JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Congratulations to the winner of First Coast Brews inaugural Brews Bracket Challenge....drumroll, please..... Wicked Barley Brewing!
You may wonder why we held this competition. There are a lot of "Best of" competitions in town, but none are completely beer specific. First Coast Brews wanted to change that.
That's what led to our Inaugural Brews Bracket Challenge. Plus we all now we have incredible breweries on the First Coast! We gotta represent.
FCB got some backlash over our choice in host platform during our bracket challenge and we heard you loud and clear. Next time, we'll restructure the brackets, allowing everyone to play in the first round. We'll also find a better bracket program to ensure fairness.
On the upside, we heard from some breweries about the experience and while there were upset about getting knocked out, they felt overall that the bracket was a fun thing. Which is all we were really trying to create.
The meme battles that erupted were brilliant and creative, just like the breweries. Some of the newer breweries even reported more people visiting while they were in the challenge!
That is the goal of First Coast Brews, to promote the breweries in and around the First Coast. We want you to know about every cool thing they are doing.
So again congratulations to Wicked Barley Brewing who choose the Ronald McDonald House as their charity of choice. At our Brews Bracket Party, we raised $36 bucks for the organization and made a donation in Wicked Barley's name.
Next year? Oh, get ready because you KNOW we're going to do it again... perhaps timing it to not coincide with the Craft Brewers Conference.
In the next year, it's up to you to get out and visit the breweries in our area. Every one of them has amazing beers and great people.
We're so very lucky.
Cheers.
- Stephanie and Casey
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