TNIAAM 2020 Beer Bracket: Let’s vote for America’s best brewery

You might recall that we used to do a beer bracket every March to coincide with the NCAA Tournament. While that practice fell by the wayside (incredibly time consuming, as you might imagine), no NCAA Tournament this year means we could use some content. And since you like beer...

Welcome to the TNIAAM 2020 Beer Bracket!

All week, we’ll be voting on the best breweries in America. While we used to hold brackets pretty stringently to the teams in the NCAA Tournament, this year’s is a bit different. Instead, we’ve seeded the top breweries in each region — East, Midwest, South, West — and will simply match them up against one another in daily polls. As always, we did get feedback from TNIAAM alumnus Aaron Goldfarb. But ultimately, if you’re annoyed that a brewery wasn’t included, it’s my fault. Also, it’s pretty tough to please everyone with an exercise like this.

Today we’ll be unveiling the teams and seeds, plus voting for the play-in games. Unlike the real NCAA Tournament, all play-ins will be for the 16-seeds. Cool? Cool.

Without further ado, the 68 breweries included in this year’s beer bracket:

East Region

1. Hill Farmstead (Greensboro, VT)
2. Tree House (Charlton, MA)
3. The Alchemist (Stowe, VT)
4. Other Half (Brooklyn, NY)
5. Suarez Family (Hudson, NY)
6. Bissell Brothers (Portland, ME)
7. Lawson’s Finest Liquids (Waitsfield, VT)
8. Trillium (Boston)
9. Tired Hands (Ardmore, PA)
10. New England (Ardmore, CT)
11. Maine Beer Co. (Portland, ME)
12. Dancing Gnome (Pittsburgh)
13. Finback (Glendale, NY)
14. Mortalis (Avon, NY)
15. Kane (Ocean Township, NJ)
16. Oxbow (Newcastle, ME)/Foam (Burlington, VT)

Midwest Region

1. Side Project (St. Louis)
2. Funk Factory (Madison, WI)
3. Fair State (Minneapolis)
4. 3 Floyds (Munster, IN)
5. New Glarus (New Glarus, WI)
6. Toppling Goliath (Decorah, IA)
7. Off Color (Chicago)
8. Surly (Minneapolis)
9. Metropolitan (Chicago)
10. Rhinegeist (Cincinnati)
11. Bell’s (Kalamazoo, MI)
12. Boulevard (Kansas City, MO)
13. Founders (Grand Rapids, MI)
14. Central Waters (Amherst, WI)
15. Speciation (Comstock Park, MI)
16. Perennial (St. Louis)/Marz (Chicago)

South Region

1. Jester King (Austin, TX)
2. The Veil (Richmond, VA)
3. Creature Comforts (Athens, GA)
4. Brewery Bhavana (Raleigh, NC)
5. Unknown (Charlotte, NC)
6. Fonta Flora (Morganton, NC)
7. The Answer (Richmond, VA)
8. American Solera (Tulsa, OK)
9. Cigar City (Tampa, FL)
10. Prairie (Tulsa, OK)
11. Westbrook (Mt. Pleasant, SC)
12. Parish (Broussard, LA)
13. Cycle (St. Petersburg, FL)
14. J. Wakefield (Miami)
15. Orpehus (Atlanta)
16. Live Oak (Dell Valle, TX)/Edmund’s Oast (Charleston, SC)

West Region

1. Highland Park (Los Angeles)
2. Russian River (Santa Rosa, CA)
3. Modern Times (San Diego)
4. Crooked Stave (Denver)
5. Santa Adairius (Capitola, CA)
6. AleSmith (San Diego)
7. Fiestone Walker (Paso Robles, CA)
8. Monkish (Torrance, CA)
9. De Garde (Tillamook, OR)
10. New Belgium (Fort Collins, CO)
11. Casey (Glenwood Springs, CO)
12. Cellarmaker (San Francisco)
13. Beachwood (Long Beach, CA)
14. WeldWerks (Greeley, CO)
15. pFriem Family (Hood River, OR)
16. Stoup (Seattle)/Wayfinder (Portland, OR)

***

And now, today’s voting for the four play-in matchups:

East: Oxbow (Newcastle, ME)/Foam (Burlington, VT)

Midwest: Perennial (St. Louis)/Marz (Chicago)

South: Live Oak (Dell Valle, TX)/Edmund’s Oast (Charleston, SC)

West: Stoup (Seattle)/Wayfinder (Portland, OR)

***

Polls close at 11 p.m. ET on Sunday night. First round starts on Monday.