Peaks & Pints 2025 Tournament of Beer Northwest IPAs April 8

If the Pacific Northwest had a signature craft beer, what would it be? We’re going with a Northwest-style IPA. If you drink beer, you’ve probably had one. Peaks & Pints defines Northwest IPA as a subset of the West Coast IPA; most importantly, it is brewed in the Pacific Northwest — specifically Washington and Oregon for this tournament — with more malt than West Coast IPAs but still crafted as a tribute to the region’s majestic evergreen forests. Second, the style highlights the unique hop varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest, including Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, CTZ, Nugget, Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra, to name a few. While there are many interpretations of the aroma and flavor notes, for the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs, the nominated IPAs should be a clean, single IPA offering significant pine, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors with a beautifully clear, light copper color and plenty of caramel sweetness to balance the hop flavors.

Welcome to day three of the Tournament of Beer, featuring 64 Northwest-style IPAs brewed in Oregon and Washington competing in the mother of all IPA brackets. Below is a recap of yesterday’s IPA action, followed by eight new Northwest IPAs hitting the court today.

Monday, April 7, First Round Northwest IPA Games results

GAME 1, SOUTHERN WASHINGTON REGION

Heathen Brewing Transcend IPA (#6 seed) vs. 54-40 Brewing 2 Stroked IPA (#11 seed)

The median age in Washougal is 1.3 years older than in Vancouver. Washougal housing costs are 19.5 percent more expensive than Vancouver housing costs. The average commute for residents of Washougal is 3.6 minutes longer than for Vancouver residents. Heathen Brewing in Vancouver beat 54-40 Brewing in Washougal by 73 percent of the vote. It’s like Washougal lost its ougal. The Heathen Transcend advances into the Second Round.

GAME 2, SOUTHERN WASHINGTON REGION

Wet Coast Brewing Moving Day IPA (#3 seed) vs. Barrel Mountain Brewing No Bad Days IPA (#14 seed)

Despite a late push from Barrel Mountain’s No Bad Days IPA, the Battle Ground brewery, with a Vancouver beer and pizza joint, had a bad day.  Wet Coast Brewing and its large, devoted beer geek following proved too influential in yesterday’s action, catapulting into the Second Round with 66 percent of the votes. You can’t question Wet Coast’s following; sometimes a following is just what it takes in the Tournament of Beer

GAME 3, NORTHERN OREGON REGION

Migration Brewing Straight Outta Portland IPA (#5 seed) vs. Grand Fir Brewing Slug Life IPA (#12 seed)

Everyone loves a good comeback, and this may have been one of the better clutch performances in the (obviously short) history of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs. Down by a substantial margin by midday, Grand Fir Brewing Slug Life IPA turned into a speedy Slug, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, the brewery owned by Whitney Burnside and Doug Adams had almost pulled it off. Tournament of Beer analysts claim that fifth-seed Migration Brewing’s pop-up taproom at the largest pickleball courts in Troutdale probably sealed the victory. Those same analysts also were drinking Straight Outta Portland when they commented. Straight Outta Portland moves into the Second Round with 51 percent of the vote.

GAME 4, NORTHERN OREGON REGION

Game 4: Double Mountain Brewery Hop Lava IPA (#4 seed) vs. Lucky Labrador Brewing Super Dog (#13 seed)

Double Mountain is the rare brewery that will please all palates, from casual patio sippers to music fans raising pints high to obsessive beer geeks. And its 77 percent margin of victory over popular Lucky Labrador Super Dog proved it. The number four seeded Hop Lava has its sights on slowly but steadily flowing toward the April 26 championship and a two-season permanent handle at Peaks and Pints, and their competition needs to bring it to stop this big, glowing, robust IPA packed with copious amounts of Northwest hops.

The following are advancing to the Second Round:

Heathen Brewing Transcend IPA

Wet Coast Brewing Moving Day IPA

Migration Brewing Straight Outta Portland

Double Mountain Brewery Hop Lava IPA

Pour a pint and dive into today’s Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs First Round battles. Vote for one IPA per game on our Instagram Stories. Voting for today’s Northwest IPA battles ends at midnight.

Tuesday, April 8, First Round Northwest IPA Games

GAME 1, SOUTHERN WASHINGTON REGION

Player: Illuminated NW IPA (#7 seed)

Team: Everybody’s Brewing, White Salmon

Player Stats: Christine and Doug Ellenberger opened Everybody’s Brewing in 2008 after years of planning the craft brewery while working their shifts at Full Sail Brewing Company directly across the Columbia River. Doug’s 20-plus years of brewing and Christine’s years in the restaurant industry melded into a popular brewpub with a killer view of Mt. Hood. In 2018, the brewery relocated to a new building a few doors east on White Salmon’s main drag. Everybody’s has grown from a small-town pub to a Columbia River Gorge restaurant and brewing industry leader. Illuminated is a true Northwest-style IPA generously hopped for an herbal hop nose, followed by pine and hint of citrus with a generous dose of malts

ABV: 6.5%, Hops: Northwest hops

Player: Imitator NW IPA (#10 seed)

Team: Victor 23 Brewing, Vancouver

Player Stats: On a stormy evening in November 1971, a man known as D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 flying from Portland to Seattle. In Seattle, D.B. released all the passengers once the plane was refueled, and he was given two parachutes and $200,000 in cash. The plane soon departed, and the pilot was directed to fly south on the Victor-23 airway. Somewhere in Southwest Washington, Cooper lowered the rear stairway and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Victor 23 Brewing celebrates this unsolved crime daily from their brewery on St. Johns Street in Vancouver. Its three-time Washington Beer Awards gold medal-winning Northwest IPA offers grapefruit, lime, orange, and pineapple aromas. It finishes with a slight bite and piney undertones.

