World Cup of Beer: Semifinals and FINAL WINNER!!

So we come at last to the "Final Four" of our World Cup of Beer: The Semifinals!

Australia (Foster's) vs.
England (Newcastle)


USA (Killian's) vs.
Netherlands (Heineken)

What a tough competition we had among these final four. The cream of the crop had indeed risen to the top, to mix metaphors slightly, and (with the possible exception of Foster's) we had some great beers going head-to-head.

Let's get right to it: Game 1!

Australia (Foster's) put up a tough fight, but in the end, England's Newcastle, with its smooth, rich flavor (flavour?), was simply too much for the Aussies to handle. Foster's, as it turns out, is also Australian for "Lost to the Geordies!" (I think that's what they're called. Neil?)

NEWCASTLE TO THE FINALS!!!!!!

Game 2:

The Netherlands' Heineken was the other lighter-colored, weaker-flavored lager/pilsner type to make it this far. It and Foster's were clearly the class of that category this year. But it simply proved no contest against the mighty United States entry, straight outta Golden, Colorado-- Killian's Irish Red.

Killian's triumphed with its smooth, rich flavor that lacked the rough hops kick that the others suffered from. Heineken would be our third-place beer, yes-- but the second Semifinalist was Killian's!

And so, in the end, we had two medium-dark beers facing off in a competition that had, for some reason, seemed to favor the darker beers. (Even Brazil's dreaded Xingu Black Beer made the Quarters!)

THE WORLD CUP OF BEER FINAL MATCH:

England (Newcastle Brown Ale) vs United States (Killian's Irish Red)

Newcastle was good. Newcastle was very gooooooood.

But Killian's was simply better.

Simple as that.

The WORLD CUP OF BEER CHAMPION FOR 2010 IS:

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- KILLIAN'S IRISH RED!

Thanks to Ami for the photography (and for the little sashes for the bottles)!

World Cup of Beer: Quarterfinals!

Following group play, we move into the Quarterfinals brackets for the World Cup of Beer, with single-elimination play beginning.

Just as with the soccer World Cup, the winner of each group faces a second-place competitor from a different group-- thus making it impossible for two contestants from the same group to face one another prior to the Finals.

We find the competitors lined up thusly:

A1: Australia (Foster's)

C2: Belgium (Stella Artois)

B1: England (Newcastle)

D2: Germany (Beck's)

C1: USA (Killian's)

A2: Brazil (Xingu)

D1: Netherlands (Heineken)

B2: Jamaica (Red Stripe)

The Competition Results:

Match 1: Australia (Foster's) was an extremely weak group winner, facing the easiest competition of any group winner. And they were lucky again in the Quarterfinals, this time meeting one of the weaker second-place beers in Belgium's Stella Artois. Foster's prevailed, sending Australia on into the Semifinals.

Match 2: The always-exciting matchup of England and Germany gave us Newcastle Brown Ale against Beck's, the surprise qualifier from German national competition. Beck's, which had shocked many by making it even this far (securing second place in their group by ousting Italy's beloved Peroni!), gave favored Newcastle a surprisingly tough game; in some ways, Beck's was one of the major surprises of this entire competition. Ultimately, however, Newcastle pulled out the victory and England made the Semis.

Match 3: Brazil (Xingu Black Beer) was another entry that did better than expected. By far the darkest and heaviest of the beers in this tournament, they took down the weaker challengers in group play and gave it all they could muster here. Unfortunately for them, their heavier, much harsher hoppy taste could not prevail over the smoothness of the United States entry, Killian's Irish Red (itself a relatively dark beer). Killian's won with ease and moved on as the third entry in the Semis.

Match 4: Jamaica's Red Stripe was an old, sentimental favorite but never a strong competitor. As with Stella Artois, it got into the Quarters mostly by being the least bad of a set of weak lager/pilsners. Heineken of the Netherlands proved to be one of the absolute best of the lighter-colored beers, with a smooth flavor and not too much of the strong hoppiness that had derailed so many others. The Dutch moved with ease into the Semifinals while the Reggae Beers sailed home.

And so the Semifinals will see all four of the Group winners facing off, while all of the 2nd place beers go home:

Australia (Foster's) vs.

