The Last Beer Standing Is……
And So It’s Completed…
And with that, we have our first (hopefully annual) battle of the beer champion. This was a month long, knock out, drag out fight. With the finals seeing a David vs. Goliath battle. A small time, one year old brewery with their plucky upstart ‘Walking on Clouds’ taking on an internet darling, a colossal brewery, a behemoth, a tyrannical monster…. Pseudo Sue.
Who walked away the victor?
…..Not yet…. (unless you just scroll down to see.)
First Things First
Let’s take a look back at how we got here:
The Competitors
Who all was involved in this tournament (if you are just tuning in – or want a recap):
Below is a straight list of the 32 breweries with their flagship beers, with their Untappd rating, and the order they are ranked in the tournament:
- The Alchemist – Headdy Topper (4.54)
- Tree House – Green (4.43)
- Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Sip of Sunshine (4.33)
- Toppling Goliath – Pseudo Sue (4.13)
- New Holland – Dragon’s Milk (4.06)
- Dewey Beer – Swishy Pants (4.05)
- Omnegang – Three Philosophers (3.95)
- Bell’s Brewery – Two Hearted Ale (3.95)
- Von C Brewing – Walking on Clouds (3.94)
- Cigar City – Jai Alai (3.93)
- Rubber Soul – Dropout (3.92)
- Pizza Boy – Murren River (3.91)
- Deschutes – Fresh Squeezed (3.91)
- Rotunda Brewing – Annville IPA (3.9)
- Hemauer Brewing – Lucky Lobster (3.89)
- Dogfish Head – 60 Minute (3.85)
- Boneshire Brew Works – Green Machine (3.8)
- Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – Perpetual IPA (3.8)
- RAR Brewing – Nanticoke Nectar (3.8)
- Bunnyman Brewing – Pink Nightmare (3.78)
- Victory – Golden Monkey (3.75)
- Laguinitas – IPA (3.72)
- Tattered Flag – TMI PA (3.71)
- Rogue – Dead Guy Ale (3.71)
- Founder’s – All Day IPA (3.7)
- Zero-Day Brewing – Mango Habanero (3.69)
- Snitz Creek Brewery – Blueberry Cream Ale (3.68)
- Sierra Nevada – Pale Ale (3.63)
- Moo – Duck Brewery – Hoppy Toad IPA (3.58)
- New Belgium – Fat Tire (3.58)
- Yuengling – Lager (3.49)
- Newcastle – Brown Ale (3.39)
The Selection Process
The selection process was mostly arbitrary (welcome to the world of The Beer Thrillers). Generally, there were a few simple rules I followed:
- It had to be a beer I’ve had before
- It had to have at least a 3 star rating on Untappd
- I tried to pick some well known – nation wide distributed beers, some local breweries (local to us here at The Beer Thrillers), and a few “high end” / “high quality” / “top of the line” brewery flagships.
This is clearly not a list of beers based on any kind of science. This is purely meant for fun and just to have a good time. Please leave all feelings and egos at the door.
Final Two Competitors
The final two competitors saw Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue take on Von C Brewing’s Walking on Clouds. This was certainly an epic show down, especially going into the last day where it became an all out brawl, with the full followship of both breweries getting involved. The votes and the stats jumped yesterday, going into the late evening hours until midnight (EST) when the voting ended.
Let’s take a closer look at both:
Toppling Goliath – Pseudo Sue
Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue entered the tournament ranked #4 out of 32 with an overall (at the day of the tournament’s start) Untappd rating of 4.13.
Pseudo Sue:
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 45
Untappd Description: This Citra hop pale ale is delicate in body with a mild bitterness in the finish. Ferocious hop aromas of citrus and mango give a refreshing taste that is bright with just enough bite!
Current Untappd Ranking (7.29.22): 4.13
Total Ratings: 206,890
Toppling Goliath:
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company is a regional brewery from Decorah Iowa. They have 109 unique beers (according to Untappd) with a global average rating of 4.15 (as of 7.29.22). They have over 1 million ratings. Their Untappd description reads: Named 2021 US Beer Open Grand National Champions. Founded in 2009 in beautiful Decorah, Iowa. World-renown for IPAs and barrel-aged stouts, distributing to over 30 states and brewing more than 35 beers. TG prides it’s-self in crafting truly top-shelf beer and is honored to be growing with the support of its many customers worldwide.
Von C Brewing – Walking on Clouds
Von C Brewing’s Walking on Clouds entered the tournament ranked #9 out of 32 with an overall (at the day of the tournament’s start) Untappd rating of 3.94.
Walking on Clouds:
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
ABV: 7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: A juicy Hazy NEIPA bursting with a mosaic of flavors including peach, passionfruit and citrus, with a wonderful mango finish.
Current Untappd Rating (as of 7.29.22): 3.94
Total Ratings: 1,708
Von C Brewing
Von C Brewing is a micro brewery from Norristown, Pennsylvania. They have 44 unique beers (according to Untappd) and have a global average rating of 3.79 (as of 7.29.22). Their Untappd description reads: Von C Brewing Co. is a 20 barrel 16,000 sq’ microbrewery with a 2,500 sq’ tasting room including a spacious outside beer garden in beautiful Norristown, PA, the heart of Montgomery County.
Past Battle of the Beers Articles
How did we get to the Finals:
- The Battle of the Beers (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 32 (Voting) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 32 (Results – Recap) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 16 (Voting) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 16 (Results – Recap) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 8 (Voting) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 8 (Results) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 4 (Voting) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – Round of 4 (Results) (2022)
- The Battle of the Beers – The Finals (Voting) (2022)
Ok… Enough Already
Ok, let’s get to it…. start the drum roll…. let’s announce our First Annual Battle of the Beers Champion!
The 2022 Battle of the Beers Inaugural Champion Is…..
Coming in with a whopping 810 votes to be the first Battle of the Beers champion is….. Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue!
They were the number 4 seed (out of 32) coming into the matchup. They defeated Von C Brewing’s Walking on Clouds 810 to 642.
It was an amazing battle by both breweries and frankly they both deserve to win. Both are fantastic amazing beers. It was a strong, hard fought battle, and the competition was great, the breweries were great, and everyone following along was great!
Wrap It Up
Let’s wrap this up.
This article would have been up sooner, but I donated blood today at 7:30AM and had errands to run. Amy and I are doing a three day trip of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Canton, so packing and getting things ready has been a priority as well.
I fully intend to do a bigger article discussing the full tournament and Pseudo Sue’s big win. We’ll crunch the numbers and run the stories and give everyone a big write up on it.
But firstly, let me just say thank you to everyone involved and who voted. A big round of applause for the breweries and the beers, especially the winner – Pseudo Sue – as well as the runner up – Walking on Clouds. Both are amazing beers, try your damnedest to get out there and try them. You won’t be disappointed with either – nor will you be with either brewery.
Thank You For Reading
As I said, Amy and I are going on a three – day trip today. I will have an article up shortly discussing the full itinerary and what all we are gonna do. But its going to be a great fun trip! (We’ll be in Pittsburgh, Canton for the NFL Football Hall of Fame, Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a Guardians – Astros game). And then we’ll be popping in Pittsburgh again on the way back through. So don’t worry – there will be plenty of great breweries that we will be hitting up, I can promise you all that!
Thanks for reading! Sorry this was a bit late, and a quicker read, this morning has been kicking my ass, between trying to get ready, donating blood, only getting three hours of sleep, mowing, and a slew of other activities (like my daughter Mara getting her back to school stuff), etc.
Thanks For reading!
Cheers All!
-B. Kline
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