The #SpoBREW2 wrap-up

SpoBREWSpokane

Well, that worked out pretty well, didn't it? Eighteen teams battling it out in what turned out to be two extremely close races. Who won? Who lost? What kind of amusing photos do we have? Without further ado, let's just jump into the spectacle we called... #SpoBREW2.

The Brewers's Choice

  Team Points
1 Smashing Hopheads (Team #16)
Jeff, Helge
420
2 Whickerbill Studios (Team #13)
Solomon, Dana
412
3 The Hop Whisperers (Team #9)
Mike, Mark
403
4 Wilktopia (Team #11)
Seth, Dave
401
5 The Power of Yeast Genetics (Team #6)
Ted
386
6 & (Team #12)
Doxey & Scott
382
7 SingleTrack (Team #15)
Jeb, Stephen
373
8 Two Hooligans Brewing (Team #8)
Erin, Jeremy
356
9 Joeandsummer (Team #14)
Joe, Summer
353
10 Interrobang? (Team #7)
Geneva, Remi, Joel, Mallory
324
10 Skull Rooster (Team #3)
Will
324
12 Nomadic Brews (Team #17)
Amanda, Jason
320
13 Inland Brewers Unite (Team #18)
Cameron
312
14 IDHOPS (Team #2)
James
309
15 Hops R Us (Team #1)
Rick, Kendra
304
16 Mulieribus Brewing (Team #10)
Michelle
302
17 Team StrongBREW (Team #5)
Tony, JD
262
18 Berenstain Beers (Team #4)
Brad
251

The race to the top was extremely tight, but in the end the victory went to Smashing Hopheads and their Comfortably Numb Oaked Imperial Stout, a win that was well deserved. Whickerbill Studios was close behind, and with a mere 19 points separating #1 and #4, the win could have gone either way had there been a couple of more voters.

Judges's Choice

  Team Points
1 Whickerbill Studios (Team #13)
Solomon, Dana
52
2 Two Hooligans Brewing (Team #8)
Erin, Jeremy
50
3 Inland Brewers Unite (Team #18)
Cameron
49
4 Joeandsummer (Team #14)
Joe, Summer
44
5 The Hop Whisperers (Team #9)
Mike, Mark
43
5 Smashing Hopheads (Team #16)
Jeff, Helge
43
7 SingleTrack (Team #15)
Jeb, Stephen
42
8 Skull Rooster (Team #3)
Will
41
9 Team StrongBREW (Team #5)
Tony, JD
39
10 Hops R Us (Team #1)
Rick, Kendra
37
11 The Power of Yeast Genetics (Team #6)
Ted
34
12 & (Team #12)*
Erick, Scott
34
13 Nomadic Brews (Team #17)
Amanda, Jason
29
14 Interrobang? (Team #7)
Geneva, Remi, Joel, Mallory
28
15 Mulieribus Brewing (Team #10)
Michelle
26
16 IDHOPS (Team #2)
James
24
17 Berenstain Beers (Team #4)
Brad
18
18 Wilktopia (Team #11)*
Seth, Dave
17

Like last year, the competition was judged by Ely Johnson of New Belgium fame. He was joined by the soon to be opened Trickster Brewing's Matt Morrow, and the two of them were as awesome as we knew they would be. In the end they put Whickerbill Studios on top, with a very impressive 52 out of 60 points. The race was close again, though seeing Wilktopia -- #4 in the brewers's choice -- taking last place was interesting. The reason, apparently, was a skunkiness to both bottles sampled by the judges*. Hey, that happens to the best of us.

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The Artists

Sadly time prohibited us from doing a proper art show this year, but Scott, Lars, and (I believe) Dana all brought some really awesome stuff. We have photos of Scott's functional art below, and will add more when/if we get it. 

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Trivia & Thanks

The Porch turned out to be an awesome venue again -- huge props to Dave and company for hosting the event yet again!

Placing #2 in the brewers's choice and #1 in the judges's choice made Whickerbill Studios the most successful beer of the night, so congratulations on a great beer! 

In Brad's defense for falling from last year's first place to this year's last: He couldn't bring the beer he had planned on because of technical difficulties. The one he did bring hadn't had the chance to age properly. (He told us to write this.)

As pointed out by Ryan, however, Brad is two in two in winning #SpoBREW prices. He will be bringing home a delicious bottle of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon this year. (He also won for being the biggest trash talker prior to the tasting.)

Veraci brought amazing pizza. Really, though, you already knew that.

The Hop Whisperers took our challenge seriously and actually brought beer in mason jars!

Big thanks to Big Sky for providing beer for the event! We assume they were popular, seeing there were none left at the end of the evening.

And thanks to Ely and New Belgium for providing high quality glasses, which we noticed many people walking away with.

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#SpoBREW has pretty much found a new announcer through Vikas, who performed the dramatic beer readings throughout the last quarter of the event.

Number of pairs of pirate pants this year: 2. Twice that of last year.

You'll start seeing Ramblin' Road in a few places come October. Like them on Facebook to stay up to speed, and check out some of the photos they have from the event.

People seemed to be enjoying Indaba's samples -- big thanks to them for making some awesome coffee!

We assume everyone will remember the Norwegian drinking song until next time, after Kjell led us in a roaring rendition: "Ååååå... Så svinger vi på seidelen igjen, hei, skål!"

Disappointment of the evening: A decidedly un-plaid Doxey, which made & look decidedly unpretentious.

Thanks to Kendra and MB for doing a great job pouring the beer!

And finally, thanks to everybody we're probably forgetting to thank, largely because there are so many of you. Handknit Webs for their logo work, all the brewers, everybody who showed up, and, again, Ely and Matt for judging. We had a lot of fun; hopefully we can come back even stronger next year!

* It has come to our attention that Wilktopia did not bring their beers in bottles, but kegs, something we, when we take a step back, also remember. There is therefore a possibility that, for the judges (though not for the audience), their beer could have been switched with &'s. There's no way for us to know for sure at this point, and as neither beer placed too well, it doesn't really matter, but we feel this new information should be made public for the sake of accuracy-ish.

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