The Spring Beer Tourey: # 1 Garde Dog vs # 10 Farmers Tan

      This is a bit unfair for the # 1 seed, cause if I hadn't got rid of the terrible Nectar Nugget this would be a cakewalk.  Instead, the # 10 seed is now the very good Southern Tier Farmers Tan.  Against this is one of the final four beers from last year, Flying Dog Garde Dog.  They are both a cloudy straw. The Dog has honey, citrus and farm, while Tan has herb, honey and caramel on the nose.  The Dog has strong flavors of honey,citrus a bit of yeast and farm.  It's pretty good.  Tan is strong with honey, caramel, citrus, herb and farm.  That is such a good beer.  These are really the same beer.  the flavors are quite similar, but the Tan is stronger in flavor and precious alcohol.  They are both good but Farmers Tan is better.  This is hardly fair.  Life is not fair.

Analysis:  Wow a 10 seed beats a 1 seed.  Might be a tourney of upsets.

The Spring Beer Tourey: # 4 Harpoon Red vs # 5 RH Mudslinger

      The # 4 seed is Harpoon Celtic Ale, just a classic red.  The # 5 seed is Red Hook Mudslinger.  I get why there would be a lot of mud in Spring, but this is the only brown ale this spring, odd.  Harpoon is orange with nice caramel and a little citrus on the nose.  Mud is light brown with caramel, mocha and floral notes.  Celtic is a standard red with toasted caramel and citrus herb bite.  It's not bad, but not exciting.  Mud is kind of odd, it's a weak brown ale red ale cross, I think.  Caramel, mocha and herb.  I'll keep on and see were it goes.  The Harpoon is decent, but the mud seems a little more interesting.  Neither of these beers inspire me.  I guess Mudslinger is a bit better, but they can both go away as far as I'm concerned.  The Mud moves on.

The Spring Beer Tourey: # 3 GB Maibock vs # 6 Yuengling Bock

     Back  in the Bocks Plus Region we have two hopefully yummy bocks. # 3 Gordon Biersch Maibock lost in the first round last year,but they were victims of a bad match-up.  Yuengling Bock is new to the tourney.  GB pours light amber with honey, caramel and citrus on the nose.  Yueng is a very light brown with strong caramel and light mocha.  GB steps up with big flavors of honey and caramel with citrus herb on the finish.  It also brings a big body.  Yueng also brings it strong with the flavor, nice caramel and mocha, but there's a bit of an odd aftertaste.  It has body, but a gulp of the GB washes any trace of it away.  GB has that almost syrupy thick body to it. Nice.  The Yuengling has nice flavors, but Gorden Biersch has it all. GB wins, but I could go for a six of this Yuengling Bock, it's good.

The Spring Beer Tourey: # 3 SA Noble Pils vs Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball

      From the Farms, Hops and Reds Region we have two of the hops. # 3 seed  Sam Adam's Noble Pils against the # 6 seed Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball.  Pils pours out a clear gold with a citrus, herb, floral hop nose with a touch of caramel.  Hairy pours out a reddish brown with prune, floral mocha and caramel.  As I thought last year Noble Pils is a perfect beer to teach people about hop flavors.  You can distinctly taste citrus, herb , floral and other hop notes.  That being said the hop notes are about it besides some background caramels.  And it's a tad bitter on the finish.  Hairy has way more IBU's than Pils, but much less hop dominance.  This has big rich flavors of dried fruit, mocha, caramel, jam and a bit of smoky tang.  I'm not sure what it is but it's good. Noble Pils is a good fresh citrus herb refreshing beer, nice.  But not as nice as The Hairy Eyeball.  Hairy is a big winner her and worth a try.  Drink it up ,Yum.

The Spring Beer Tourney: # 4 Vinyl vs # 5 Pandoras Bock

      The # 4 seed is Magic Hat's Vinyl, which has a stupid name and a bizarre bottle, but I liked it last year.  The # 5 seed is Breckenridge Pandora's Bock, which has a great name and a lovely bottle.  Both pour out a light brown amber.  Vinyl has a rich caramel, mocha and citrus nose.  Pandora has a slightly sour caramel and herb nose, kind of weak.  Vinyl has quite a bit of mocha to its caramel, with some tingly citrus herb.  It's good, but I remember it being better.  Pandora has caramel, mocha, honey and a nice rich mouth feel.  There's some hop tingle it's nice and creamy and very good.  The Vinyl seems to improve a bit it has some body and it's flavorful.  But Pandora has a full body and  big complex flavors.  I'll try some sip for sip action.  The Vinyl can't hold up here, Pandora is to strong.  Pandora's Bock moves on easily to the Elite Eight.

The Spring Beer Tourney: On to the Second Round

      Well the first round is over and we have 16 beers left, and 8 have gone home.  There are some intriguing match-ups in the second round, and I think the tops seeds are big time in trouble.  The ten seeds, farmer's tan and Mardi Gras bock, are both pretty damn good.  But, I was wrong so many times last year.  Throwing in the scabs kind off changed the equation. Because all those beers, DT, Nugget Nectar, Blue moon Spring and Shiner would have been destroyed in the next round.  So the seeding is screwed, but at least I don't have to drink that crap again. Well here are the match ups for round two.

      Farm, Hops and Reds                           Bocks  Plus

# 1  Garde Dog  vs                                  # 1  Anchor Bock  vs                  
# 10 Framers Tan                                    # 10 Abita Bock    

# 3  Noble Pils  vs                                   # 3  GB Maibock  vs
# 6  Hairy Eyeball                                    # 6  Yuengling Bock

# 2  Sam Adam's Red  vs                        # 2  Big Thaw  vs
# 9  Dundee Red                                     # 9  Mendocino Bock

# 4  harpoon Red vs                                # 4  Vinyl
# 5  Red Hook  Mudslinger                     # 5  Pandoras Bock

     This looks like some fine drinking for me.  Follow along at home by opening and pounding two beers at once.It's your duty.

The Spring Beer Scabs: # 8 Aprihop vs # 9 Mendocino Bock

      After the dreadful Blue moon and Shirner I'm pretty excited about these scabs.  We have Dogfish Head's Aprihop and Mendocino Spring Bock.  Aprihop was good last year and was in the final eight, Mendocino made quite a good Winter Beer, so this should be good.  They both are an identical amber.  Aprihop, of course, has a big apricot, caramel and herb nose.  Mendo Bock has nice caramels and lots of citrus.  Aprihop is big on the herb, real big, I get the apricot a bit , but the herb is a bit much.  We'll see if it calms down a bit.  Mendo Bock is really big with caramel, fruit, honey and citrus.  A nice bock indeed.  Aprihop does get better as the massive herb subsides and the fruits and caramels come out.  Still the Mendo is a very complete beer, I don't know that Aprihop can compete.  I drink them down to the last sip and Mendo is the clear winner.  But, Aprihop is an interesting beer worth a try if you like your apricots.  That brings the first round to an end, next we set up the brackets for the exciting second round.