Brooklyn Brewery & New York Comic Con "Defender IPA" Launches Nationwide

For the fourth year, Brooklyn Brewery has teamed up with New York Comic Con and illustrator Khary Randolph to create the official beer of the convention. It's an explosive West Coast-style IPA with a reddish twist thanks to a dash of roasted malt. Bold, fruity hop bitterness and an intensely resinous nose smash into a sudden dry finish that will refresh and entice you.

Starting in 2016, the Defender will be available in bottles and draft across the United States, standing tall for all those who believe in excellent beer.

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery®

To celebrate it's launch in Chicago, Defender IPA is coming to Rotofugi on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 PM. It's going to be a welcoming party like none other, but a character like the Defender deserves the best.

Your $10 ticket grants you entry, three beer tickets, live comic book portraits from Chicago artist Kat Janda, and some sweet East Coast hip hop, funk and more from the Vinyl-Only DJ. You'll also be entered to win a Defender prize pack including a Brooklyn Brewery snapback, a set of Defender pint glasses, and limited edition artwork, all signed by this year's Defender artist, Khary Randolph. Even if you don't win, there will be plenty of Brooklyn swag to take home.

Grab your tickets right here, and get ready to #defendbeer!

Check out the Defender trailer for more on the collaboration:

The Great Pumpkin Beer - Recap

For those of you that haven’t been paying attention to The Great Pumpkin Beer Challenge here is a recap:

Hail to the Ale & CHAOS Brew Club's Ken Getty combined forces and cellars to put together 24 beers and divided them into three tiers of pumpkin domination. Three brackets that incorporated craft beer from across the country to determine Hail to the Ale’s The Great Pumpkin Beer of 2013
Tier 3 - New Jack O'Lantern City, Limited Distribution
Tier 2 - Patch Madness, Regional Breweries
Tier 1 - Pumpkin O.G.'s, the crew that's been doing pumpkin beers before Pumpkin Spice Latte had its own hashtag

 

The New Jack O'Lantern City tier of The Great Pumpkin Beer Challenge was dominated by 2012 GABF’s Gold Medal winner (a fact that we learned after…promise!) in the pumpkin category, Stevens Point Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale.  This beer has a great sweet malty backbone accompanied with a delicious pumpkin pie aroma that finished slightly dry. A very well balanced beer that we could have drank several more bottles from Bottles and Cans.

The Tier 2 bracket was true Patch Madness style pitting the different regional craft brewers of the United States against each other.  We were intrigued at the thought of adding a barleywine to this crowded field of various styles and Almanac Beer Co. delivered. Their Heirloom Pumpkin Barleywine is a blend of brandy barrel aged and fresh barleywine that delivers big, boozy notes with huge brandy flavor that transition to pumpkin caramel sweetness. Almanac continuously stood out from the pack to narrowly defeat Lakefront’s crisp Pumpkin Lager.

The Pumpkin OG's Tier 1 bracket has two Opening Round matches before the Elite Eight pumpkin beers are decided. Shipyard’s Smashed Pumpkin battles Uinta’s Punk’n and Smuttynose’s Pumpkin Ale looks to upset Brooklyn’s Post Road Pumpkin. Opening round winners will be announced Monday, October 28^th 2013.