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Brewery Smackdown Makes Its Triumphant Return With Tag-Team Battle
Bend’s Crux and Silver Moon Breweries will take on Fremont and Georgetown of Seattle
By McKenna Brown
Breweries from Seattle and Bend will face off in the brewery smackdown.
Four heavyweights will meet in an exhibition fight January 27th in the Pavilion for the latest incarnation of Tetherow’s Brewery Smackdowns.
Hailing from Seattle, the powerhouse duo of Fremont Brewing Company and Georgetown Brewing Company will face down two of Bend’s finest breweries, Crux Fermentation Project and Silver Moon Brewing.
“This is the first time Crux and Silver Moon have collaborated on a beer together,” says Sean Mercer, the organizer — and ref of sorts — of the festivities. “Their brewers got together and made a special beer just for this. It’s so badass.” That special beer will debut the night of the fight and will be available for a limited time after at The Row, Crux and Silver Moon.
The battle will consist of five rounds of dishes prepared by Tetherow’s chefs. Each team will put their best beer pairing in the ring, hoping for a knockout punch.
The combatants met a few months ago for a weigh-in, where they sampled the menu and sized up which of their prizefighters would have the most punching power in each round. Teams will choose one beer from their vast catalogs to go pound for pound – or pint for pint – against their opponent.
Spectators will start off the night with a warm-up beer provided by Deschutes Brewery, the winner of the last big fight. The crowd will choose the victor of each round based on how well the breweries paired it with the dish, NOT by their own personal preference.
“The focus of this is not whose beer is better, it’s actually what pairs best with the food,” Mercer says. “We want to focus on who made the right choice, or the most appealing choice, for the food pairing.”
The breweries will square off in a blind taste test in each of the following rounds:
Round 1: NY carpaccio with candied lemon, marrow mousse and caraway crostini
Round 2: Scallop bellini with orange-tarragon gastrique
Round 3: Shaved fennel, citrus chevre, candied pepitas and caper berries
Round 4: Beef short rib with blueberry-fig demi, baked purple potato with caramelized beets, yogurt and prosciutto
Round 5: Boozy berry and lavender shortbread with poppy fennel whip
“It’s going to be the crowd’s responsibility to choose who wins this,” Mercer says. “The breweries have done their work, they’ve been working on this for months, they’ve done their homework, and now it’s the people’s turn to pick who’s the champion.”
Doors open at 6 p.m., and the fight bell rings at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person.
The fight is close to a sellout, but a small number of tickets are still available. Still no news on whether the showdown will be available on pay-per-view.