Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pale Ales Great Eight April 27
MAX TOMHAVE: The Great Eight is fully fleshed out: Georgetown Johnny Utah, Holy Mountain Kiln & Cone, E9 Brewing Don of Time, Bale Breaker Field 41, Fort George City of Dreams, pFriem Mosaic Pale, Boneyard Bone-A-Fide and Pelican Paddleback. Eight pale ales that — according to public online voting — are the best pale ales brewed in Washington and Oregon. Hello everyone. I’m Peaks bartender Max Tomhave and it’s all come down to eight.
BRANDON CRESPIN: All the signs in the taprooms, the mass emailings to customers and friends, and the beer phone trees have paid off for these eight Northwest breweries and their pale ales. It’s now hoppy time for the pale ale royalty.
TOMHAVE: On to today’s Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pale Ales Great Eight action after a quick recap of yesterday’s Sweet 16 results.
Wednesday, April 26, Sweet 16 Northwest Pale Ales Games Results
Game 1, Northern Washington
Fremont Sky Kraken (#3 seed) vs. Holy Mountain Kiln & Cone (#2 seed)
CRESPIN: Fronted by an extremely busy street, backed by train tracks, and the path to Holy Mountain Brewing is a pothole hell. It’s not the easiest place to find. But, once inside, you’ll never want to leave, unless you’re a Hee Haw fan. The metal-forward, beer grail consistently brews the best beer in the state, including its rotating hop Kiln & Cone pale ale series. Yesterday, Holy Mountain kilned it with Comet and Mosaic hops pushing Fremont Brewing to the brink of kraken.
TOMHAVE: What?
CRESPIN: Dude, it has been a long three weeks. Holy Mountain grabbed 59 of the vote and a date with Georgetown Brewing’s Johnny Utah in the Great Eight.
Game 2, Southern Washington
E9 Brewing Don of Time (#1 seed) vs. Everybody’s Brewing Mountain Mama (#4 seed)
CRESPIN: The Tournament of Beer Bureau was right. Everybody’s Brewing Mountain Mama was too exhausted from its last-minute win over Silver City Sonic reign Monday. The delicious pale ale from White Salmon, Washington, couldn’t keep up with the one and only Don of Time and his rock star antics. Who does Pete Townsend Windmill strums during a Tournament? Don does and does it well. Don’t worry about Mountain Mama, aka Christine Ellenberger, she’ll will be fine. She’s back to running Everybody’s Brewing with her husband, Doug, in between running the white water rapids. E9 Brewing’s Don of Time grabbed 72 percent of the vote and enters the Great Eight to take on Bale Breaker’s Field 41.
Game 3, Northwest Oregon
Level Pixelated Pale (#6 seed) vs. pFriem Mosaic Pale (#2 seed)
TOMHAVE: pFriem Family Brewers Mosaic Pale hasn’t experienced a close game yet. It’s pFriemed Full Sail’s Cosmic Gorge. It’s pFriemed Ecliptic’s Cloud Core. And it just pFriemed Level’s Pixelated Pale. Level pushed Pixelated hard, tossing in their Game On! IPA periodically (ballsy). Still, pFriem’s Mosaic Pale grabbed 76 percent of the vote and moves into the Great Eight to take on Fort George City of Dreams.
Game 4, Southern Oregon
Boneyard Bone-A-Fide (#1 seed) vs. Block 15 Joy (#4 seed)
CRESPIN: In the closest game of the day, Boneyard Beer‘s Bone-A-Fide beat previous Tournament of Beer Champion Block 15 Brewing and its Joy pale ale. It’s been confirmed that Boneyard Super Fan Ben Chase, manager at Rainier Growlers on South Hill Puyallup, did not stand on busy Meridian Street with a megaphone singing AC/DC’s “Giving The Block A Bone,” but it wouldn’t surprise us. With 53 percent of the vote, Bone-A-Fide slides into the Great Eight to play previous Tournament of Beer Champion Pelican Brewing and its Paddleback Pale.
