We are in the latter stages of the 2014 Basketball World Cup of Beer. It began with 24 beers, one for each of the nations in the FIBA World Cup of Basketball. Now we’re down to the elite eight. It’s time to find out our first two semi-finalists.
Here are your match-ups on day one of the quarter-finals:
8 Wired Superconductor DIPA (New Zealand) vs Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA (USA)
Sinebrychoff Porter (Finland) vs Little Creatures Pale Ale (Australia)
It’s time to turn 4 into 2…
8 Wired Superconductor DIPA (New Zealand) vs Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA (USA)
Deciding between these two in the group stage was a nightmare and it’s no easier on second inspection. The Kiwis deliver big with a beer with notes of tobacco and toffee, it’s a beer that belongs in any specialist beer outlet. Torpedo IPA squeezes everything possible out of a single IPA, it’s complex, it’s drinkable, with touches of grapefruit and orange complementing all those hops. Denying one of these beers a shot at a medal seems criminal but there can only be one in the final four.
Winner: Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA
Sinebrychoff Porter (Finland) vs Little Creatures Pale Ale (Australia)
Another clash of two titans of this competition. Little Creatures takes a style where it’s desperately tough to stand out and delivers a unique beer with orange, coriander, and lime. Above all else, it is tremendously balanced. Sinebrychoff fires right back with caramel, chocolate, and malt. If any group was going to deliver two semi-finalists, it would have been Group C but instead it’s Advance Australia Fair.
Winner: Little Creatures Pale Ale (Australia)
The first semi-final is set and it’s a doozy. Four styles of beer went in, all with brews at the top of their class, but in the end the USA is repped by an IPA while the Boomers will hang their hopes on Little Creatures.
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