Winner: Hurricane High Gravity

Score:

Hurricane High Gravity: 5

Steel Reserve: 0

All of us have a spot in our hearts for Steel Reserve, as it played a significant part in the bad decisions of our younger years. But the Steely just didn’t compare to Hurrican HG’s smooth (read: less severe) flavor. While we cleared our palates with pork rinds between each round, we couldn’t adjust to the intense taste of Steel Reserve. Hurricane moves on to the Elite 8.

Winner: St. Ides Berry Special Brew

Score:

St. Ides Berry Special Brew: 5

Schlitz V.S.L.: 0

We all were a little embarrassed to let a fruity malt liquor make it to the Elite 8, but the fact is St. Ides Berry Special Brew is pretty delicious. Schlitz VSL just wasn’t able to compete, and all five of the judges hesitantly lifted the Berry Brew cup as the victor.

Winner: Colt45

Score:

Colt45: 5

St. Ides Original: 0

This was not a fair fight. Colt 45 crushed St. Ides. If we were ranking these on krunk power, then St. Ides would win hands down. But the fact is it tastes like filthy swamp water syrup, at least after tasting other, less intense malt liquors. When you’ve only got $2 and change, it’s fine, but St. Ides had nothing on the Colt. The judges unanimously picked the Colt 45 as the winner.

Winner: Mickeys

Score:

Mickeys: 3

Country Club: 2

Details: This match was very close, it was a dead heat. Mickey’s barely pulled ahead at the end. We equated this to a game between #8 and #9 ranked teams, two teams closely paired and ready to battle. Mickey’s reigns supreme.

The brackets for 40cozy’s first annual Malt Liquor Madness have been drawn, and you can view them below or download the pdf if any of you at home would like to participate. In the coming weeks, there will only remain one dominant malt liquor champion from these sweet 16 competitors. The competition involves a blind tasting of two malt liquors and then a collective voting on which is superior and gets to move on to the next round. Here are the face offs in the first round, which will be held later this week (Thursdayish):

(Download the official bracket pdf: 40cozybracket2009.pdf) Below are the Sweet 16 contestants:

Mickey’s vs. Country Club

Colt 45 vs. St. Ides Original

Hurricane High Gravity vs. Steel Reserve

King Cobra vs. Samichlaus

Olde English vs. Tilt (Green)

Shlitz O.M.L. vs. Sparks (Black)

St. Ides Berry Special Brew vs. Schlits V.S.L.

Four vs. Magnum

…Here’s an image of the physical bracket we built:

Now some of you are going to say, “Why would you add those fruity tasting drinks like Sparks?” A few reasons. First, they technically are ‘malt liquors’ and as such we can’t discriminate. They let schools like Morehead State and East Tennessee State in the tourney, so who are we to get picky? There are many other great malt liquors out there, but after weeks of scouring the liquor stores of Southern California, these are the finest (and only) high gravity beverages around.

We’ll be posting soon after the first round, check back in to see which brew makes it to the Elite 8. If you feel your favorite malt liquor isn’t being represented, leave a comment and we’ll work them into next years contestants.

In the coming weeks we will be doing what may be the greatest thing we’ve ever done.  We will be hosting 40cozy.com’s first annual Malt Liquor Madness Tournament.  We will be pitting 16 Malt Liquors against each other and only one will emerge the champion.  In this first announcement we will be listing the contenders that will compete for Glory. On the 20th we will release the official bracket and the games will begin.

And now… the Contenders:

Schlitz V.S.L.

Schlitz O.M.L.

Country Club

Olde English 800

Hurricane High Gravity

Mikeys

Colt 45

Tilt (green)

King Cobra

St. Ides.

Steele Reserve

Magnum

4 more dark horse candidates will be released at the time of the official bracket.  Stay Tuned.