The Quest for the Ultimate Beer

I wanted to introduce you to a new site, Brewlimination.com. As the name suggests, it's a beer-related website, and I figured that fellow lovers of fine craft beer might appreciate it. The primary goal of the site is quite simple – find the ultimate beer. The method of doing this is by a tournament-style approach, starting with a 64-beer bracket, and utilizing objective reviews and a reader vote to help decide the winner of each match.

Now, most people will argue that there is no “best beer,” and to be honest that claim does hold some validity. But, everyone has a favorite or go-to beer, or at least a very refined list of beers and breweries that they love more than any other. So therefore, we argue that with the help of popular consensus, the ultimate beer can in fact be found.

A few notes about the site: The beers (and breweries) in this bracket were chosen randomly. The selected beers were then “seeded” randomly, as this was decided to be the only fair method. Finally, this is the first tournament of several – as we may be unlikely to find the ultimate beer in these first 64 – but we’ll need your feedback as to what should or should not be included.

We would love to hear any and all feedback, as well as any general comments or constructive criticism you may have. So please, head on over to the site, let us know what you think, and make sure to vote for your favorite beers in each match!

Here's the link: Brewlimination.com

-John

Funny, I could tell about where you lived based on your choices. The problem I see with this is that you're very limited in style and range. No sours, no Belgian styles... If I made a top 10 list, there might be one from it on your chart. It is just... incomplete.

Thanks for the feedback, we do appreciate it. I will agree that our choices were somewhat influenced by geographic availabilities, but we do intend to branch out to further, and less-available-to-us beers in the future, as well as to additional styles. Keep in mind, we did not intend (or even want) this initial bracket to be the only bracket. If you have ideas for beers or breweries to look into for the next bracket, let us know!

I would suggest, keeping the head to head battles in the same category as long as possible. Or maybe do a serperate tournament for Stouts/porters, a tournament for pales ales and IPAs and so on. Puting a stout against an APA or IPA (bottom of right bracket) is just gathering a general preference on style vote, not which is "better"? Neat idea to find which beer is most popular and could be done with some restructuring, but definitely not for "Ultimate Beer". Sorry. No such think globally.

It's not entirely a preference on style vote, I don't think. Say you put the worst IPA in the world against the best stout, and you are an IPA-fanatic. Are you really going to vote for the IPA just to vote for it? Perhaps you may, but hopefully there are enough people out there that would vote for the better beer. The beer that fits its classification and yet has something to make it "classic".

IrregularPulse, you do realize that people rate and compare wines of different grapes even though they taste entirely different right? The same with cigars. The idea needs a little tweaking to be sure, but John even said this isn't the only tournament they are doing. I'd say take it easy and enjoy the competition.

Great Lakes Brewing News does something like this. I do believe they keep it to a particular style each time they do it. Good idea, though.

Thanks for all the feedback, thoughts like these will really help improve the site for everyone in the future - and that's the ultimate goal. In the meantime, feel free to stick around make your voice heard over at the site!

waste of time.

beers change over time, as do people's taste. all you're gonna find out is the "ultimate beer of the moment".