Peaks & Pints 2025 Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs April 14

‘For the past week, Peaks & Pints presented you with a compelling question: Who brews the best Northwest-style IPA in Oregon and Washington? And you have responded in multitudes. Sick days have been used. Friendships have fallen apart. Maltsters and hop growers living together — mass hysteria!

The Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs hosts competitions Monday through Friday up to the championship game Saturday, April 26, live at Peaks & Pints bottle shop, taproom, and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District. Without further ado, let’s take a gander at today’s games. Eight new Northwest-style IPAs go at it. It’s in your hands, mouth, and stomach, folks. Do us proud.

OK, wipe the foam off your upper lip and dive into today’s Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs First Round battles. Vote for one Northwest-style IPA per game on our Instagram Stories. Voting for today’s Northwest IPA battles ends at midnight.

Monday, April 14, First Round Northwest IPA Games

GAME 1, SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON REGION

Player: Octo IPA (#5 seed)

Team: Narrows Brewing, Tacoma

Player Stats: On July 12, 2013, Scott Wagner, Gordon Rush, Matt Smith, Thair Jorgenson, Chris DeWald, and others opened the 15-barrel Narrows Brewing perched on pilings above the Narrows waterway. As guests gazed at the 700 feet of guest docking below and beyond the Narrows bridge, Joe Walts, former quality control manager at Ale Asylum Brewing in Madison, Wisconsin, brewed in the back. After a few years, Walts returned to Ale Asylum, and former Harmon head brewer Mike Davis took over the head brewing position. Davis eventually returned to his beloved Hawaiian Islands with Matt Rhodes — formerly with Stone Distributing and King Harbor Brewing out of Redondo Beach, California —letting his freak flag fly, injecting new recipes into the brewery, especially hazy IPAs and crazy delicious imperial stouts. After Rhodes moved on to Fort George Brewery in Astoria, Parker Rush grabbed the brewing reins and the entire brewery as the new owner in November 2020. After graduating from the UC Davis Master Brewers Program, Parker cut his teeth brewing at Lowercase Brewing in Seattle before fulfilling his lifelong dream to own a brewery. Brewer Zach Dowling has been with Narrows since the doors opened. Rush brightens up the Northwest-style Octo IPA with tropical and citrus notes.

ABV: 6% Hops: Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Strata

Player: Prying Irons (#12 seed)

Team: Top Rung Brewing, Lacey

Player Stats: Top Rung Brewing opened in April 2014 with award-winning homebrew recipes and two owners with full-time jobs. Thurston County firefighters Casey Sobol and Jason Stoltz put Lacey on the craft beer map with solid craft beers and a solid business sense. Top Rung Brewing has moved higher and higher up the ladder: Its beers can now be found on draft and in bottles throughout Western Washington. Former head brewers Stoltz and Tyler Mathis have moved on, with Tim Miller now leading the brew team. Seasonal Prying Irons isn’t currently on tap, but it’ll return with an easy bitterness and flavor of grapefruit and citrus.

ABV: 6.7% Hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial

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GAME 2, SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON REGION

Player: Shadow Shinobi IPA (#4 seed)

Team: Loowit Brewing, Vancouver

Player Stats: Thirteen years ago, longtime friends Devon Bray and Thomas Poffenroth opened Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver, Washington, helping revive the city and quickly becoming a force in the Southwest Washington beer scene. Loowit Head Brewer Landon Smith joined the ownership team during the pandemic and continues his tradition of brewing excellence. It should be noted that Loowit loves the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, has an experimental Player’s Handbook IPA series inspired by D&D, and brewed Peaks & Pints 2024-25 house beer, Silent Trees IPA. Shadow Shinobi IPA, the skilled, shadowy master of IPAs, will take you by surprise yet honorably leave your palate intact. Aggressive late-hop additions tempered with a stealthy, fleeting bitterness make Shadow Shinobi a formidable and respectable beer.

ABV: 7.2% Hops: Cascade, Crystal, Mt. Hood, Nugget

Player: Optimus Pine IPA (#13 seed)

Team: Odd Otter Brewing, Tacoma

Player Stats: Five owners — three with ties to the military, two accomplished homebrewers — opened Odd Otter Brewing in downtown Tacoma during the summer of 2014 in a downtown Tacoma building built in the late 1880s, and later became the home of a Sailors and Soldiers Club during World War I and a USO Center in World War II. Odd Otter is the talk of the town for not only their fun, otterly unique taproom events but also for head brewer Shelby Bible’s latest brews. Then, with just days left in 2023, Odd Otter announced it would close its doors after New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, Gary Wescott and his son, Nathan Wescott, announced they were the new owners, with the Bible remaining as the head brewer. Optimus Pine Northwest-style IPA offers vibrant hints of pine resin and zesty Cara Cara orange, complemented by a pleasing bitterness. Subtle notes of stone fruit also mingle with the essence of grapefruit pith.

