Concordia's Beer Brawl VI

Concordia Ale House's Beer Brawl VI is in full swing as the four-state battle pits beers from Oregon, Washington, California and Colorado against one another in three categories: IPA, Pale Ale and Open on a 12-glass taster tray. In a departure from our attendance at recent "Cup" events, we hit it up early in the week meaning we'll have to wait longer to see how our favorites stacked up to the crowd favorites but that's the way the beer pours.

As our taster trays were brought out smiles overtook our faces as we could immediately smell the hoppy goodness without even needing an up close inspection. Starting off with beer #1, in the Pale Ale category, I was absolutely delighted. The huge grapefruit/tropical fruit aroma and flavor were a siren's song, hitting high, bright hop notes. It took my vote for best in the category although #4 was a solid second choice.

Moving on to the IPAs (#5 - #8) #6 stole the show for me with a lovely, stinky hoppiness. Then it was on to the final category, Open, with the first beer (#9) being strikingly different that the rest of the beers in this group. Either a stout or a porter, it was very tasty but for me couldn't compete with the others, of which two I suspect were Double IPAs. My final vote of the night went to #11 with #10 being an even closer runner up than #4 had been in the Pale Ale category to #1.

Overall it was a very tasty taster tray and if I were to be given the option to vote for my single favorite on the tray that honor would have to go to #11. But since that isn't part of the voting I did the next best thing and ordered a pint of it.

Beer Brawl VI runs through close of business on Sunday leaving you plenty of time to stop in and cast your own vote. I'm looking forward to Monday not only to see if my winners were echoed by the majority of the voters but also to have the identities of the beers revealed. Thanks to Concordia for creating such delicious drinking games!