Beer Madness

America's Best Beer? 32 Varieties Go Head-to-Head In Our Tournament Challenge

Tonight and tomorrow night, college basketball fans will gather around televisions to find out whether their favorite college basketball team has landed a spot in this year's NCAA tournaments, the one-and-done frenzies that culminate April 2 in Atlanta with the crowning of the men's national champion and April 3 in Cleveland with the women's champ.

In the spirit of this single-elimination madness, we decided to put 32 American beers to a blind taste test in our very own first annual (we hope) Beer Madness tournament. Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch, but we'll use any hook for a beer story.

So a few weeks ago on a cold winter night, five intrepid panelists with beer-tasting credentials ranging from self-described snob to Joe six-pack gathered at the Brickskeller, the high church for Washington beer lovers, and quaffed their way, sip by mostly delicious sip, to a champion.

Let's be clear: This was hardly a scientific test. On any other night, the results might have been different. But then, that's the beauty of a knockout tournament, isn't it? We tried to select a range of beers (19 states are represented) with the qualifier that they be relatively easy to buy in our region. All the beers are of moderate alcohol content. We didn't sample any high-octane styles such as imperial stouts, India pale ales, malt liquors or barley wines.

We toyed with the idea of including 64 beers to parallel the NCAA tournament but didn't want to have to pour our panelists into cabs for a ride home. The result: 32 beers of varying pedigree and style.

The seeding was random (beer names drawn from a mug). For every matchup on the bracket, each of the five tasters was given two small unmarked cups of beer and asked to vote for his or her favorite. The responses were tallied, and the winning beer then advanced to the next round.

This week, we unveil the beers that our panelists voted through to the round of 16. Next week, we'll reveal the final eight. On March 25, we'll narrow it to the final four, and on April 1, we'll let you know the two finalists and -- ta-da! -- which one emerged as our champion brew.