Help cull my IPA taster list

Will be doing another blind taster coming up and have secured way more singles of beer than we can humanely do in a taster. We've done these with up to 12 or 13 before but palate fatigue can be an issue and we want to keep this one focused on at most 8....Thanks for any thoughts...

I have these=22

Town Hall Masala mama
Bent Paddle
Founders All Day
Founders Centennial
Bells Two Hearted
Great Divide Titan
Lift Bridge Hopdish
Green Flash West Coast IPA
Stone IPA
Lakefront IPA
Tyranena Bitter Woman
Clown Shoes Galactica
Southern Tier IPA
Bear Republic IPA
Dark Horse Crooked Tree
Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA
Smuttynose Big A IPA
Ballast Point Sculpin
Ballast Point Big Eye
Summit Saga
ODell IPA
Psuedo Sue Pale Ale

Debating on adding: (probably not but I could get these if needed)=4

*I have easy access to these two
Sierra Torpedo
New Belgium Ranger

*I could probably get ahold of these two
Victory Hop Devil
Steel Toe Size 7

 

I just bought whatever caught my eye at Ale Jail and Casanova recently in their singles racks and did not check dates but plan to do so before the tasting. That could be a deciding factor....

I did not know that about Smutty Big A being a DIPA...we'll move that one out..I think I had it years ago but didn't check on it yet..

My brother wanted Founders All Day in even though it is closer to an APA..we both love it and want to see how it stands up...lighter body will probably distinguish it even blind though..

 

Also did not know that about Galactica...I'll check it out and if a DIPA we'll pull that one out too...

Pseudo is another APA we kind of wanted to include to see how it fared...body wise it is pretty close to an IPA like you said so I think it'll fit...

 

thought about doing three 8 beer heats....and then taking the top three from each heat and doing one final 9 beer championship tasting....problem is I live several hours away from my brother and we only get together so often with chances to do this...I thought maybe I could do one with him and do the other two on my own....then we could get back together for the final nine tasting....lots of ideas...thanks to everyone for the thoughts...I got a week to figure it out..

 

So here is what we decided to do. We'll be getting together for a weekend and are planning two tasters.....The remaining beers I did a 7 beer taster with tonight to see if any deserve a spot...

The Current Top Bracket(8)

Psuedo Sue.
Two Hearted
Sculpin
Hopdish
Bear Republic
ODell
Saga
Bent Paddle
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Taster 2-(4)
Bemidji Brewing
Masala Mama
Stone
All Day IPA

*Just kind of a fun little bracket...I'll be able to secure a Bemidji IPA growler and have found their IPA very good so thought it would be fun to include with Masala mainly........Stone just missed the original cut so we dropped it here....ALL Day is my brother's baby (I like it a lot too but will be curious if the lighter body is easily identifiable.
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The Taster with the remains was done tonight.

Here is how it finished with the dates from the bottles. Based on the results and date for the winner I would think a fresher sample of that one deserves a spot somewhere in the final two rounds.

1. Founders Centennial IPA......Bottled on 4/15/13 (No shit....that old and still wins it)
2. Dark Horse Crooked Tree ....Only code I saw was 260-13 (pretty fresh I think)
3. Lakefront..code rubbed off the bottle
4. Southern Tier.....Bottled on 8/1/13
5. Tyranena...Bottled on 8/22/13
6. Great Divide Titan....Bottled on 9/13/13 (Thought I would like this one more..)
7. Weyerbacher...Bottled on 6/4/13 (pretty old but not as old as our winner)
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If we can get a fresh Founders Centennial we will likely add that to the bracket with four....then after we finish the two tastings we may develop a final 5 or six for a later tastings and grand finale....

 

Did a couple of one-one-one battles to see if any deserve spots that we are not including.

I am including Bent Paddle for sure so I matched it against Surly Overrated and it was a decisive win for Bent Paddle.

Two nights later I did Overrated vs Green Flash West Coast IPA...somewhat similar but a solid advantage to Surly here...

So at this point neither Surly or Green Flash are going to be bumped into the main brackets although they are both quality IPA's.

Will probably do a few more one on one's to see if any deserve spots before the weekend of reckoning now just 9 days away....among those I will give shots....Torpedo...Ranger...maybe Boulevard Midwest IPA...

I think we are moving Founders Centennial and Steel Toe Size into the bracket that includes four...

I'll write this all up coherently after the fact....

 

Yeah the inital bracket dates were not good...the one-on-one's I did this week involving Bent Paddle, Green Flash and Surly were all fresh (I did not include their dates but they were all late september or better).....the ones we include in the final two comps will be much better for the most part...it's just impossible to find fresh beer for all these brands...