Utah Brewery Map

Monday, April 11, 2016

The Winner of the 2016 Utah Beer Challenge is....

It was a juggernaut throughout every round of the Utah Beer Challenge and is our returning champion as well. Of course I'm talking about RedRock Brewing Company's Elephino Double IPA.

In the three years that we've done this local beer brackets thing - Elephino has always made it to the end and this year's finals was a near copy of the 2014 Challenge.

Just in case you've been living under a rock, Elephino has a nice sharp aroma of citrus hops with a sweet blend of pine, mango, orange and fresh cut grass. The tastes follows with mango, pineapple, grass and orange flavors with touch of biscuity malt. Very little, boozy bite along with a long sweet but dry citrus finish. Grab 'em fresh at RedRock's bottle shop located at 443 n. 400 w. in Salt Lake City.

Once again, Congratulations to Elephino and to the staff at RedRock Brewing Company. Honor me by placing this electronically generated award in a high traffic place. The men's and lady's "shitter" is always a fitting spot.

If I decide to try the Utah Beer Challenge again, what kind of changes would you readers like to see?  I've considered doing away with the Ratebeer.com stats and replace them with some pre-polling of each participating brewery to find what Utah's beer drinkers prefer. Your input is greatly appriciated.

Cheers!
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62.31%REDROCK - ELEPHINO DOUBLE IPA
 
167 (62.31%)
 
37.69%EPIC - BIG BAD BAPTIST BA IMPERIAL STOUT
 
101 (37.69%)
 
(268 Total Votes)
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7 comments:

Unknown said...

I would limit it to only beers that are available year round.

RoadKill said...

I kind of like that idea of year round beers only! Going to be more competitors too, with the new breweries coming into play!

Shane in SLC said...

Congrats to Red Rock, but I'm a little mystified by the popularity of Elephino. Don't get me wrong, it's a good beer, but the 2-Row Random is a better DIPA, and there were lots of beers in this competition with a lot more depth and complexity. I don't think Elephino is even the best beer Red Rock makes. But to each their own, I guess.

Limiting the competition to year-round beers would eliminate some of the most interesting beers in the state, including all of Epic's Exponential line (Elder Brett, Big Bad Baptist, etc.). And what would you do with beers like the Random or Proper Brewing's SMaSH beers, that change malts and hops with each iteration? I admit, though, it was frustrating having to sit out some of the votes because I hadn't tried the beer lately and couldn't sample it because it was out of season...

Shane in SLC said...

PS: Thanks for all the work of running this, Mikey! It was fun.

Trent said...

I would split the category in 2, high point vs high point and session vs session.

Ed said...

OUTRAGED over the results of this fun web poll!!!

Unknown said...

Limiting the competition to year-round beers would leave too many great beers out unfortunately. Congratulations to Elephino, and better luck to my most favorite all-time Utah beer, Fifth Element by Squatters.