What beer should you choose for the Big Game this Sunday? Keeping with our tradition, let the breweries of their respective home regions of each participating team decide the winner in the DFW Super Bowl of Beer III.
Unlike years past, both teams this year are well-represented in the North Texas area by their local breweries. Instead of fishing out logical and geographic connections, the contest can actually be a head-to-head competition of local craft beer.
The NFC team this year is the New York Giants, and although local football fans may not care for Eli Manning and company they do appreciate the Brooklyn Brewery products, which have become easy to find in North Texas. Brooklyn makes some very fine and tasty beers, some highly prized by craft beer consumers such as the Black Chocolate Stout, the Sorachi Ace and the Monster Ale. (North Texas has even been honored with a couple of appearances this past year by former brewer and bon vivant beer and food author, Garrett Oliver.)
However, the competition stiffens when you examine the AFC team, represented by the New England Patriots. The Boston area has numerous fine breweries that never reach our area, but two prominent ones that do are Harpoon Brewing and the newly arrived Mercury Brewing Company, brewers of the Clown Shoes line of beers. Clown Shoes made fairly big news when they arrived last year with the likes of Tramp Stamp, Hoppy Feet and Eagle Claw Fist, and readers here should be familiar with the quality of Harpoon’s “100 Barrel Series” of specialty limited beers.
Even the backup players drawn from farther in each region present a tight contest. From miles north of New York City comes Brewery Ommegang, with their great Belgian-inspired ales available for many years in North Texas. But playing craft beer second string for the Boston area is the goliath of Boston Beer Company and their Samuel Adams beers that have blanketed the nation. Both their regular products and specialty beers are consistently good, even if they do not always attract the admiration of more particular craft beer consumers.
The DFW Super Bowl of Beer III turns out as a craft beer slug-fest, with the NFC backed by the titanic Brooklyn and Ommegang breweries and the AFC represented by the colossal beers of Harpoon, Clown Shoes and Samuel Adams. It is a very tough call to make but it would seem the Boston-area breweries win this contest for the AFC by only a slim margin.
The result is the New England Patriots (beer team) win in a tough game with a close final score, both beer teams representing themselves very well. Now let’s see how the actual teams match up this Sunday.
Examiner Beer Record: 2-0
Cheers!
paul@scientist.com
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