CougCenter Craft Beer Tournament: Red Chair rules them all

Welcome to our final installment of the CougCenter Craft Beer Tournament. What began as an offshoot of March Madness has concluded in the dead of summer which, coincidentally, is a great time to get out and sample some beer! In the end, the Pacific Northwest won out, as Deschutes Red Chair NWPA cruised to an easy victory over Ballast Point Victory at Sea.

We owe some gratitude to the fine folks at breweries like Iron Horse (@IronHorseBeer), Georgetown (@GeogetownBeer) and Deschutes (@DeschutesBeer), who promoted this little escapade via social media, which led to a lot of votes for our Final Four rounds. Also, thank you to Jason Randles, Digital Marketing Manager at Deschutes, for easing my fears that Deschutes beers may never make it out here to the eastern US.

With that in mind, we'd still love to know what you are drinking this summer. One beer I tried last weekend was Stone's Points Unknown IPA. They collaborated with Wicked Weed Brewing and Ecliptic Brewing on this one, and it is beyond fantastic. Beer aficionado Will Gordon wrote more about it in his funny and informative Drunkspin column.

On a related note, my quest to try Airways Oatmeal PSA (now known as PSA Summer Ale, which we discovered thanks to some panicked tweets from our own Kyle Sherwood) continues. If anyone knows whether or not it will be available via internet order, please let me know. If it isn't, I'll be willing to either A) Pay a handsome finder's fee to anyone who can get it to me when I'm in town for the Portland State game, or B) Exchange a six-or-twelve-pack (either one beer or a variety) of beers from this neck of the woods that the finder would like to consume. I'm not kidding.

Many thanks to those of you who nominated, voted and commented throughout the tournament. Football season can't get here fast enough, even though, well, nevermind. Go Cougs.