England (Newcastle)

USA (Killian's) vs.

Netherlands (Heineken)

World Cup of Beer: Group D Draw and Results!

Group D in the World Cup of Beers-- the final group of the tournament-- drew as follows:

Italy (Peroni)

Germany (Beck's)

Netherlands (Heineken)

Czech Rep. (Pilsner Urquell)


Group D Results:

Once again, sampling these beers side-by-side in blind taste test, with the beers slightly less than "ice cold" and in small plasic cups instead of cold glass bottles had an impact on the outcome.

There is no doubt that, when I am sitting in an Italian restaurant eating good Italian food, there's nothing in the world better than an ice-cold bottle of Peroni. I love it. And yet, in this competition, with the circumstances so different surrounding the drinking of it.... we get totally different results. As with the way the Italian national side usually struggles in the early games of any World Cup, Peroni struggled to a draw with Beck's in the opening game, and then lost handily to Heineken (a result I found shocking once the beers were revealed to me). Only in the final game, against hapless Pilsner Urquell, did the Italian beer manage a clear victory-- just enough to pull them completely level with the German beer, Beck's. More on that in a moment.

Once again, one beer waltzed easily through all three matches of the Group competition, making it four-for-four on a beer receiving the full 9 of 9 possible points. This time it was Heineken, which makes the overall favorites for reaching the semifinals quite obvious: four groups with one beer in each sweeping to nine points. And yet, I have a feeling that something unexpected could still happen. We shall see, later today in fact.

Back to the group results: Germany's Beck's managed a draw with Peroni and then dispatched the Czech beer with ease, and looked to be cruising toward advancement. But Heineken took the Germans down in the final game, giving us a dead-heat between Peroni and Beck's. We would have to look at "goal differential."

In the case of a World Cup of Beers, "goal differential" consisted of a drink-off between the two drawn teams in second. Still completely blind as to the identities of the beers (and with the Peroni tasting oddly flat, I have to admit-- I did not recognize its usually peppery taste at all, as I normally would have), I sampled both again and declared one the extremely marginal winner-- which turned out to be Beck's.

And so, the Germans managed to forge their way into the next round, while the Italians have been shown the door. Not what I expected by any means.

Meanwhile, the Czechs were bounced and their beer joined China's TsingTao as the only two to be defeated in every match and go home with zero points.

So here are the final Group results, before we move on to the Quarterfinals today!

GROUP D RESULTS: (Top two advance to the Quarterfinals)

Netherlands (Heineken) 3 3 3 __ 9

Germany (Beck's) 0 3 1 __ 4


Italy (Peroni) 1 0 1 __ 2

Czech Rep. (Pilsner Urquell) 1 0 0 __ 1



Quarterfinal results coming later today!

World Cup of Beer: Group C Draw and Results!

Group C in the World Cup of Beers drew as follows:

USA (Killian's Irish Red)

Belgium (Stella Artois)

Ireland (Harp)

Spain (Estrella Galicia)


Group C Results:

Bear in mind-- this competition is a *blind* taste test. The idea is to remove any possible way of my knowing in advance what I'm drinking, and what's competing with what in each group. To that end, Ami prepares the cups of beer for me to sample in such a way that I have no idea which four of the sixteen beers in the competition I'm tasting in each round. All I have to go by, aside from taste, is the color and the smell.

Group C was a real mystery to me at first. I could tell from the smell and taste that it included two of what I'm coming to think of as the "generic thin, light-yellow pilsner/lager beers." They all taste pretty similar, more or less-- a fact that I'm suspecting is contributing to the darker ales and beers doing better in this year's competition; they tend to stand out strongly against the bland competition.

Thus Killian's, with its darker, richer flavor (but lack of bitterness) easily swept this group. Killian's was one of three finalists for my "Official Beer of World Cup 2006," an admittedly far less comprehensive competition. It destroyed the competition in Group C, and now looks to be a strong contender for the championship.

Harp and Estrella Galicia simply faced the wrong competition in this (blindly drawn) Group. They came across as watered-down, thin American-ish beers. They even drew with one another in direct competition, neither proving notably superior to the other.

