KING OF BEERS

In college, my primary sources of alcohol were half-warm kegs of Busch Light kept in the boarded-up side porches of houses that up 14 males lived in. Since these formative years of alcohol consumption, my taste in beer has improved, but not evolved. Without question, I will always take something watery and pale over something flavorful and dark. However, the light-and-wateries I seek out these days are more often from Germany or Japan than from St. Louis or Milwaukee.

In the late 1800s, Adolphus Busch attempted to replicate a 300-year-old Bohemian beer. Once complete, he named his creation after the original: Budweiser. In stealing this name, Busch also stole a legacy, and since then his watery domestic is known around the world as "The King of Beers." As it turns out, every country has a Budweiser. Mass-produced, mass-consumed, light on flavor, heavy on drinkability, these beers are imported to the States and sold as high-priced luxury items. With so many Budweisers to choose from in this world, is the title Aldolpus Busch bestowed upon his beer really accurate? This tournament will finally answer that question.

The Methodology:

1. 33 Budweisers of the World were selected. To be eligible for this tournament, a beer had to be macrobrewed, readily available in the Sacramento area, and light. All but two of the beers are either lagers or pilsners. The two that are not are from England. Thanks England.

2. The cost of large quantities of alcohol and my desire to not die put limitations on how quickly this tournament can be completed. Brackets of 8 will be played in their entirety to determine which beer will move on to the Final Four. Then the Final Four and Championship Game will be played on the same night.

3. The procedure for determining the winner will be as follows:

*Gather an odd number of people to act as judges. Purchase at least 3 bottles each of the competing beers.

*For each round, elect a facilitator. Using the bracket, the judges will determine which game to play (i.e. which beers to drink). The facilitator will pour the two competing beers into random glasses, so that the remaining judges do not know which beer they are drinking.

*Judges will listen to the CBS March Madness Song.

*All judges will then blindly taste, compare, and discuss the competitors.

*Once the judges are ready, the facilitator will call for a vote. The winning beer will move on to the next round.

*The beer that is not eliminated is crowned "KING OF BEERS."

OK let's get to the bracket:



The KING OF BEERS TOURNAMENT...NEEEEEEEXT.