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.