2023 March Beer Madness - March 13-15 Play-in Round Thread

Welcome to the First Annual Beer Advocate March Beer Madness! 111 votes were cast to determine how to run this event. Thank you to those who participated in the planning process. I hope you find participating in the actual tournament even more fun!

What Beers Are Competing in the Play-in Round? Eight beers listed below will compete March 13-15, Midnight to Midnight Pacific Daylight Time. We are hosting a play-in round (68 instead of 64) primarily to familiarize people to the concept and rules. The 60 Top Seeded Beers, plus the four winners of this round will begin play in the Round of 64 to be conducted this Thursday and Friday.

Please Note - Variants of the beers below will not count, but you may post any vintage of these beers.

• Europe Bracket: (16) Verhaeghe Duchesse De Bourgogne vs. (17) Saison Dupont
• Atlantic Bracket: (16) Tree House Julius vs. (17) Evil Twin Brewing Imperial Biscotti Break
• Central Bracket: (16) New Glarus Raspberry Tart vs. (17) Perennial Artisan Ales Abraxas
• Pacific Bracket: (16) Logsdon Seizoen Bretta vs. (17) Alaskan Smoked Porter

The official rules will appear in the next post, but all you need to do to participate/compete is post either 0,1 or 2 of the beers above in this thread over the next three days. The beers with the most posts will advance. Individuals will earn tournament points based on the beer's seed for each round the beer advances.

This thread will be used to post your beers. I will create a new thread for each round. However, you may also post here to discuss the tournament, trash talk, ask questions (or you can DM me), etc..

You will determine the winner. By drinking beer! How cool is that? Enjoy the ride and may the best Beer and Beer Advocate win!!!

 

Official 2023 March Beer Madness Rules

How can I participate?

• Post a picture of a beer you are enjoying (live) among the eligible beers.
• If you post a draft or cask beer, you must identify the name of the beer in your post or picture to obtain a vote (BA and Individual Brackets).
• One beer per post / photo and use your own photos please. Honor system will be used.

How many beers can I drink and post in a day?

• Participants can post either 0, 1 or 2 beers per day throughout the tournament.
• You cannot carry-forward / back your allotment. Two beers is the limit for each tournament day.
• Beers posted exceeding your allotment will not be counted for the BA Bracket nor Individual Brackets.

What Beers, Breweries, Styles and Regions Are Involved?

• 68 Competing Beers & Breweries
• 29 Competing Beer Styles
  
• 9 Top Ranked Beers Within A Style
• 23 Top Five Ranked Beers Within A Style
  
• 6 Nations
• 23 States
• 28 of the Top 43 Most Popular Beers as rated on BA

How will we determine the Champion Beer? The beer advancing through the championship round will be crowned Beer Advocate 2023 March Beer Madness Champion Beer.

• The beer with the most posts in a round will advance.
• Each round starts anew, beer scores don't carry-forward.
• In the event of a matchup ending with no beers posted, the higher seed will advance.
• In the event of a matchup ending in a tie with one or more beers posted, the lower seed will advance.

How will we determine the Champion Beer Advocate? The Beer Advocate accumulating the most tournament points will be crowned 2023 March Beer Madness Champion Beer Advocate.

• For each beer you post in a round that advances to the next round, you are awarded points based on the seed number (1 through 17 for each of the four regions).
• Your posted beers that advance in previous rounds will continue to accumulate points if they win future rounds, until they are eliminated or crowned the champion beer.
• Pick and enjoy your beers wisely and safely.

Beers and Bracket Links:

• March Beer Madness BA Bracket Link: https://challonge.com/ovsvj1ig.svg
  
• March Beer Madness Individual Bracket Link: Will first appear after the play-in round has completed.

• March Beer Madness Beer Seeds / Link to BA Beer Pages:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/march-beer-madness-tournament.671808/#post-7724479

 

I just want to emphasize we are allowing each individual Beer Advocate to post up to two beers total in this play-in round (see Post 1), primarily to prevent limited numbers of BAs to build a substantial lead for individual brackets before the Tournament kicks off fully this Thursday.

