Welcome to For The Win Bracket Madness. In our fourth Bracket Madness contest of the month, we want you to decide the best craft beer brewery in the country.
The voting period for the opening round will run until 10 a.m. Saturday.
The Answer, a Richmond, Va.-based brewpub, has advanced to the final for a second consecutive year. It will face Monkish, located in Torrance, Calif.
Here’s a quick look at the tale of the tape for the championship round.
The Answer has a 4.28 rating out of 5 on just over 2,000 ratings at Beer Advocate. BA lists 372 current beers, and most have only a handful of ratings. Grand Larceny, an Imperial IPA with 96 ratings (the most of any individual beer on the list), comes in at a score of 4.25.
The Answer ranks 14th on Untappd’s list of top-rated breweries in the United States (which also includes several meaderies and breweries boosted by high scores but a lower number of overall ratings). Its 1,042 beers score an average of 4.332 (out of 5) on 310,839 ratings. The Answer’s most popular beer on Untappd is 3 Scoops: Passionfruit, Lemonade and Mango, a fruited sour that comes in with a 4.48 on nearly 5,500 ratings. Grand Larceny is also popular and well regarded (4.24 on 3,715 ratings).
Monkish scores a 4.21 rating at Beer Advocate. Its 239 beers have been rated 3,376 times. Its most popular and well-regarded beers are the double dry-hopped and single dry-hopped versions of a hazy, juicy New England IPA: Foggier Window (200 ratings, 4.25 score) and Foggy Window (195 ratings, 4.25 score).
Monkish comes in 32nd on Untappd’s top brewery list, with a 4.254 score on 371,108 ratings covering 411 beers. Foggier Window (4.47 score on over 8,000 ratings) and Foggy Window (4.46 on more than 6,700 ratings) are also popular with Untappd users.
And there you have it. It’s The Answer against Monkish, winner take all (and by “all” we mean just the title of champion for the 5th Ultimate Craft Beer Bracket.)
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