2016 Bottle Share Tournament Summary
Date – April 2, 2016
Location – The Stewart Penthouse
Participants – 18
Bottle Entrants – 32
#1 Overall Seed – Tree House Brewing Good Morning
Champion – Spiteful Barrel Aged Malevolence Caliente, Ian Ferow
Full Bracket Link – 2016 march-madness-bracket – FINAL
Our second tournament was a chance to build on the first year. In hindsight we started planning it too late, which lead to it being a challenge to have as full of a tournament as we had the first year. The first year was dominated in large part by Bourbon County variants and De Garde beers, and had a great assortment of lambic. The second year was full of incredible maple beers. Entrants seemed to generally be imperial stouts and american wild ales. An interesting curveball was thrown in by the defending champion, who re-entered the 2015 winner, Fremont Coffee Cinnamon Bourbon Barrel Abominable.
In a nod to friends from the first year that couldn’t make it to the 2nd tournament, the regions were named for them
Becker Region
Holding the top spots was Good Morning from Tree House and Kane’s Cocoa A Night To End All Dawns (Cocoa ANTEAD.) The only first round upset in this bracket came from Surly Darkness ’14 beating Bruery Chocolate Rain ’13. Surprising to see the adjunct laden Bruery beer fall to the non-BA, non adjunct imperial from Minnesota. The 3 non-stout/porters in this bracket all were knocked out in the first round. This included entries from De Garde, Modern Times, and Hill Farmstead offshoot Grassroots.
The 3 seed overcame Cocoa ANTEAD to continue a steady march, that would lead it to the Regional Final versus #1 overall seed Tree House Good Morning. At the time, Good Morning was about a 4 month old growler. It didn’t seem to show age on it. Crazy as it sounds, this was also still the most recent release of Good Morning as of the publishing date of this summary. In a split 2-1 decision, Perrin No Rules defeated Good Morning to advance to the Final 4. This continued the first year history of the #1 seed meeting an early, unceremonious demise.
Falstad Region
The Falstad Region was heavily stacked with another 2 major maple beers holding down the #1 and #2 seeds with Funky Buddha’s first bottling of Morning Wood ’15, and the small format bottle Pugachev’s Royale from Hangar 24. Half of this region consisted of saisons, and wilds with 2 beers from Sante Adarius, a De Garde, and the first Tired Hands entry.
The first round brought the first big upset in the tournament as Whatever, Nevermind from Tired Hands struck down the 1-seed, Morning Wood. Sara BA Cellarman Batch 2 moved on, in its match to set up a saison vs. saison Regional Semifinal.
The incredible Pugachev Royale won it’s first round match up to end up against the #3 seed, To The Choir from Santa Adarius Rustic Ales. In another maple upset, To The Choir sent Pugachev’s Royale to join Good Morning and Morning Wood at the community table at this point in the event. In the all SARA Regional Final, To The Choir beat BA Cellarman to move to the Final Four.
Brodersen Region
This region brought the biggest concentration of funky beers with 5 of the 8 being berliners, saisons or other wilds. The high seeds leading this region were Bourbon County Coffee ’14 and De Garde Imperial Black Raz Bu. This region was heavy on upsets, as Rare Barrel Becoming, from the 6 seed knocked out Cycle Nooner Batch 10 unanimously. Both De Garde beers won their first round matchup with Imperial Black Raz Bu moving on to face Rare Barrel, Raz Premiere upsetting Alesmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout.
The upsets continued in the 2nd round as De Garde Raz Premiere upset Bourbon County Coffee, and Rare Barrel Becoming finished Imperial Black Raz Bu’s day. The region was finalized by Rare Barrel beating a 2nd De Garde beer to win the Brodersen Region and solidify a spot in the Final Four
Hall Region
The Hall Region ended up having the greatest diversity in the beer styles presented. It included heavy adjunct laden imperial stouts, barleywine, a saison, a fruited american wild ale, and a wheatwine. This region was lead by Spiteful Barrel Aged Malevolence Chocolate Caliente, and Cycle Pallet 1.
In the first upset of the region, Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Barleywine ’14, the goat, beat defending champion Fremont Coffee Cinnamon B-Bomb. Spiteful and Cycle both won their first round matches in expected fashion. Hill Farmstead got a win with Genealogy ’16 over Abraxas, preventing what would have been a very interesting match up between Abraxas and Malevolence Chocolate Caliente.
Cycle then ended the day for Kuhnhenn in a 3-0 decision. Likewise, Spiteful moved to the regional Final with a 3-0 win. After initially beating Marz Earl Olaf 3-0, Hill Farmstead Genealogy 3-0, Spiteful continued it’s unblemished record with the judges concurring unanimously again 3-0 over Cycle Pallet 1, to arrive in the Final Four
Final Four
The First tournament in 2015 featured 2 big dark beers against 2 wilds. Likewise, this happened again in 2016 as Cinderella #6 seed Rare Barrel Becoming was pitted against Spiteful BA Malevolence Chocolate Caliente. The #1 seed from the Hall Region, Spiteful moved to the Final.
On the other side, fresh off upsetting the #1 overall tournament seed, Perrin No Rules was matched up against the nuanced To The Choir from SARA in a battle of regional #3 seeds. No record of the score for this match was recorded but To The Choir advanced, setting up for the second time, a bottle submitter having both beers in the Championship match.
In its fifth match of the day, Spiteful Barrel Aged Malevolence Chocolate Caliente ended up winning again winning with a unanimous decision to go 15-0 in its matches to win the March Madness Bottle Share Tournament
Facts
- Three of the four #1 seeds were barrel aged, as well as all four #2 seeds, and three of the four #3 seeds
- The Falstad Bracket was the only Region that had split decision votes for every single match. All other regions had at least three unanimous 3-0 decisions.
- Total Maple Beers: 3. Tournament Win/Loss record 3-2
Koel Story Bro 