Upset city, baby!
For the first time in tournament history, a No. 1 seed has fallen to a No. 8 seed in the Cincinnati's Favorite Beer championship. We also have two surprise 6 seeds moving on to the Sweet 16 in a wild-and-wacky first round of matchup voting.
✔️ VOTE HERE on Sweet 16 matchups March 16-17.
🖨️ View, print out and make your picks with a high-res version of the bracket HERE.
First, let's address this history-making upset. No. 8 seed Third Eye P.A. (Third Eye) defeated the No. 1 seed Symphony Vienna Lager (Big Ash) in the first round by a margin of only 66 votes. Sure, we have seen some underdogs make deep runs in this championship over its five-year history, but this is the first No. 8 seed to make it past the first round. Yet another feather in the cap of this brewery's meteoric rise since opening in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. This knocks Big Ash, the 2020-winning brewery, out of the running. Third Eye P.A. will face a big challenge from Brink's Moozie, which was the runner-up in 2022.
Try these:The best beers at every local brewery in 2023, according to you 🍻
Now, how about those No. 6 seeds!? In the much-anticipated battle of the cream ales, the No. 6 seed Kallima Coffee Cream Ale (Esoteric) defeated the No. 3 seed Little Kings (the 7-ounce dark horse) by a whopping 151 votes. Kallima will take on No. 2 seed Vlad (Fretboard) in the next round.
Our other No. 6-seed surprise was even more lopsided. The No. 6 seed Oktoberfest (West Side) took down the No. 3 seed Elvis Juice (BrewDog) by a bottle-popping 225 votes. Up next for the West Side brew is bracket regular, No. 2 seed You Betcha! (Sonder).
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Matchups to watch, beers of note
One great matchup to keep an eye on in the Sweet 16 round is the No. 2 seed Gavel Banger (Taft's 2019 winner) vs. No. 3 seed PsycHOPathy (MadTree). What a perfect battle here with two of Cincy's biggest breweries going toe-to-toe with their flagship IPAs. Doesn't get much more Cincinnati than that.
We've got some German-on-German action, too, with No. 3 seed Franz (Rhinegeist) taking on No. 2 seed Dunkel (Hofbrauhaus) in the Sweet 16. Dunkel has visited the Final Four in 2019 and the Elite Eight a couple of times. Franz is a bracket rookie this year, but it's hard to beat Rhinegeist when it comes to fan base. So this could be an interesting matchup. But Franz has a mighty mountain to climb.
Keep an eye on those sneaky No. 2 seeds this year. Dunkel and You Betcha! (Sonder) were out-voted only by No. 1 seed Bohemian Special Brew (Wiedemann) in the first round. Sure, they all had drastically different matchups, but the three brews were only separated by 21 votes. That bodes well for some tasty matchups down the road for you impartial race fans.
And there's no time to rest now, voting for the next round begins Thursday. Here's how to get into the game:
Sweet 16 Cincinnati's Favorite Beer voting guide
- Voting begins at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, March 16, and ends at 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 17.
- You can vote once per matchup, per round.
- Elite Eight voting will begin on Monday, March 20, featuring winners from the previous round.
Dates to know for Cincinnati's Favorite Beer 2023
Nominations: Feb. 27-March 3.Bracket unveiled: March 12.Round of 32: March 13-14.- Sweet 16: March 16-17.
- Elite Eight: March 20-21.
- Final Four: March 23-24.
- THE FINALS: March 27-28.
- Winner announced: Sunday, April 2.
Previous beer bracket winners
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