round 1 Shopping List (Sorted by Division/Brewery)

And now, time for some articles from this past week:

• If you’re a fan of statistics like me, you’ll love the article over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin discussing the rise in mid-year craft beer numbers.  In short, the numbers point to more breweries, increased sales, and higher revenues – definitely a great thing if you love craft beer.
• The merger of Kona Brewing with the Craft Brewers Alliance was big news this last week, and somewhat relevant since we just reviewed our first Kona Brew.  To me, the merger seems like a win-win scenario.
• Jeff at Beervana goes into the Kona merger a bit further, with some great discussion of similar craft beer mergers in the past, as well as what the future may potentially hold.
• Mahalia Breen at The Hop Press reminds us of the work necessary to get a beer brewed, bottled and shipped to the store shelves, to which we should all be appreciative.

And with that, I’m off to the mall to take advantage of the sales tax-free weekend.  We’ll see you Monday for the conclusion of Division 2!