Many of these eight play-in beers have limited access. Some BAs may only be able to purchase a few locally, others perhaps one or none. These eight beers are seeded lowest in part because they have far less reach over the years as compared to many of the Top 60 beers seeded above them. Dozens of beers across the remaining field have very wide distribution across Europe and/or America.

For all other "Game Days" (Thursdays through Sundays for each of the next three weeks), zero, one or two beers per day will be allowed for each of the Six Rounds.

Thank you!

 

The reason Spotted Cow was out and Raspberry Tart is in to represent Wisconsin, is the fact that Spotted Cow missed the cut by virtue of slating #739 for Saisons, below the Top 500 threshold. RT also gets wide distribution in Wisconsin, the state line New Glarus refuses to cross.

Elysian Space Dust missed the cut to represent the State of Washington by virtue of 27 spots below the minimum #500 for American IPAs. I believe for many Beer Advocates, the two European Beers may be most accessible among the eight in this round.

In terms of individual bracket strategy, drinking and helping lower seeds advance will accumulate the most points if they continue to advance. This helps offset the advantages the top seeds will have in terms of quality and for some distribution reach. The 4 and 5 seeds in each region appear to have a good combination of distribution strength and quality.

Everyone will have different motivations for the beers they select (individual bracket glory, supporting their favorite beer(s), perhaps supporting beers from their city or region). I like the geographical brackets we ended up with, so each of the four regions are assured representation in the Final Four.

Thanks again for sparking this all with your excellent idea!!!

 

Same two beers are allowed on the same day for this and all future rounds. You can also pick two different beers to post, even two that are playing each other.

The only criteria is that you post a picture among eligible beers within the round, and identify a draft pour via written text or something within the picture. Bottles and/or cans will be self explanatory.

 

Thanks, I didn't address this formally in the rules. Not sure how large your "large format" is, but I believe the standard below is fair for all and promotes responsible drinking.

• A bottle or can less than 500 ML (below 16.8 oz) should count as one serving / photo entry post.
• A bottle or can that is 500 ML (16.9 oz) or larger can be posted either as one beer photo entry, or split into two separate entries, and enjoyed over one or two days (applicable for say stouts and saison bombers you cork and re-refrigerate).
• For draft pours served at a bar, restaurant or brewery, you may go with the serving size the sell (minimum 4 oz through an imperial pint) if that is a serving size on their menu. We should not count a small free sample pour of a couple oz.

Bombers (750 ML) of Abraxas fit the discretionary one or two post threshold in this round (there may be others).

Sincerely,

The Commissioner

 

No replies or check ins are required. Hope the remaining rounds will be more hospitable in terms of beer availability near your home. I listed 0 beers so people didn't feel obligated to post / drink everyday to be eligible to win.

Cheers!

 

No snark noted at all. These eight beers are not widely available, and some people may not prefer drinking the ones within their reach.

I have Abraxas, Saison DuPont and the Duchesse available in our area, NG Raspberry Tart if I take a train over the border to Kenosha. Would love to try the Atlantic and Pacific beers for the first time at some point in time.

 

The updated criteria eliminated many, but not all, seasonal beers. I didn't want to get into the business of selecting / eliminating beers personally. I went with the criteria listed in the link below / the last link in the rules post.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/march-beer-madness-tournament.671808/#post-7724479

I saw the thread about the Nugget Nectar release, and have seen people post Nugget Nectar as recently as this weekend in WBAYDN, so hopefully those who love this beer still have some or have access to buy what's left in the wild.

 

Yes, if a bar serves on their menu 4-5 oz pours, than go for it. Draft menus are not constructed to mirror package options. Most serve shorter pours for high ABV beers. If a serving size is 4-5 oz, we are not going to make people order multiple pours to match package ounce for ounce.

The purpose of this is to have fun and enjoy beer, not to see how many days we can stretch out a bomber, game the contest, or require people solo dome a bomber to participate.

We are playing this via an honor system, hopefully everyone will act accordingly.