March Madness, NIPAC Style
It’s that time of the year when men’s (and women’s) fancies turn to thoughts of Spring and all of the attention and excitement that can bring. I’m talking about basketball, of course… what were you thinking? The NCAA basketball tournament is in full swing and I have to admit, while my final pick is still in the running, my “bracket” is a little worse for wear at this point. Another sign of the season is a tournament of a different sort run by the Brewing News magazine; an intense competition between 128 IPA-style beers, called NIPAC – National IPA Competition – to see who would be this year’s best IPA beer.
The judges for this event are all brewers and beer connoisseurs, from all over the US, which meet during the tournament to grade each IPA pairing. These judges are organized in panels of 3 and are served the pair of beers to be judged without knowing what the beers are (blind tasting). Within the 3-member panel, the majority vote determines which of the beers in the judged pair wins. I don’t have any idea who you have to know (or?) to get to be one of these judges, but as a professed and acknowledged hop head, I would want/need/love to be a part of the judging for this event (hint, hint)!
The Brewing News has run this IPA tournament since 2008, when it was only a competition among 32 IPA “teams”. Previous year’s winners include:
- In 2008, after four rounds of pairings, Green Flash Brewing’s Green Flash IPA was declared the winner in this first ever NIPAC final challenge against Bell’s Brewing Two Hearted Ale.
- In 2009 they doubled the number of competing beers to 64 IPA teams and the final winner was Big Sky Brewing’s Big Sky IPA in a competition against Laurelwood Brewing’s Workhorse IPA
- In 2010 they, again, doubled the number of IPA teams to 128. The final winner last year was Fat Head Brewing’s Head Hunter IPA in a final battle against Firestone Walker’s Union Jack IPA.
I have competed in all of these NIPAC events so far and I have to admit, like this year’s basketball tournament, I have not done very well in picking the final winner or even the winners of the many IPA pairings each year. The only excuse that I have, if you’ll allow that (Mulligan please), is that many/most of these beers are not available in Vermont and I have not (yet) had the pleasure to sample that many of them. That being said, my wife would tell you that I am the “worst” when it comes to “betting” of any kind of anyone that she has ever met… I am useless in a casino and she won’t even let me touch the lottery tickets, which we splurge on occasionally, for fear that I will “contaminate” them with my bad luck. I still have fun with NIPAC and, since it costs nothing to enter, the damage is inherently/fortunately limited in this particular case.
Participating in this year’s NIPAC competition was decidedly different for me. This year there was a Vermont brewer involved in the competition for the very first time… Lawson’s Finest Liquids had entered their Triple Play IPA… a truly excellent IPA, I might add. You have heard me speak before of Lawson’s, the 1-barrel brewer from tiny Warren, Vermont, as the “mouse that roared” at last year’s World Beer Cup, when Sean Lawson’s Maple Tripple won a bronze medal in the specialty beer category. Sean has steadily been building his skills and repertoire as a first-class brewer through his high showings in both national and international events like NIPAC and the WBC.
To make this story short and very sweet (for me), Lawson’s Triple Play IPA beat out the other 127 best IPAs in this year’s tournament and was declared the winner of the 2011 NIPAC challenge against Big Dog Brewing’s Dirty Dog IPA in the final round.
Like some of the smaller, “Cinderella” teams in the NCAA tournament, Lawson’s Finest Liquids continues to show the nation and the world that being small does not necessarily mean that you can’t compete at the same level as the better-funded and much larger brewers which enter these events. No brewer has ever repeated as a NIPAC winner… I am looking forward to 2012 and the chance to see Lawson’s Finest Liquids be the first to attain that lofty and very unique distinction!
One Comment to “March Madness, NIPAC Style”
Leave a Reply
[...] Read more… [...]