The second-place finisher was a true puzzle when I smelled and tasted it. Immediately I was sure I'd tasted it before, but for several minutes I couldn't place it. Then I decided, "It must be Peroni!" But yet it didn't taste quite as good as Peroni. But it had that distinctive smell and flavor....

And of course it ended up being Belgium's Stella Artois, which I am sure I've had in the past, but not recently enough to recall that particular flavor and smell. Stella Artois lost to Killian's but defeated Estrella Galicia head-to-head and then managed a draw with Harp.

This was a strong group and the two beers that failed to advance might well have done better against other competition. Could this have been the Beer Group of Death?? Of course, Group D looks to have some powerful competition in store, too-- we now know it will include Heineken and Peroni, anther finalist for the 2006 title!


GROUP C RESULTS: (Top two advance to the Quarterfinals)

USA (Killian's) 3 3 3 __ 9

Belgium (Stella Artois) 0 3 1 __ 4


Ireland (Harp) 1 0 1 __ 2

Spain (Estrella Galicia) 1 0 0 __ 1



Group C coming soon!

World Cup of Beer: Group B Draw and Results!

Group B in the World Cup of Beers drew as follows:

• Mexico (Pacifico Clara)


• Jamaica (Red Stripe)


• Japan (Asahi Super Dry)


• England (Newcastle Brown Ale)

Group B Results:

Northern England celebrates! The England qualifier, Newcastle Brown Ale, swept through group play like..., well, like Brazil through actual World Cup soccer group play, winning all nine possible points on three victories to win Group B easily.




Pacifico Clara, the shock Mexican qualifier, collapsed at crunch time. Unable to compete on the big stage, it exited quietly with only a single point, earned in a tough drawn match against Japan's Asahi.



The Japanese qualifier, Asahi, managed to grind out two draws but, with only two points earned, exited quietly.



Second place in Group B went to Jamaica's Red Stripe, who took down Mexico's beer and eked out a draw with Japan's to earn four points, thus moving on in the competition to the knockout phase.



GROUP B RESULTS:

England (Newcastle) 3 3 3 __ 9

Jamaica (Red Stripe) 3 0 1 __ 4


Japan (Asahi) 0 1 1 __ 2

Mexico (Pacifico Clara) 0 1 0 __ 1



Group C coming soon!

World Cup of Beers: Group A Draw and Results

WORLD CUP OF BEERS: Group round-robin play begins with the first draw and the first blind taste test.

GROUP A DRAW:

• Australia (Foster's Lager)


• Scotland (Belhaven Ale)


• Brazil (Xingu)


• China (Tsingtao)

Group A results:

Australia (Foster's) defeats all three of the others to earn first place with 9 points. This beer was smooth enough to defeat rival light pilsners / lagers such as Tsingtao as well as richer beers such as Xingu.

Brazil (Xingu Black Beer) defeats China and Scotland to grab second place and move on as well. It was quite stout but smooth enough to hold its own, and with no negative aftertaste.

Scotland (Belhaven) fell just short against Brazil (Xingu) to miss second place and a ticket out of the group. It had a lot of body but the hoppy aftertaste was too much.

And China (Tsingtao) failed to score a single point. Not good.

Final results for Group A (top two beers move on; bottom two are eliminated):

1. AUSTRALIA (Foster's) 9 points

2. BRAZIL (Xingu) 6 points

3. SCOTLAND (Belhaven) 3 points

4. CHINA (Tsingtao) 0 points

World Cup of Beers: Mexican Qualifying Results are in

We've had the first shock upset in the World Cup of Beers!

The defending champion has been dethroned!!!

In tonight's CONCACAF Qualifying for the Mexican spot in the World Cup of Beers, the prohibitive (pardon the pun) favorite was my 2006 "Official Beer" of my World Cup of Eating and Drinking-- Dos Equis Lager.

But its opponent, a newcomer to my beer menu called Pacifico Clara, pushed Dos Equis all the way to penalty kick drinks-- and then prevailed!