ABV: 7.1%, Hops: Northwest hops

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GAME 2, SOUTHERN WASHINGTON REGION

Player: Realize Real Lies (#2 seed)

Team: E9 Brewing, Tacoma

Player Stats: In the early ’90s, Dusty Trail converted the historic Engine House No. 9 bar into a brewpub at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pine Street, officially becoming the first microbrewery in Tacoma. Dick Dickens grabbed the Engine House reins in 2002, bringing in head brewer Doug Tiede. Heads turned, and medals were hung. In 2011, The X Group added the Engine House to their local restaurant empire, with Shane Johns and Donovan Stewart running the kettles and hanging even more medals, primarily for their sours and saisons. In May 2019, they separated the brewery from the restaurant and opened a 15-barrel brewhouse in Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District. Since then, they have cranked out an endless supply of new, delicious IPAs, including Realize Real Lies IPA with late additions of Columbus and Citra, and finishes with double dry hopping of Columbus, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops for dank green notes of blueberry, mango, grapefruit, pine, and Apricot.

ABV: 6.5%, Hops: Columbus, Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe

Player: Walking Man IPA (#15 seed)

Team: Walking Man Brewing, Stevenson

Player Stats: For the uninitiated, Skamania County means terry cloth robes and river views at Skamania Lodge. For those with a little larger liver, Skamania County means Walking Man Brewing. The 26-year-old brewery that once was a chill, below-street-level hangout is now built on a foundation of trophies, including a gold medal at the 2006 World Beer Cup. Those interested in the Tournament of Beer swear by its IPA, one of the more malty ones in Cascadia.

ABV: 7.2%, Hops: Columbus, Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe

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GAME 3, SOUTHERN WASHINGTON REGION

Player: Vortex IPA (#1 seed)

Team: Fort George Brewery, Astoria

Player Stats: In 2006, Chris Nemlowill and Jack Harris flew to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to salvage an 8.5-barrel Saaz brewing system and drive it across the country to install it in their soon-to-open Fort George Brewery in Astoria. While traveling with the equipment strapped to a flatbed, they met up with a tornado that nearly spread the brewery across a Nebraska cornfield. This became the inspiration behind the name Vortex IPA. With a hearty unfiltered, unpasteurized organic malt spine that makes way for Simcoe, Apollo, Comet, and Chinook hops, this Northwest IPA has a medium body with a resinous mouthfeel, more grapefruit than pine, and finishes with lingering hop bitterness.

ABV: 7.2%, Hops: Apollo, Cascade, Mosaic, Simcoe

Player: 33rd State IPA (#16 seed)

Team: McMenamins, Pacific Northwest

Player Stats: In 1983, down in Portland, unemployed Mike McMenamin bought the former Fat Little Rooster tavern and renamed it the Barley Mill. His brother, Brian, soon joined in, and today, they own a McMenamin of 60-plus pubs, taverns, clubs, hotels, dance halls, and a village called Edgefield. The McMenamins have the golden touch — to convert desuetude into quirky, funky, artful joints to gather and drink where there’s never a white wall, and even the exposed pipework is decorated with tiny goblin faces. Their 33rd State IPA is the first-ever company-wide spring seasonal IPA. A light straw color makes way for grapefruit, mixed berries, and fresh pine aromas thanks to a thorough dry hopping. A medium body welcomes a bready sweetness and citrus and tropical fruit flavors. This Northwest-style IPA finishes crisp, with an adequate bitterness.

ABV: 6.97%, Hops: Chinook, Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra

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GAME 4, NORTHERN OREGON REGION

Player: Game On! (#8 seed)

Team: Level Beer, Portland

Player Stats: In 2016, former Deschutes brewer and Ex Novo head brewer Jason Barbee, former Deschutes brewer and Laurelwood brewmaster Shane Watterson, and former Baily’s Taproom founder Geoff Phillips opened Level Beer in Portland’s industrial Argay neighborhood. With three Portland locations covered in 1980s video game branding motif, Level offers generally lower-alcohol beers, many in English styles, and a Northwest-style IPA, Game On! It’s light body with a mild maltiness, big juicy hop aroma, lots of hoppy citrus and pine flavor balanced by a moderate bitterness.

ABV: 6.5%, Hops: NA

Player: Pallet Jack (#9 seed)

Team: Barley Brown’s Beer, Baker City

Player Stats: Barley Brown’s founder, Tyler Brown, then 7, and his family loaded their Volkswagen van and left Connecticut for Seattle. It broke down in Baker City. They stayed and opened a bakery. Then, 24 years later, Tyler opened the brewery. Step inside the Western-ish motif taproom and gaze at their wall of medals. They’re a medal-winning machine, including five medals and small brewery of the year at the Great American Beer Festival. Barley Brown’s multiple GABF medalist and 2013 National IPA Champion Pallet Jack is a Northwest-Style IPA with citrus, tropical fruit, and pine notes balanced by a sturdy malt bill.

ABV: 7%, Hops: Columbus, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe

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Wednesday, April 9 Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs action

Game 1: Wander Brewing Shoe Toss (#5 seed) vs Ghostfish Brewing Kick Step (#12 seed)

Game 2: Icicle Brewing Bootjack (#4 seed) vs Boundary Bay Brewery Inside Passage (#13 seed)

Game 3: Worthy Brewing NW IPA (#6 seed) vs Van Henion Brewing India Pale Ale (#11 seed)

Game 4: Oakshire Brewing Watershed IPA (#3 seed) vs Santiam Brewing Ecotopia (#14 seed)

LINK: Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs explained

LINK: Tournament of Beer Headquarters

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