10 April 2011

Ticket giveaway | Brew Bracket - Sunday, April 17

This Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Indiana State Fairgrounds' Pioneer our Land Pavilion, the first Brew Bracket event will take place. What's Brew Bracket?  I suppose the best way to describe it is that it's a hybrid of the People's Choice Awards and the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Or, if you're more into movie metaphors, it's the craft beer version of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: 16 beers enter, 1 beer leaves.

Okay, I'll stop futzing around and let Mike and Ryan, the gentlemen who have organized the event, describe it:
The Brew Bracket event features 16 Indiana brewers each bringing the same style of beer for a tasting competition. The brewers are randomly seeded into a tournament-style bracket, and event-goers will blindly taste two beers at a time, voting for their favorite between the two. A majority vote will move that brew to the next round, with one brewer ultimately emerging as the People’s Choice Winner. The names behind the beer will only be revealed once the tournament is finished and a winner has been determined.

After the winner is announced at the event, the Brew Bracket team will publicize the results. Brew Bracket is working with local Indiana bars to feature the Brew Bracket winner as a tap selection and with local media organizations to promote the winning beer.
For this first Brew Bracket tournament, the style will be India Pale Ale. The following brewers have entered an IPA into the tournament:

* Barley Island Brewing Company
* Bee Creek Brewery
* Bier Brewery
* Bloomington Brewing Company
* Brugge Brasserie
* Crown Brewing
* Figure Eight Brewing
* Flat 12 Bierwerks
* Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
* People’s Brewing Company
* Ram Restaurant and Brewery
* Rock Bottom Brewery (Downtown)
* Rock Bottom Brewery (College Park)
* Shoreline Brewery
* Sun King Brewing Company
* Upland Brewing Company

Fortunately for you, we have two (2) tickets to give away to this event. To enter, please leave a comment below in which you tell us why you're worthy to serve as a beer judge at Brew Bracket. The fact that you're BJCP certified doesn't count. Just be creative. Making us laugh helps, especially if you can somehow integrate the phrase "a whale's vagina" into your comment.

We'll chose our favorite comment on Wednesday (4/13/11) at 5 p.m. EST, and the winner gets the tickets. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE US A METHOD TO CONTACT YOU - an email address or a twitter handle is perfect. You'll be responsible for checking back to see if you've won, and we can figure the rest out after that.

LEGAL STUFF
Creative and long winded entries are particularly appreciated.
We reserve the right to not give you tickets if we think you're shady.
We reserve the right to change all the rules and not award the prize if we don't like how things go.
Don't be a pain in the ass.
By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of HoosierBeerGeek.com, which shall be final and binding with regard to all matters relating to the contest.
END OF LEGAL STUFF.

15 comments:

  1. I am the first to comment, that should be reason enough. Oh, and it sounds like a whale's vagina of a good time!

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  2. I love beer! And like Ron Burgundy says "Mmm. San Diego. Drink it in, it always goes down smooth. Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means "a whale's vagina"."

    mchostetler@gmail.com

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  3. I can tell the difference between a great IPA and one that tastes like a whale's vagina.

    @AlecDon

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  4. I like beer. I especially enjoy IPA. I was once trekking across India in search of the perfect IPA. I happened upon an old Indian fellow who told me the best IPAs were brewed in a whale's vagina. I found a whale off of the coast of Sri Lanka. Checked and found no IPA. The search continues...

    @jeffandshirlene

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  5. There once was a whale from Carolina,
    The wind blew and filled his vagina,
    He let out a snort,
    And gave a retort,
    That cause IPA to reach Punjab’s Ludhiana.

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  6. I'd rather go down on a whale's vagina than go to an event that excludes Three Floyd's and New Albanian. Seriously. WTF?

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  7. We invited all 35+ Indiana brewers and have a great line up that includes Sun King, Flat 12, Barley Island, Uplandy, and 12 other stellar brewers. Plus it's a blind tasting so you'll be judging the brews based solely on taste, with no predisposed influence. It's a unique event for any Indy beer lover and a great opportunity to find a new local favorite. Nice entries so far, keep them coming!

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  8. I believe I am worthy of these tickets for a couple of reasons. Reason 1, I love IPA's and have drank a ton of them over the years. Reason 2, every year I play a bracket I lose, so I figure this is my only shot to ever win one. Reason 3, I'm STILL trying to get that whale's vagina taste out of my mouth after my visit to Sea World turned into a drunken blur of dares and regret. Sigh.

    Luke

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  9. Beer competition is like yoga to me, except I'm actually allowed to drink. I don't know if you know this, but my palate is kind of a big deal. It's been to Paris where it's no longer allowed to be in the presence of royalty, and it's certified Kosher in Israel. In Germany it was awarded a medal of schlagen öffnend, or "more open than a whale's vagina".

