ACC Beer Tourney: # 1 North Carolina vs # 8 Virginia

      The North Carolina Tar Heels are represented by NC's own Duck Rabbit Amber.  The Virginia Cavaliers have Charlottesville's own Starr Hill Amber on their side.  NC is amber with a rich creamy sweet caramel nose with a bit of citrus.  VA is amber with caramels,herb and perhaps a little yeast. The Heels jump out with their superior talent, but begin to stall.  The Cavs  hit some shots and keep it close early, but the talent isn't there.  The Heels are a bit off  but get better and better, sip after sip. Virginia is just average at best and they can't keep up with the excellence of the Tar Heels.  It's time for people to start heading to their cars this is a blow out.

Analysis:  Starr hill amber is drinkable, but way down on my amber list.  Duck Rabbit is near the top.  I will say the DR Amber tastes a little strange at first, but gets much better.

The ACC Tourney, of Beer

      Well, March is the month that brings us the amazing Spring Beer Tourney, and another lesser known basketball tournament.  But, I just realized there's still more than a week till Selection Sunday.  So what shall I do?  Well this is ACC Country so it's the ACC Tourney, of beer.  I'm taking what I think are the top 8 teams in the ACC.  Here's who I will eliminate and why.  Wake Forest is the worst team in ACC history, they would get bounced in the first round of the Women's Tourney.  NC State blows and there's to many NC teams.  Georgia Tech sucks and and their rascists.  Last man out, The U, Fuck The U.  That leaves us with the top eight and here's how I see them finishing.

1. North Carolina
2. Duke
3. Florida State
4. Virginia Tech
5. Clemson
6. Boston College
7. Maryland
8. Virginia

      Your thinking, why doesn't he wait till the seeding is final?  Because there are only so many beers you can objectively try in one day.  Sure, I can drink ten, but I can only comment on the first few.  So, here's the beers that will represent these fine institutions.

1. Duck Rabbit Amber,  NC's finest.
2. Highland Gaelic Ale, produced somewhere near Duke.
3. Landshark Lager, the only Florida Beer I could find.
4. St. George Golden Ale, a little East of Blacksburg, but VA.
5. RJ Rockers Bell Ringer, Somewhere in SC.
6. Sam Adam's, a Boston fahkin non qweeyah beeyah.
7. Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber, a little North West of campus.
8. Starr Hill Amber, right in Charlottesville.

      So it's 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc. you get the drill. Now this is of course judged strictly on the beer so Duke won't get 20 phantom calls every game to win.  So prepare for a week of the ACC Tourney, of Beer.

Starr Hill " The Gift " Winterbock

      I sure love Winterbock, but " The Gift " is the most annoying, pretentious name ever.  It better be liquid gold for me not to hate it, even though Starr Hill is  kind of local.  This stuff is hard to pour, it's all head.  Had to wait a while even though I poured carefully.  It's a hazy pale straw with strong caramels and citrus on the nose.  Eeehhhh. O.K. there are some caramel, citrus and yeast.  There's also quite a bit of strong herb that clashes with the yeast and leaves a poor aftertaste.  I'm gonna plow through and see where this goes.  It gets better as you go, but this " Gift " needs to be returned.  This hovers on the lower end of the nice list, it's drinkable.  I should put it on the naughty list just for the name, and it's not very good.