Well, what do you know? It happened and actually went off without a hitch.
At the most we saw more than 70 people inside the Porch at the same time, and we have no idea how many people actually stopped by during the 2.5 hour event. The contest, expertly judged by Ely from World Class Beverages and Joe from Big Sky Brewing, was a close race, but in the end we could declare two winners:
Judges' Choice
- Berenstain Beers
- RCBC
- The Official Tin
Can Committee - Wilktopia
- Team Border War
- Quandary Brewing
- Team Doma
- The Power of Yeast Genetics
- Luca Brasi
- Captain Hook
- Hops R Us
- SAC & SAL's Brewing
- Team SpoCOOL
- Wubrew
- Inland Brewers Unite
- Rawr
- Dreyerbrau
Brewers' Choice
- Quandary Brewing
- RCBC
- The Official Tin
Can Committee - SAC & SAL's Brewing
- Luca Brasi
- Berenstain Beers
- Team Doma
- Hops R Us
- Wubrew
- Captain Hook
- The Power of Yeast Genetics
- Wilktopia
- Team SpoCOOL
- Rawr
- Team Border War
- Inland Brewers Unite
- Dreyerbrau
Tidbits about the teams
Dreyerbrau: A no-show! The beer was apparently so bad that Chris concentrated all his efforts on the art contest (more about that tomorrow). This worked out well for the rest of us as we had an automatic entry for last place.
Berenstain Beers: The first team to sign up won judges' choice, even after Brad nearly couldn't make it due to the birth of his child.
The Power of Yeast Genetics: Ted's promise of hitting middle of the pack came true -- his team placed eight out of sixteen.
Team DOMA: Keaton deservedly won the trash-talking award, but alas, the beer placed seven in both categories.
Wubrew: Had the largest fanclub with some pretty sporting t-shirts to go with it.
RCBC and The Official Tin Can Committee: Places two and three respectively in each category. Some might consider them the big winners of the day.
Quandary Brewing and Berenstain Beers: Flipped places, six and one, from the judges' listing to the brewers'.
The Glorious Team SpoCOOL: Our beer was just too complex for people to understand. (Looking at our scores, we apparently didn't understand it either.)
What you missed if you weren't there
Other than Erick breaking a glass (captured on video by Veraci-Seth here) you missed out on a lot of average to surprisingly-good beer. I mean, really. None of the beers were that awful -- though there were one or two exceptions -- and we ended up having plenty for all to taste.
Of course, grabbing some free Big Sky beer, generously donated by Joe, and some Veraci pizza might have been a better option, so huge thanks to both for supporting the event, as well as to The Porch, which turned out to be the perfect venue for it.
You also missed out on Chris Dreyer's gripping poetry reading, one that was almost as good as "Ode to the Salmon in the River". Almost.
Again, thanks to the brewers, the judges -- Ely and Joe -- the Porch, Big Sky, DOMA for prizes, Veraci, and everybody who showed up to the event.