    I drink beer often, and when I do, I drink IPA

    @scisky

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  10. I originally hail from the land of the Whale's Vagina (San Diego; I know I know, "why did you leave??"), which brews some great IPA's like Ruination and Green Flash West Coast, but I want to see what Indiana has to offer. Wait did I just inadvertently say I was from a Whale's Vagina...?

    @TheRussB

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  11. I eat Centennially Pellet-Os for breakfast. I gargle with IPA infused vodka. I blend all my beers with an IPA because I can. Once, I was found in an alley, surrounded by bottles of DIPA, with "Whale's Vagina" and an arrow pointing to my mouth scribbled over my face with permanent marker. I will take them black, double, triple, through a Cantaloupe, I don't care, IPAs are my water.

    @ryanbillingsley

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  12. I really don't want to submit this, but my husband's making me. He wants to go and get drunk and make me drag his ass all the way back to West Lafayette. I guess if we got the tickets we'd be able to take a friend who could also get equally drunk, but maybe that friend will have an equally disgruntled wife. Who knows. At least my comment is unique, huh?

    @slugrrrl

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  13. Not sure if you have heard of me (my brother, "Pin" always gets the limelight), but many years ago my father, a poor wood carver, from Ballstown, IN(south of Batesville) took a tree branch and began building a puppet. And that puppet was me. He said to that puppet, "You shall be my “big” boy, because Pinocchio, my “little” boy, ended up too little ". He worked for hours, because he was using hardwood and it was difficult to carve. When he began carving my face, I was finally able to express myself. I started making faces at him and he said to me, "Stop that you naughty boy!” And I said "Go to hell gramps, you are just making me as a replacement for Pin - forget it, I'll do my own thing." And so I set out, on my own, and came across (as in walked) a puppet show. I needed a little cash to get some drink, so I offered my services. And the Puppet Master, who was a very attractive 31 year old woman, paid me a gold coin. The closest place was a small pub next door called "The Cat And Fox Lounge". I bellied up to the bar and asked about the specials. The Fox told me that I could get a bucket of Bud for one gold coin, but then the Cat told me I could get a pint of delicious crafted brew from a local brewery for a coin – I thought long and hard – it was a terrible predicament - having to decided between those. Well being foolish and young I chose the bucket of Bud and, unbeknownst to me, my problems began. I finished off my bucket of Bud and went back to the Puppet Master for more work – I started to work(with a massive head-ache, by the way) with her, but my nose kept getting in the way, it just kept getting larger. I thought this must be what happens when you drink beer. Well, the Puppet Master told me she had no use for a drunken sad puppet with a massive nose, so she promptly threw me into the ocean. As soon as I hit the ocean my nose went back to its original size – the cold water I guess. I was out at sea for days and then could no longer stay afloat and began to sink, when all of the sudden I was enveloped by something warm and cavernous. As I sat in the dark, I actually felt very comfortable, as a matter of fact I felt quite good. Then I saw a light in the distance and it got closer – come to find out it was my Father! I ran to him, “Father you’re alive. I am so happy to see you, where are we?” He told me “That ‘s not important right now, what is important is that we are back together.” He attempted to hug me, but couldn’t. Apparently my nose had grown so huge that it was impossible. I was confused, I thought it only happened when I drank beer, so I asked my father. He said, son you are on your way to becoming a real boy – but you must remember “don’t drink crap beer – drink craft beer”” I said, “Ok, but how do I make my nose stop doing this?” He told me “It’s impossible, but that there is a way to control it, but first we need to get out of this whale’s vagina.” I said “What??” Did you say whale’s vageena? What’s that?” He told me he would explain later… and I won’t go into detail about how he got us out of there, but trust me it worked – and it was a fun ride. So this brings me to my point - my nose stayed huge, and is to this day. My father told me the only way to get control of my nose was to … “have 16 different libations of India Pale Ale, in one sitting - it must have been brewed within 120 mile radius of Latitude:39.8647/Longitude:-86.2604.” After doing my research, I discovered those coordinates are right here in Indiana, but the problem was…..where can I imbibe 16 different IPAs in one sitting? Well, just 10 minutes ago, my father sent me this link that led me to YOU! With three kids, two dogs and a very tired wife - I no longer have any gold coins and I would greatly appreciate the tickets to Beer Bracket and, once and for all, take care of this nose! Oh, and I never did find out what my Father was doing in that whale’s vagina, ah well, some secrets are best kept quiet… Sincerely, Penokio

    [aka james@indycti.org]

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  14. Funny you should say that. I was just telling my buddy Johnny the other day how much his mom's face looks like a whales vagina! Oh wait, wrong blog post! Oh well... GO BEER!!

    @nshultz

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  15. Thank you to all who submitted! The entries were very interesting and we have chosen a winner.

    Congrats to Lucus! Please send us an email at hoosierbeergeek at gmail dot com to make arrangements for getting your tickets.

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