So here's to the outgoing champs, dethroned and not even getting to compete in this year's Cup. While Dos Equis was as always a great-tasting beer, good enough to push Pacifico Clara to extra time and then to PK drinks, it just didn't quite have that extra *oomph* that the newcomer had.

And so here's to the new representative for Mexico: Pacifico Clara!

World Cup of Beers: US Qualifying Results!

The Qualifying Round for the World Cup of Beers 2010, for the CONCACAF region (North and Central America and Caribbean) is complete.

The contenders were:
Fat Weasel Ale
Sam Adams Boston Lager
Schlafly's Pale Ale
Killian's Irish Red

(Yes, Killian's is a US beer, brewed by Coors in Golden, CO, and NOT an import -- despite most bars cleverly sneaking it onto the "Imports" menu so they can charge more for it.)

And after careful judging by our one-judge panel (that would be me), the winner, which will go through to represent the USA in the World Cup of Beers, is:

KILLIAN'S IRISH RED!!!!


Yes, the 3rd place finisher in the 2006 World Cup of Eating and Drinking (behind winner Dos Equis Lager and 2nd place Bass Ale) has won the USA spot in the CONCACAF region for the tournament.

The judges (yes, me) reported that Killian's was slightly "hoppy" (as were all of these, to one degree or another) but had a smoother overall flavor, with a nice warm finish.

Congrats to Killian's for making the Final Sixteen.

Next up: Qualifying for the Mexican, German, and English spots.

Ami & Van's WORLD CUP of BEERS: The Draw is Announced!!

I've mentioned a couple of times previously that, in conjunction with the World Cup (which begins next Friday, June 11), Ami and I will be conducting a "World Cup of Beers."

(At left is the beer selected by me as the "Official Beer of World Cup 2006," after a grueling month of drinking fine beers at establishments all over metro Atlanta.)

Here's how it will work: We have purchased adequate (I hope!) supplies of beers from the countries that have been "drawn" into this year's competition. Each participating country will have one beer to represent it. There will be a pre-tournament qualifying campaign this weekend for countries that have drawn more than one beer. Those countries are marked below with an * asterisk.

Ami will disguise the beers and serve them up in code-marked cups, and I will drink them and choose the winner of each match. (It's a tough job, but...!)

We will have 16 beers / nations represented in the final tournament, which begins next weekend. They will be drawn (by Ami) into four "Groups" for round-robin competition.

The top two beers from each Group will move on to single-elimination competition, as in the real World Cup. And so on until the World Cup Champion of Beers is crowned!

The beers were selected by Ami and me based on a combination of factors-- I wanted to include a few "old favorites" along with a few that I was not familiar with at all. We also wanted as wide of a global distribution as possible, based on what was available here in the St Louis area.

Sadly, I could not find any Tiger Beer (Singapore) or Kiwi Lager (New Zealand). But otherwise I think we did very well.

Without further ado, then, here are the countries represented in the 2010 World Cup of Beers:

UEFA (Europe -- 9 spots available)
Belgium: Stella Artois
Czech Rep: Pilsner Urquell
England: Bass Ale and Newcastle *
Germany: Beck's and St Pauli Girl Lager *
Ireland: Harp Lager
Italy: Peroni
Netherlands: Heineken
Scotland: Belhaven Ale
Spain: Estrella Galicia

CONCACAF (North & Central America & Caribbean-- 3 spots available)
Jamaica: Red Stripe
Mexico: Dos Equis Lager and Pacifico Clara *
USA: Fat Weasel Ale and Killian's Red and Sam Adams Lager and Schlaffly's Pale Ale *

AFC (Asia and Pacific -- 3 spots available)
Australia: Foster's Lager
China: Tsingtao
Japan: Asahi Super Dry

CONMEBOL (South America -- only 1 beer available)
Brazil: Xingu Black Beer

So there you have it-- the 22 beers that will enter a final weekend of qualifying before being narrowed down to 16 for the big competition.

I hate not having, for example, an Argentine beer... and surely there are another dozen Mexican and English and German beers (each!) that would have been worthy. I don't feel as bad about leaving out the big, bland, watery US major beers-- I don't drink them anyway.

Tune in later this weekend for the announcement of the Final 16 Countries/Beers!