Peaks & Pints Tournament of Beer: Best Northwest Breweries bracket released
Some traditions sneak up on you. One year you’re hosting a fun little beer bracket, the next thing you know it’s spring again and the tenth Tournament of Beer is arriving like a familiar Northwest ritual — equal parts community debate, friendly chaos, and regional pride poured into a pint glass. The official bracket for the 2026 Peaks & Pints Tournament of Beer: Best Northwest Breweries is now set, and 64 breweries from Washington and Oregon are ready to begin the long walk toward the championship.
Peaks & Pints has unveiled the official bracket for the 2026 Tournament of Beer: Best Northwest Breweries, a voter-driven competition designed to crown the brewery that best represents beer in the Pacific Northwest. Modeled loosely after the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Tournament of Beer features 64 breweries from Washington and Oregon, all seeded through public nomination and arranged into four geographical regions: Northern Washington, Southern Washington, Northern Oregon, and Southern Oregon, with only one brewery per bracket slot.
Unlike past Tournaments that focused on a specific beer style, this year’s competition takes a wider look at the Northwest brewing landscape. Voters nominated the breweries they return to again and again — neighborhood taprooms where the bartender already knows your order, innovation-minded producers chasing new ideas, lager whisperers, hop fanatics, and the steady hands that quietly make some of the region’s best beer week after week. The result is a bracket that reflects the breadth of brewing across Washington and Oregon.
The top 64 vote-getters — the cream of the Northwest brewing community — will compete Monday through Friday, April 3–25. Through daily voting on Peaks & Pints Instagram Stories, beer drinkers will decide which brewery advances until one remains standing as the Best Northwest Brewery. Think March Madness, only the ball is replaced by a pint glass and the arguments are considerably more delicious.
The Tournament of Beer: Best Northwest Breweries grand champion will be crowned at the Tournament of Beer Championship Party on April 25 at Peaks & Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District. The final two breweries — Washington versus Oregon — will face off live pouring from our Western red cedar tap log, with the champion brewery earning a permanent handle at Peaks & Pints through the spring and summer of 2026.
Stop by Peaks & Pints craft beer and cider bar, bottle shop, and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District to grab a Tournament of Beer bracket and follow along on the Tournament Big Board above our 850-plus bottle and can cooler. The first round of Tournament battles begins Friday, April 3.
LINK: Tournament of Beer archives
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
