Chicago Brewery Bracket

Mikerphone as an 8 seed in the Suburbs region could make some noise.

 

My thoughts exactly. I could see him in the Brewlite 8 (or whatever they're calling it.) My money is on Pipeworks to win it all, though.

 

Pipeworks is in the group of death. If Piece doesn't upset them, they won't make it past Rev Brew.

 

I could see Mikerphone in the Foamy 4...glad I got to use that first.

My money is on Half Acre.

 

Exact thought I had given their proximity to each other. Had the same thought with Pollyanna too. Nice places for sure but to keep it in sports speak, they could hold IOB's jock (in my opinion).

 

No Imperial Oak in the Suburbs bracket. Snubbed!

 

It's interesting that Cruz Blanca and Haymarket are in complete different brackets despite being less than two blocks from each other.

 

They had a hard time filling the South bracket. Technically Haymarket should not be there as they are north of Madison, but what can you do.

And of course tons are missing from the burbs, but they had to pick and choose with only 16 spots.

Missing are:

Imperial Oak
Evil Horse
Arrowhead Ales
350 Brewing
One Trick Pony
Blue Island Beer Company
Blue Nose
Metal Monkey
Werk Force
Tribes Beer Company
Skeleton Key
Myths & Legends
Hopvine
BBGD Brewery
Dry City
Emmett's Ale House
Lunar Brewing
Flesk
Exit Strategy
Oak Park Brewing
Kinslahger Brewing
Church Street
Village Vintner
Crystal Lake Brewing
Small Town Brewing
Side Lot Brewing
Chain O'Lakes Brewing
Light the Lamp Brewery
Bosacki's
Lake Bluff Brewing
ZümBier
Only Child Brewing
Mickey Finn's Brewery
Prairiekrafts Brewing Co
D. Litch's Beer
Smylie Bros.
Sketchbook Brewing
Peckish Pig
Ten Ninety Brewing

and probably a few I'm forgetting (I left off chains like RAM / Rock Bottom etc..)

 

I take it none of these breweries won their conference tournament for the auto-bid?

 

They should have set up a Chicago v. Suburbs bracket. There are definitely 16 remaining suburban breweries that can compete, but the question would be whether there are 16 Chicago breweries that cannot.
Either way, a Chicago v Suburban final 4 and champ would be fun.

At least the current set up did guarantee a suburban final 4 participant.

 

It's like someone made this list from a phone book without any beer knowledge.

Does Present Tense Fine Ales even have their brewing license yet? Not listed on beermenus and the photo makes it look like they are still home brewing out of one of their garages....

Suller's Past has no website and they haven't made twitter or Facebook updates since November....are they still in business? And they make one beer...

 

Taproom- check
Distro- check
Adjacent to Chicago- check

 

I don't think so, they have served beers at festivals, but I think you can do that as a homebrewer. Basically, they are a notable homebrewer that hopes to open a brewery. Notable because they focus on traditional English styles and apparently do them well. Something not many brewers attempt.

Yeah I am not 100% sure of the status on this one. They were brewing at Une Anne's space in Chicago. With Une Anne in Niles now I'm not sure. Pretty sure this is run by Steve, formerly of Slapshot brewing. I think he works at 5 Rabbit now, but not sure of the status of Suller's Past, but I believe he intends to keep it going.

 

Thanks. Just saying some of those entries are highly questionable, even more so when compared to some of the great, established places that didn't make the bracket.

 

Too bad Transient isnt still IL.

 

Went to On Tour tonight and their IPA game is solid, especially their Galaxy/Citra DIPA. The space is neat and it's a genuinely cool place to hang out. I suspect they'll get obliterated going up against PW in the first round, but they're definitely on my radar.

 

I thought there would be a few more upsets in the first round. But glad to see Noon Whistle and Hailstorm made it to the next round.

 

I'm really hoping Two Brothers doesn't win their region

 

I'd vote for Buckledown over them in round 2.