National IPA Championship

I was cruising the web today and found a link for the 5^th annual National IPA Championship.  I guess I missed the past 4 championships because I’ve never heard of this.  Just goes to show you big craft beer is getting with events popping up everywhere.  This one seems to be based out of New York and features a 128-entry field thrown together in a single elimination bracket.  Each round is judged by a panel of 3 judges.  The judges are brewers and they are blind tasting two 3oz samples.  The three brewers pick a winner from the two entries and if there is a discrepancy, majority rules.   I guess this is beer geeks’ way of celebrating the bracket mania of NCAA’s March Madness.   Round one is in the books and the next round is scheduled for February 18^th.

So far in 2012 these brews have made it past round 1:

Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye
Nectar Ales Nectar IPA
Anderson Valley’s Hop Ottin’ IPA
Bell’s Two Hearted Ale
Topeka’s Blind Tiger Top Gun IPA
Stone IPA
Firestone Walker Union Jack
Lagunitas IPA
Ska Modus Hoperandi

Here are the results for some locally available brews from the 2011 championship.  There are 7 rounds total:

Tallgrass Oasis made it to the 3^rd round
Founder’s Red Rye PA made it to the 4^th round
Sweetwater IPA made it to the 4^th round
Topeka’s Blind Tiger Top Gun IPA made it to the 5^th round

Ska Modus Hoperandi made it to the 5^th round