(Philadelphia, PA) Boundary Bay Brewery made it to the Sweet 16 in this year’s National IPA Championship (NIPAC) but suffered a painful, unexpected loss in the third round to Deschutes Inversion IPA. The match-up took place on March 7th in Philadelphia, PA.
After defeating an outmatched Lancaster Brewing Hop Hog IPA in the first round, the Bellingham Behemoth squeaked out a victory against Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA in the second round. Many people believed Racer 5 to be the toughest competitor in this year’s tournament. After that impressive win, it looked like Boundary Bay would have smooth sailing into the Great Eight and the Final Four. Then, last weekend, something went horribly, horribly wrong and the judging panel mysteriously determined Deschutes to be the better IPA.
Although nobody from Boundary Bay was willing to go on record, we did find someone willing to speak anonymously. “The fix was in and the whole thing was rigged,” the mustachioed mystery man said. “They obviously paid-off the judges. Phil Knight (the Nike tycoon) has deep pockets and he wants to see Oregon win at any cost.”
The fix does indeed seems to be in for the Oregon Brewers Guild. Along with Deschutes Inversion IPA, Laurelwood Workhorse IPA and Rogue Yellow Snow IPA also made the final eight.
Of course we’re kidding and wish our friends from Oregon nothing but the best of luck.
To see the brackets, go to http://www.brewingnews.com/
[...] As we reported earlier, Boundary Bay IPA did pretty well in this year’s National IPA Championship (NIPAC) – a competition pitting the 64 “best” IPAs from across America in a series of head-to-head match ups. Ed Bennett’s Bellingham Behemoth made it to the sweet sixteen before suffering a disappointing loss to Deschutes Inversion IPA. While Boundary Bay was the last Washington IPA standing, Oregon brewers sent three beers to the elite eight – Deschutes Inversion IPA, Rogue Yellow Snow IPA, and Laurelwood Workhorse IPA. In the final four, Rogue and Laurelwood were both still standing and met in a heated match up of cross-state rivals. After dismissing Rogue, Laurelwood Workhorse IPA had an easy path to victory and won the NIPAC trophy, defeating Big Sky IPA in the final match up. [...]