It was a dark and stormy night, one that would make even a gothic freak like Edgar Allen Poe shudder against the wind and rain, when suddenly out of the unsettled darkness Black Raven Brewing came tap, tap, tapping at the door. Enough with the highbrow literary crap.
Last night the Beveridge Place Pub announced the winner of its annual Hoptoberfest competition – a month-long elimination tournament of Washington IPAs. The competition determines the house IPA at the Beveridge Place for the coming year. This is an illustrious honor in itself, but also represents a significant number of guaranteed keg sales. The three finalists were Boundary Bay IPA, Harmon Pt. Defiance IPA, and Black Raven Trickster IPA. Last night, Black Raven took home the title.
The Beveridge Place announces the Hoptoberfest winner at its annual Cask-o-Rama festival. For the past four years, Boundary Bay IPA has been the champion. Every year Boundary Bay won in a landslide and it was beginning to seem like it would never change. Last night, Black Raven Brewing had a trick up its sleeve. The upstarts from Redmond upset the champions when their Trickster IPA was announced the winner of the 2009 Hoptoberfest competition. Our sources behind the bar at the Bev tell us that Trickster IPA won by a landslide.
The video below shows Beveridge Place publican Gary Sink announcing the winner. It also shows Beaux Bowman and the crew from Black Raven enthusiastically accepting the award.
Boundary Bay IPA is a seriously fine beer and holding the title for as long as they did is truly impressive. Thus quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”