Beer Label Madness Begins
By: Tom Rotunno | Senior Editor
These are good days to be a beer drinker. With more than 2,400 breweries currently in operation, the beer consumer has never had more options and variety in the marketplace. There is something for everyone.
While quality of the beer being brewed has never been better, the work being done on the outside of the bottle to help sell the beer is equally impressive.
A few months ago, Consumer Nation set out to find the most-loved beer label. We asked for reader submissions for beer labels that made you laugh or just caught your eye among the dozens of options on the shelf.
The result is CNBC Beer Label Madness, 64 different breweries, 64 different labels. Most of the these labels were submitted by you, the beer consumer. A small number were sent by the breweries themselves. You can see the full brackets here.
So while March may be over, the madness is just beginning. Now it's up to you to decide which one you like best. Voting begins today and lasts through next week, when only one label will be standing. Remember this is not about which beer you like better, but which label.
The schedule is as follows:
Round of 64 – Part 1 –Monday, April 1
Region 1 = Pacific
Region 2 = Central and Mountain
Round of 64 – Part 2 –Tuesday April 2
Region 3 = East
Region 4 = South
Round of 32 – Part 1 -Wednesday April 3
Pacific and Central
Round of 32 – Part 2 -Thursday April 4
East and South
Round of 16 – Monday April 8
All Regions
Round of 8 –Tuesday April 9
All Regions
Round of 4 Wednesday April 10
Pacific winner versus East winner
Central winner versus South winner
Round of 2 – Finalmatchup – Thursday April 11
Pacific/East winner versus Central/South winner
Voting will be done on the CNBC Beer News Facebook page and will last for a 24-hour period, beginning at 1 p.m. ET, after which time the results will be finalized. Any votes occurring beyond the 24-hour period will not count.
Go to our Facebook page to vote!
Oh, and in case you're wondering how the seeding was determined, here's an explanation: The breweries were seeded primarily based on size—the larger the production volume, the higher the seed. While this is about the art on the outside and not the beer on the inside, the reality is the larger the brewer, the bigger marketing and social media presence they can potentially bring to the table, potentially making them tougher to beat.
-By CNBC's Tom Rotunno; Follow him on Twitter @TomRotunno
Questions? Comments? Email us at consumernation@cnbc.com.
