Thanks for the ideas. We’ve had some of those same debates on our own. Glad to know we aren’t the only ones!

There is a “pro” version of the poll website we’re using that tracks IP addresses. We thought the old saying “beer people are good people” was enough to keep someone from cheating. We’re going to pay for the “pro” account for the rest of this bracket and look at something more secure (maybe something with a captcha?) for next year.

In defense of TBR – they’re the biggest game in town between Houston and Galveston. The beer is delicious and they have a huge, gorgeous taproom that’s packed several days a week. Their stuff is distributed front and center in all of the local HEBs in this area. They’ve been telling people to vote in the taproom – and that’s a TON of people.

It’s also a bit ironic that this thing started off looking like it was just going to be Karbach mass voting its way through the thing, but when they finally get knocked off by superior brews and we see that the voters are actually voting based on quality, the complaints come in.

You are right, criticizing is easy, coming with alternatives is hard. Maybe having to register (a simple ID & password) would be a better way to guarantee one vote per person per round and to deter the people that don’t actually care about the contest. I understand though how that might deter voting in general (ha, voter ID laws!). I understand there is no perfect solution.

Early on, I actually assumed Karbach was going to flood the votes, because they were beating some stuff they had NO BUSINESS touching from a quality perspective, like Brash’s Pussy Wagon. But it seems like flavor is actually winning the day toward the end. This is a fantastic Round of 8. Go Yellow Rose.

Let’s be constructive here. We’re probably going to do this next year, so what would you have us do differently?

I am not saying their beer is bad, heck it might be the best there is. But in a contest like this that basically gauges popularity I don’t see how could they possibly do so well. If the guerilla marketing story is true then it means a lot of people are voting for a beer they likely don’t know just because they are told to do so. Regardless, this contest has turned into a joke.