ABV: 7.4% Hops: NA

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GAME 3, NORTHERN OREGON REGION

Player: India Pale Ale (#7 seed)

Team: Buoy Beer, Astoria

Player Stats: Astoria, Oregon, is a small coastal town at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. At the river’s edge of this town was Buoy Beer Company, a brewery and restaurant on the Columbia River with a sweeping view of passing ships, shimmering waters, and, in the distance, the Pacific Ocean.  On June 14, 2022, part of a building on the brewery’s campus collapsed into the river after the pilings underneath gave way. In September 2021, Buoy moved brewing operations into the Astor Street building across the Riverwalk. Buoy found a temporary taproom home in the Astoria Food Hub, just a few blocks away. It didn’t pencil out. Buoy moved their taproom to the former Reach Break Brewing location on Duane Street. Buoy IPA, the epitome of a balanced IPA, is lovingly dry hopped with Meridian and Crystal hops, spiking this harmonious ale with pine and fruity flavors.

ABV: 7.5% Hops: Meridian, Crystal

Player: Northwest IPA (#10 seed)

Team: Steeplejack Brewing, Portland

Player Stats: In 2019, Brody Day and Dustin Harder converted a 1909 church on the corner of Northwest Broadway and 24^th Street in Portland into Steeplejack Brewing, a brewery, taproom, and restaurant that still looks like a church — a very cool church. The building’s stained-glass windows loom above the brewery’s tanks and bar, and pews serve as banquettes for the wooden tables at the center of the space. The women-led brewing team mainly brews at a 30-barrel production brewery in Hillsboro. This no-nonsense, Northwest-style IPA  is brewed with Citra, Simcoe, and El Dorado for lightly bready caramel malt, orange peel, and a touch of grapefruit.

ABV: 6.6% Hops: Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic, El Dorado

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GAME 4, NORTHERN OREGON REGION

Player: India Pale Ale (#2 seed)

Team: Breakside Brewery, Portland

Player Stats: In 2010 — with his Siebel Institute education, training in Germany and Belgium, and degree from Yale tucked under his arm — Ben Edmunds opened Breakside Brewery in the quiet Woodlawn neighborhood of Northeast Portland as a restaurant and nano-sized brewery. With two separate ancillary breweries and six taprooms, Breakside continues showing off its diverse lineup and ability to brew a wide range of beers from all three locations. Breakside’s most popular offering is this beautifully clear India Pale Ale, featuring the unique character of Citra and Chinook hops. This light copper beer has huge citrus and tropical fruit aromas, with hints of perfume and pine. Flavors like apricot, guava, and orange hit the tongue, accompanied by a mild evergreen note. There’s just enough caramel sweetness to balance the hop flavors.

ABV: 6.7% Hops: Chinook, Citra, Columbus, Falconer’s Flight

Player: NW IPA (#15 seed)

Team: Old Town Brewing, Portland

Player Stats: Adam Milne loved Old Town Pizza in Portland as a child. He loved the garlicky, pizzeria-style pies. He adored the ghosts that haunted it. Twenty-two years ago, he purchased the downtown pizzeria from the Accuardi family. Five years later, Milne built a second location in the Northeast district of Portland, in his own King neighborhood, which would soon become a massive Valhalla-esque brewpub, Old Town Brewing. Since then, Milne has slowly but steadily started churning out award-winning beers under the guidance of head brewer Todd Britt. Old Town’s NW IPA is crafted with Pacific Northwest hops for orange, grapefruit, tropical fruits, and pine notes.

ABV: 6.8% Hops: Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo

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Tuesday, April 15 Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs First Round action …

Game 1: Stoup Brewing Citra IPA (#6 seed) vs. No-Li Brewhouse Born & Raised (#11 seed)

Game 2: Old Stove Brewing Two-Pronged Crown (#3 seed) vs. Old Schoolhouse Brewery Allgood IPA (#14 seed)

Game 3: Boneyard Beer RPM (#1 seed) vs. Oblivion Brewing Backside (#16 seed)

Game 4: Hop Valley Brewing Alphadelic (#8 seed) vs. Rogue Ales Pacific Northwest (#9 seed)

LINK: Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs explained

LINK: Tournament of Beer Headquarters

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