| Special to Cincinnati Enquirer
After a full week of reader/drinker nominations, the field of 32 beers is set for our 2022 Cincinnati’s Favorite Beer Championship. The top brews have been seeded and placed on the bracket for round-by-round, head-to-head matchups.
Voting on the first round of matchups beings Monday, so get out there and do your research. Or pick the name you like best, just like you do for March Madness. No judgment here.
***VOTE HERE, or bitly.com/CFBvotes, on Round 1 matchups Monday-Tuesday
You can download and print out a larger version of the bracket HERE.
Round of 32 voting guide
- Voting begins at 12:01 pm on Monday, March 7, and ends at 11:59 pm on Tuesday, March 8.
- You can vote once per matchup, per round.
- Sweet 16 voting will begin on Thursday, March 10, featuring winners from the previous round.
Cincinnati’s Favorite Beer dates
- Round of 32: March 7-8.
- Sweet 16: March 10-11.
- Elite 8: March 14-15.
- Final Four: March 17-18.
- THE FINALS: March 21-22.
- Winner announced Sunday, March 27.
The bracket breakdown
Are you ready for the madness?
March has returned, and with it has returned the Cincinnati’s Favorite Beer competition.
New this year: more headaches!
Nah, just kidding. With a few notable exceptions, this year’s field is looking just as strong as ever. I do see a couple of mysterious entries, though. Not all of these beers are craft beers.
Heck, not all of these beers are beers. I’m not sure how a seltzer snuck into this competition (although to be fair, it is a very good seltzer). But I’m not the one who calls the shots when it comes to this competition. That distinction goes to my editor, Raspy Todd. Blame him. I always do.
Editor’s note: Yes, blame me. The Seltzer nomination was accepted, in the name of inclusion, for funsies. Send beer-purist hate mail to rtodd@enquirer.com. Or try the drink and see if you like it.
The defending champ
Last year’s winner, Wiedemann Bohemian Special Brew, returns to the competition as a top seed. Wiedemann’s flagship pilsner was able to outlast the competition in 2021 with victories over several beers that have returned to compete in 2022, including Fretboard Vlad Czech Pilsner, Sonder You Betcha! New England IPA and Taft’s Gavel Banger IPA.
Wiedemann Bohemian Special Brew matches up in the opening round this year against Man on the Moo Milk Stout from Darkness Brewing, which sports a 3.77 score on Untappd.
One of these two beers is widely available and has been a part of the Greater Cincinnati brewery scene for more than a century. The other is a milk stout from one of the smallest breweries in the field. I like my beer dark, but I don’t like the long odds facing Darkness in this matchup.
The crème de la crème
As Macho Man Randy Savage once famously reminded us, the cream always rises to the top. Did that happen in this year’s competition?
yeah
The other three no. 1 seeds in this competition were awarded to Rhinegeist Truth, Hofbrauhaus Dunkel and Taft’s Gavel Banger, which won the inaugural competition in 2019.
Respectively, they face first-round matchups against Solo Coffee Blonde from Woodburn, Save Ferris Berlinerweisse from Nine Giant and Mt. Carmel Amber Ale.
If this wasn’t a popularity contest, I might be worried about how Hofbrauhaus would measure up against Nine Giant’s delightful sour ale. But it is so chalk is the safe bet here.
The dark horse
If there’s one thing of which we can all be certain, it’s that this competition would produce very different results if the winners were determined by a judged blind taste testing.
The winner of this competition is likely to be the brewery that does the best job of mobilizing its fans and supporters to vote. Big Ash Brewing proved that in 2020 when those loyal to the Anderson Township brewery propelled Big Ash Backbeat Coffee Blonde to the top of the results.
If Big Ash were in the field this year, it would almost certainly be the dark horse pick to win this tournament. But since it missed the boat this time around, I’m going to go with Hudy Delight, the other budget lager in the field.
Why? Two words: Hu-Dey. Or is that one word? I do not know. What I do know is that the Bengals were a couple of bad whistles away from winning the city its first Lombardi Trophy last month, and a flash sale of Hu-Dey brews made to commemorate the team’s achievement created lines of customers as many as six city blocks long at times.
This is a big if, but if Hudy can get past Braxton’s Tropic Flare NEIPA, there’s no telling how far it could go. Easier said than done, of course – Tropic Flare remains on my shortlist of best Cincinnati shelfies, both in terms of quality and value.
Things that make you go mmmm
About that Seltzer.
Astra Red Cream Soda from March First Brewing is really good. It tastes almost identical to Big Red soda. I love me some Big Red…which is why I’ve got to hand it to March First. I’m all about craftsmanship, and Astra Red Cream Soda is deliciously well put together.
But I’d be lying if I said I was rooting for the seltzer in the opening round, especially considering it’s up against Brink’s Moozie Milk Stout, the back-to-back-to-back Great American Beer Festival gold medal winner. I think Moozie deserves to be held in the highest regard, and I don’t like the idea of it getting knocked off in the first round, regardless of what it’s up against.
Matchup to watch
3. Streetside Suh, Brah? NE IPA vs. 6. Rebel Mettle Stubentiger: Rebel Mettle was bound to break into this competition sooner rather than later, and sooner is well-deserved. But what a tough draw – Streetside remains firmly in the top echelons of the Cincinnati craft beer scene, and Suh, Brah? is arguably the best NEIPA made in Greater Cincinnati (and again, that’s with all due respect to Braxton’s Tropic Flare). It should be interesting to see if the upstart Rebel Mettle has built up enough goodwill among Cincinnati beer drinkers to top the heavyweight.
Surprise!
Astra wasn’t the only thing that made me do a double-take when I first saw this year’s bracket.
I’ve already alluded to it, but congratulations on Darkness for making this year’s field. Well deserved! Their Mayan Sacrifice golden coffee stout brings the heat. I would have preferred to see it make the tournament over Man on the Moo, but that’s probably why I’m not the guy calling the shots around here.