CRESPIN: Let’s weed through the hops. The following are advancing to the Great Eight:
Holy Mountain Kiln & Cone
E9 Brewing Don of Time
pFriem Mosaic Pale
Boneyard Bone-A-Fide
TOMHAVE: Alright Brandon, it’s time to launch the Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pale Ales Great Eight with all four games hitting the planks today. Please vote for one beer per game on Peaks & Pints’ Instagram Stories. Voting for today’s battles ends at midnight. We’ll announce the winners tomorrow morning around 10 a.m., but today’s games are live on Peaks & Pints’ Instagram Stories.
Thursday, April 27, Great Eight Northwest Pale Ale Games
Game 1, Northern Washington
Georgetown Johnny Utah (#1 seed) vs. Holy Mountain Kiln & Cone (#2 seed)
CRESPIN: I mean, how do you describe this game? Both breweries are well loved, so rallying support won’t be an issue. The real question is: Will Johnny Utah be intimated by Kiln & Cone’s mystical can art and sludge metal soundtrack, or will the Georgetown Brewing’s parachute optional, adrenaline pumping pale ale force the Holy Mountain Brewing pale ale to hide behind a mask and flee to Australia? Vote now, then keep an eye on Netflix for a possible movie filmed around this game.
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Game 2, Southern Washington
E9 Brewing Don of Time (#1 seed) vs. Bale Breaker Field 41 (#2 seed)
CRESPIN: A Tacoma powerhouse, and rightful number one seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pale Ales’ Southern Washington region, E9 Brewing’s Don of Time was expected by most professional pales prognosticators (say that three times fast) to cruise to the Championship Game on the back of its brewery’s longtime history in Tacoma, the reputation of its head brewer Shane Johns, its Tournament of Beer Northwest Lagers Championship Trophy, and its namesake’s awesomeness. However, it would also be foolish to count out a Yakima powerhouse, and number two seed Bale Breaker Brewing Field 41 with its long history of hop farming lineage, it’s located in the middle of Field 41 hop field, the fact it’s made with homegrown ingredients, and the reputation of the family brewery and hop farm ownership of great, great adult children Meghann Quinn, Kevin “Smitty” Smith, Patrick Smith, and Kevin Quinn. Tacoma versus Yakima Valley is at the core of this game because everyone else cherishes both pales.
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Game 3, Northern Oregon
Fort George City of Dreams (#1 seed) vs. pFriem Mosaic Pale (#2 seed)
TOMHAVE: Fort George Brewery’s City of Dreams and pFriem Family Brewers‘ Mosaic Pale are the number one and number two vote getters in the Tournament of Beer Northwest Pale Ales. They consistently wiped out their competitors. Together, their vote tally is greater than the population of half the towns in the South Sound. The thing is these two pale ales are truly spectacular. Both pales pile on the hops. City of Dreams with its tropical and citrus notes is as hoppy as an IPA, with the 5.5 percent ABV of a pale ale. Mosaic pale is a strong pale with notes of mango, pine and a slight tinge of blueberry plus an assertive but soft finish. This game will blow up phones.
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Game 4, Southern Oregon
Boneyard Bone-A-Fide (#1 seed) vs Pelican Paddleback Pale (#6 seed)
CRESPIN: Whoa Nelly! Look at this matchup. Hello Felix and Oscar. Hello Tango and Cash. Hello Donaghy and Lemon. In 2010, Boneyard Beer was created in an old auto shop tucked away in the backstreets of Bend, Oregon’s historical district, where it likes its beers hoppy and music loud. In 1996, Pelican Brewing Company was born at the beach, where it likes its beers outdoors and music from a seashell. Bone-A-Fide is a solid number one seed, but don’t count out Pelican’s Tournament experience and 300-plus beer awards.
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LINK: Tournament of Beers: Northwest Pale Ales explained
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LINK: Tournament of Beer archives
