The Battle of the Breweries (2024)
The Battle of the Breweries (2024)
The Battle of the Breweries
Its time for our annual Battle of the Breweries to commence. We started doing this tournament back in 2021, continued it in 2022, and 2023, and now in 2024 we are once again hosting “The Battle of the Breweries”. Each year we have done things a bit differently. We started off small in 2021, ramped up the numbers in 2022, and in 2023 we had the opening stage being a “Group Stage” similar to the World Cup. For 2024 we are going to host a fatal four-way “win and your in” preliminary qualifier.
For previous articles, click here:
- The Battle of the Breweries – 2021
- The Battle of the Breweries – 2022
- The Battle of the Breweries – 2023
What Breweries Will be in the Tournament?
The only qualifying rule for a brewery to be in the tournament is it has to be a brewery that we – The Beer Thrillers – have visited and had a beer in. Thats it. Out of all of the breweries that we have visited, we will winnow the list down to four conferences of 32 each (so 128 total breweries). Here’s this year’s catch though – the final spot (the winner of the preliminary fatal four-ways) will be a brewery that we have not visited. So 31 breweries from each conference will be a brewery that we have visited, and the final spot in each conference will go to a brewery that we are planning on visiting in 2024 or at worst 2025 (time dependent).
So we take a look at all of the breweries we’ve visited, and we winnow that list down to 124 breweries that we have visited. And then we picked 16 breweries that we are hoping to visit this year or at worst next year, and thus your tournament is born for 2024!
Past Champions
In 2021 we had 48 breweries compete to determine our first inaugural champion. Instead of doing a 64 competitor tournament or 32, we decided to do a crazy thing like pick 48, which resulted in a Triple Threat to determine the winner.
The initial tournament finals consisted of The Isle of Que Brewing vs. Rubber Soul Brewing Company vs. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company.
The Isle of Que Brewing emerged victorious.
In our second tournament, we decided we would raise the stakes a bit. Instead of going from 48 to 64 – which would be the logical conclusion – we decided instead to go all the way to 128 competitors. Four conferences of 32 breweries each divided into divisions of 16 (two divisions per conference). Its like I thought we were the NFL or MLB or something.
At the very end we had the four conferences face off in a fatal four – way match up, that saw Von C Brewing vs. Bunnyman Brewing Company vs. Axemann Brewery.
Von C Brewing company emerged victorious from the fatal four – way with barely scraping by Bunnyman Brewing Company in a very close and hard fought battle. (Both breweries amassed over 3,000 votes!)
You can read about the winners here:
- The Battle of the Breweries (2021) Winner Is….
- The Battle of the Breweries (2022) Winner Is…..
- The Battle of the Breweries (2022) – Full Recap
- The Battle of the Breweries (2023) Winner Is…..
In 2023, Allusion Brewing Company won the tournament. We even had an appreciation party at their brewery later in the year – Allusion Appreciation Party.
Champion Banners
So who will win 2024 and get to hoist their banner up alongside these breweries? Vote and find out!
Preliminary Round
The Preliminary Round will start Monday – February 26th, at 8:00 AM EST. Voting will run until Thursday – February 29th, ending at 11:59:59PM EST. (All times are always EST.) The winners will then be inserted into the conference brackets as #32 for each conference.
The sixteen teams that will compete in fatal four-ways for each conference are:
- Pilger Ruh Brewing
- Second Sin Brewing
- Vortex Brewing
- Bierhaus Brew Hall
- BruDaddy Brewing
- Gift Horse Brewing
- Wallenpaupack Brewing
- Rising River Brewing
- Retriever Brewery
- Stone Silo Brewing Company
- RAK Brewing
- Lost Tavern Brewing
- Sunset Hill Brewery
- Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company
- Great Barn Brewhouse
- Brew Gentlemen
Note, this is not the order of the fatal fourways. I will post that on Monday (February 26th) morning.
The Rules
There’s gotta be some kind of rules to this madness right? This madness of March (and well, this year the end of February as well… and yes… also a bit of April as the tournament goes into that month as well). So… what are the rules involved?
To pull straight from the initial March Madness / Battle of the Breweries post:
So how’s this going to work? Who all is invited? What all breweries are going to be in it? How many breweries? How’s voting going to work? Who decides whose in and whose out? Whats the seeding? Why is Rick such a jerk to Morty? Why is Jurassic Bark the saddest episode of Futurama ever? Why is it also B. Kline’s favorite episode? What does that say about him? Why is the sky blue?
Ok…. enough with the questions!
March Madness (2021) – The Battle of the Breweries (2021)
Breweries are selected from breweries that have been visited by B. Kline, A. Wolfe, Scarlet, Leela, J. Doncevic, and/or Paul Kan.
Voting
Each day you will be able to come to the site to make your votes in the polls. It will be set-up by IPS, so it limits you to voting just once per day per vote. You can vote as many times as you want per round, but only once per day.
Rounds will be last one week (ending on Sunday nights at 11:59:59 PM EST) and the new week of voting starting up the next day (Monday) when I get the articles posted (usually around 8:30 – 9:30 AM EST).
Voting will typically be a week long, but the scheduling might be a bit in-flux, stay tuned to the follow up Preliminary Qualifiers post, which will spell out the scheduling a bit better. I prefer to have the rounds last Monday – Sunday for ease. The opening qualifiers will end on a Thursday, and the tournament will start on a Friday. So most likely the opening round will just have a few extra days of voting.
The Tournament
Each round is single elimination. The articles will go up Monday morning for each conference (named after a hop variety), and you will go through the rounds voting for all of the different conferences. Each conference will have its own article each week, and it will be one large voting block for each conference on the article. You will go through, make your picks, and then the breweries will advance (or not) based on voting. First round is 32, second round is 16, third round is 8, fourth round is 4, then we get down to two from each conference, and then finally a conference winner will go on to the main finals – a fatal four way to decide the ultimate winner! The winner of each conference will face off in a fatal fourway to decide the ultimate Battle of the Breweries winner!
So it will be a total of 7 rounds (5 conference rounds, then the ultimate finals round, as well as one round of Preliminary Qualifiers). So the tournament will last all of March and into a bit of April.
This is usually a lot of fun for all the breweries involved, as well as everyone involved. But it is also a lot of work on our end (namely – my end), as I will be doing all the work, keeping track of things, trying to keep things coherent and good, as well as write the articles, code things up, set things up, etc, all while working my day job. So please be patient, gentle, and kind. But most importantly — HAVE FUN!
This is a large undertaking, and will involve breweries from several states. From Pennsylvania to New York to New Jersey to Indiana, and all areas in between. It will consist of probably something like 8+ states, as well as the District of Columbia. So this is a big competition and a big chance for a brewery. But lets keep it fun, and make sure everyone has fun as well! I look forward to this event every year, and can’t wait to crown a 2024 Battle of the Breweries Champion!
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