This Saturday, our friends and fellow beer lovers, Martin and Riki, co-hosted the first-annual World Cup of Beer (2009).  The premise: an eight beer, single-elimination blind tasting NCAA tournament-style. The rules: each participant tastes two different unmarked beers from clear plastic cups (to ensure a good look at the color of the beer, thank you Riki). Whichever beer had the most votes moved onto the next round. 

Eight countries were represented – England’s Old Speckled Hen (a last minute addition to the tournament after the Fuller’s London Pale Ale mysteriously disappeared out of Martin’s fridge; Martin blames his “cleaning lady”), Scotland’s Brewdog Punk IPA (ABV: 6%), Japan’s Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale (ABV: 7%), Norway’s Nogne O IPA (ABV: 7.5%), France’s St. Amand French Country Ale (ABV: 5.9%),  Italy’s Super Baladin Ale (ABV: 8%), New Zealand Moa Premium Lager (ABV: 5.5%), and USA’s Rogue American Amber (5.6%) (America – F*ck yeah!).

We drew names out of a hat to determine who would square off against one another in the first round: USA v. Japan (USA), England v. Italy (Italy), New Zealand v. Scotland (New Zealand), and Norway v. France (Norway)

 With the exception of the Super Baladin Ale, I did not pick a single winner in any of the rounds. Apparently, I preferred the least popular brews. But the voting was generally very close. The only blow out was a match where the winner won 11-1. Unfortunately, no one can remember which match that was, though our friend Charles seems to remember it as the England vs. Italy since he recalls being the only one who voted for England. In his words, “I didn’t like how the Italy beer tasted as sweet as something from Willy Wonka.”

In between our tastings, we had a fine selection of beers to cleanse our palates: Andy and Jill brought growlers of Captain Lawrence Double IPA and the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA; I brought a growler of Six Point Eight Days of Wheat; Martin supplied bottles of Dogfish Head 60 Minute; and Riki brought a Lagunitas Hop Stoopid.

We were sufficiently prepared to get drunk enough to, say, fall asleep on the M15 bus and wake up in Chinatown. Thank you Google maps for getting me home.

In the second round, Italy was the clear winner over the USA but the Norway/New Zealand match was much closer.  We took a break to watch Mine that Bird miraculously win the Derby, right before our championship round. And like Mine that Bird, out of nowhere, Norway took our championship 8-5. Although I still think Italy should have taken it all. All in all, it was a great day for the underdog.

Here’s a sheet with a description of the World Cup of Beer competitors:

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