The 2016 Utah Beer Challenge

Every couple of years I get this hair up my ass to try and bring Utah's beer makers and we, beer drinkers a little closer together. The Utah Beer Challenge is a friendly competition that pits the best of Utah's beers against one and other. Over the next four weeks we'll whittle down the top four beer from sixteen participating breweries.

Every year this gets tougher to put together. More breweries and brands keep popping up, making it difficult to keep the field fair, due to the limited number of spots available (64) and the current number of breweries in Utah (23). Tough decisions had to be made in regards to what breweries would be participating. To unify the field I'm using Ratebeer.com's database. Some breweries didn't make the cut due to limited data or they contract with other breweries to make their beer. Next time we do this everyone will be represented in one way or an other.   

So we have sixteen breweries going head to head. I have randomly generated the beers of the first round. There will be some tough decisions right off the bat, so prepare yourselves. Due to shenanigans in our inaugural challenge, I will reserve the right to alter votes that i have deemed illegitimate. That being said, I encourage everyone to share the Challenge in your social media accounts. I wanted to wait for Proper and Talisman breweries to acquire enough data on ratebeer to participate, but that would take too long. Next year, guys.

The first round begins today. I've broken it up into four parts - two days each - ending next Monday. As the rounds progress the duration will become shorter but still sticking with a two day voting schedule. You will not be able to see the results of the voting until the that particular round has ended. I'll remind you and you'll also have the full bracket to examine at the top of this web page. The ballots are in the column on the right side of the page. Please, I bet you - resist the urge to cheat. Any questions?

Cheers and have fun.