2021 Utah Beer News Beer Bracket Battle

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Utah Beer News Beer Bracket Battle. Longtime listeners of the podcast might remember that our inaugural Beer Bracket Battle had hit the airwaves just as non-essential businesses were forced to shut down in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

That was last March. It seems like much longer, though, doesn’t it?

As a refresher, in our first competition, my buddy Dave Baker and I matched up eight local beers in head-to-head tastings. We pitted IPAs against each other, for instance, in one matchup and dark beers in another. Templin Family Brewing’s Granary Kellerbier bested seven other beers to come out on top a year ago.

And now here we are back for another go. This time we have selected eight different beers from eight different breweries — and none of the beers or breweries are repeats from the inaugural battle.

Plus, we have an additional taster. Dave is back, but this time we also welcome Ben Raskin. You might know Benny from Episode 39 of the Utah Beer News Podcast. Ben is an everyday imbiber. But more than that he is someone who knows a thing or two about booze in the Beehive State.

If you’re new to the podcast, as a reminder, Dave Baker is a longtime craft beer connoisseur and an award-winning homebrewer. He also is a professional writer and editor (as is Ben).

Whether or not you’re an NCAA basketball junkie or you couldn’t care less about One Shining Moment, the fact that you’re listening to this podcast means there’s a good chance you’re a fan of Utah craft beer.

For the sake of time (and the health of our livers) we opted to forego a field of 68 or even 64. Rather, we selected our very own Elite Eight. Eight beers from eight different Utah breweries vying for the title of 2021 Utah Beer News Beer Bracket Battle champ.

It’s not really a contest, of course, and there are no prizes awarded. With that in mind, here are a few housekeeping items:

• This is in no way scientific. It is for entertainment purposes only.
• We didn’t create spreadsheets evaluating, say, IPA rankings. We didn’t track sales data to learn which beer is Utah’s best-seller. We didn’t look at Untappd ratings.
• This year I made a concerted effort to grab beers from breweries that weren’t represented in last year’s competition. I also expanded the footprint to include Ogden breweries (next year, I’ll do my best to track down beers from the southern half of the state).
• I picked up each of the eight beers at the source — the individual breweries. And let me tell you, wouldn’t it be nice to at least have an option to have craft beer delivered to us? Write your representatives.

For an accompanying article about the 2021 Utah Beer News Beer Bracket Battle, please visit UtahBeerNews.com.

Enjoy the episode!

Episode 46 | March 15, 2021