Peaks & Pints has unveiled the official bracket for its Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs, a voter-based public tournament seeking to crown the best Northwest-style IPA brewed in the Pacific Northwest. Patterned after the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Tournament of Beer features 64 Northwest IPAs brewed in Oregon and Washington, all seeded by public vote and separated into four geographical regions: Northern Washington, Southern Washington, Northern Oregon, and Southern Oregon with only one IPA per brewery. The tournament launches on April 4 and runs to the championship party on April 26. Peaks & Pints defines Northwest IPA as a sub-set of the West Coast IPA; most importantly, it is brewed in the Pacific Northwest — specifically Washington and Oregon for this tournament — and is often crafted as a tribute to the region’s majestic evergreen forests. Second, the style highlights the unique hop varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest, including Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, CTZ, Nugget, Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra, to name a few. While there are many interpretations of the aroma and flavor notes, for the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs, the nominated IPAs should be a clean, single IPA offering significant pine, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors with a beautifully clear, light copper color and just enough caramel sweetness to balance the hop flavors. Today, for our daily beer flight, we offer a sampling of nominated Northwest IPAs in Peaks & Pints Tournament of Beer Flight: Northwest IPAs Prefunk. The Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs begins April 4 on Peaks & Pints Instagram Stories.
Peaks & Pints Tournament of Beer Flight: Northwest IPAs Prefunk
7 Seas IPA
5.9% ABV
7 Seas Brewing’s IPA, formerly Rude Parrot IPA, has become one of Northwest’s more reliable low ABV, well-balanced IPAs. Brewed with Vienna, light Crystal, and a touch of Honey malt, this golden-hued IPA is aggressively hopped with Simcoe and Citra hops. Checks all the boxes you’d expect from a Northwest IPA with pine and citrus notes. The taste is rich and full of sharp orange rind and grapefruit, with a minty coolness and an off-dry, pleasantly bitter finish. It’s an everyday IPA, especially if a barbecue is present. 7 Seas IPA is the number one seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs Southern Washington region.
Boneyard RPM IPA
6.5% ABV
Boneyard Beer’s flagship RPM IPA sports a classic Northwest IPA piney/resin nose, redolent with some grapefruit and tangerine thrown in for good measure. It has a sweeter, malty side created with pale malt, Munich malt, Aromatic malt, Vienna malt, and dextrose with a hint of honey and caramel that transitions quickly to a substantial but not overdone bitterness with the mid-palate flavors of pine, grapefruit, apricots, and faint honey, thanks to six different Northwest varieties of hops at more than 2.5 pounds per barrel. It’s neither strong nor ultra-hoppy, so it fits near the median point in the flavor profile. Boneyard RIMP is the number one seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs Southern Oregon region.
Icicle Bootjack IPA
6.5% ABV
Starting with the pristine waters of Icicle Creek, Icicle Brewing in Leavenworth adds intense flavors and aromas of Yakima-grown hops, pairing the citrusy, floral hop notes with a sweet-malty undertone. Bootjack is a Northwest IPA that breaks the barrier between bitter and bold. Icicle Bootjack is the number four seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs in the Northern Washington region.
Georgetown Lucille
7% ABV
When those first emerald-green cylinders of Lucille IPA rolled off Georgetown Brewing’s assembly line in May 2017, it heralded a new era for the brewery that gave us Manny’s — cans. It’s been a treat to drink the Lucille Northwest IPA out of the can while mowing the lawn, enjoying the hop combination of the spicy fruitiness of the Amarillo hops, the intense citrus aroma with pronounced lemon notes of Centennial and piney Cascade hops on the finish. Lucille is hop-forward and floral, with the bitterness lingering in a very palatable way. Georgetown Lucille is the number one seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs Northern Washington region.
Fort George Vortex IPA
7.7% ABV
Caught in a tornado in the Midwest while hauling their original brew system cross country from Virginia, it made sense for Fort George Brewery to whip up Vortex IPA. With a hearty 7.7 percent ABV unfiltered, unpasteurized organic malt spine that makes way for Simcoe, Amarillo, and Centennial hops, this Northwest IPA is medium-bodied with a resinous mouthfeel, grapefruit more than pine and finishes with lingering hop bitterness. This beer is straight-up delicious. Fort George Vortex is the number one seed in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest IPAs Northern Washington region.
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