Utter Madness

Matt e-mails to hep us to the WaPo's March Beer Madness.

File under: great idea, poor execution. The problems include:

- Why start with just thirty-two beers instead of sixty-four?

- The four "regions" (ales, lagers, specialty/fruit, and dark beers) are pretty lame ways to categorize beer. No true beer buff uses the term "dark beer."

- There's a definite East Coast bias, which I guess is understandable since it's put on by WaPo.

- The selection of beers leaves a lot to be desired. There are some fine breweries included, but their best beers usually aren't featured. With all the great ales out there, they should have come up with a much better selection in that region especially.

- Most egregious of all, there are two Bud products. I suspect this has a lot more to do with advertising than choosing the best beer. Even worse, both Bud beers "won" their opening round matchups. I think that Leinie's Honey Weiss is overrated, but c'mon you can't tell me that Bud Light Lime is truly a superior beer. Same with Budweiser's American Ale beating out Peak Organic Amber Ale. The '72 Olympic basketball gold medal game was fairly refereed compared with this rigged judging.

You can vote for your picks in the sweet sixteen matchups. If there is any justice, Bell's Kalamazoo Stout will end up on top.