Top drinks for ‘Beer Bowl’ 2015

Sports fans will be relishing the coming Super Bowl and craft beer fans can enjoy it even more with a tasty brew match-up to consider.

Super Bowl XLIX (49 to the rest of us) features the New England Patriots versus last year’s champeens, the Seattle Seahawks, and there are tasty beer, as well as on-field head-to-heads on offer.

Last year’s match between Seattle and the Denver Broncos presented a fairly even “Beer Bowl” but this time around it’s a bit of a mismatch.

Seattle, sitting pretty in the hip Pacific North-West, can boast a stunning 201 craft breweries according to the Brewers’ Association (that’s already 55 more than last year) and ranks second in the country in the number per capita, while Massachusetts only has 57 and ranks 16^th.

But what New England lacks in craft beer numbers, it more than makes up for in national and even craft beer heritage, Boston’s the town that arguably gave birth to both the country in the 18th century and then its craft beer movement in the 1980s.

It also has a pretty good football team.

You may already have a stake in a team to support (this writer certainly does) but if you’re a newcomer to the sport and undecided about to who to support, you can make a worse choice than pick a team with good local beer. Hoppy IPAs or Sam Adams? Your choice, though there are plenty of sporting prowess to take into account too.

Taking place at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Tom Brady and his New England Patriots will be looking for their fourth Super Bowl win in what will be their sixth appearance, while Russell Wilson and the Seahawks are trying to become the first team – since the Patriots in 2005 – to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

These teams last met early in the 2012 season in Seattle, with the Seahawks overcoming a deficit to win the game. Afterwards, Seattle defensive player Richard Sherman taunted the veteran Brady saying, “You mad, bro?”

“You mad, bro?”

Yes he probably was and the super-competitive Brady is unlikely to have forgotten – or forgiven. Newcomers can expect to hear a lot about this during the commentary at any and every point of the game, as well as references to this being the “U mad bro bowl” or some such.

Brady will be trying to cement his legend as a legitimate candidate for the “greatest if all time” (GOAT) tag and the scion of a football dynasty, while a young Seahawks team is seeking to build on their own budding “dynasty” narrative.

It should be an entertaining game and a good game deserves good beer.

Brewing giant AB InBev has the beer rights wound up tight for the big day and recently released a teaser for its Super Bowl campaign – having spent some £18 million on just three 60 second slots during the game.

Although the majority of the 50m cases of beer that are usually drunk on Super Bowl Sunday will be Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite or Coors Light, in the comfort of your own home or at your own tailgate party you can drink whatever you wish.

So whether you’re a true Patriot, a “12^th Man” or perhaps just plain curious about what this whole “football” thing is, over the following pages you’ll find a brief lowdown on the teams, the best drinks with which to display your allegiance and a rudimentary “bluffer’s guide” to the game.

Kick-off is on Sunday 1 February at 6.30pm Eastern Standard Time on NBC and 11.30pm in the UK where the game is being aired by Channel 4 and Sky Sports.

Full stats and coverage from every possible angle can be found here on nfl.com and don’t forget to check out our prediction for this year’s game and its bearing on the 2015 vintage in Bordeaux, coming soon.

Seattle Seahawks

Russell Wilson takes off – Photo credit: Joe Nicholson

Coach: Pete Carroll
Quarterback: Russell Wilson
Key players: Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman, Luke Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor

The reigning champs with the most fearsome defence in the entire league, the “Legion of Boom”, Seattle is an up-and-coming franchise with a point to prove having won its first Super Bowl last year.

The Seahawks began their season strongly, crushing another firm NFC favourite the Green Bay Packers in the first game.

After that they seemed to struggle even losing at home for just the second time in two years to a resurgent Dallas Cowboys team no less.

But, as a few key players came back from injury, the rest of the season became a crescendo as the team rounded into winning form.

They capped off a 12-4 win/loss season with a six game winning streak which saw them win their division and secure the number one seed in the NFC for the second straight year – ensuring home-field advantage for their playoff games.

They then saw off the Carolina Panthers in the divisional round and, against all odds, beat the Green Bay Packers for the second time, overcoming what had been a 16-0 deficit at one point to win 28-22 in overtime, winning the NFC championship and their place in the Super Bowl.

Seattle are reliant on their defense to no small extent but they also possess a powerful run game with Marshawn Lynch one of the game’s leading running backs and Russell Wilson a mobile quarterback who can keep plays alive with his legs and is extremely hard to tackle.

The Seahawks are the “home” team this time out and the bookies’ favourite to win in fact.

They’re renowned as being a young, confident and laid-back team and showed against the Packers they can rally to win from behind and last year easily beat the great Peyton Manning.

But with the weight of expectation on them and up against another legend in Tom Brady, how will they fare this time around?

Beer:

Washington is one of the craft beer capitals of the US, “Beervana” some call it, and one of the first “brewpubs” in the US opened in Seattle in 1982.

Top local producers include Pyramid Brewery which is located just a block away from the Seahawks’ home stadium, CenturyLink Field.

Even more suitable but probably only available to anyone in Seattle is a new beer brewed especially for fans by Hilliards called (wait for it), “The 12th Can“.

There is also, confusingly, a “12th Man” pale ale made by Dick’s Brewing Company in partnership with former Seahawks kicker Norm Johnson.

The beer went on sale a few years ago and is widely available around the Puget Sound area.

Other notable Washington breweries to consider are: Redhook, Pike, Hale’s Ales, Big Al, Elysian and Georgetown.

New England Patriots

Coach: Bill Belichick
Quarterback: Tom Brady
Key Players: Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, LeGarette Blount, Darrelle Revis

Compared to the Seahawks, the Patriots are football royalty, the house that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick built.

Since 2000 when Brady took over as quarterback they’ve been close to unstoppable. They’ve been to nine playoffs and won six AFC championships which also means they’ve been to six Super Bowls together, three of which they’ve won.

Brady is a tough, competitive player leading a dynamic offense such as the fearsome tight-end Rob Gronkowski (healthy for once) and wide receiver Julian Edelman all under the eye of the inscrutable and reticent Belichick.

Perennial favourites in their division, the Patriots stumbled early in the season, losing to rivals the Miami Dolphins and then slipping to a crushing defeat away to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Effectively written off the Patriots, not unlike the Seahawks, rounded into winning form and went on to defeat further opponents by scoring 40-points a game on average.

Clinching their division they, again like the Seahawks, gained the number one seed and home-field advantage in their conference.

They fought a tense game against their kryptonite team, the Baltimore Ravens, where they twice had to dig themselves out of a 14-point deficit before triumphing.

Their conference championship game against the Indianapolis Colts was somewhat smoother, a 45-7 masterclass in domination.

Was their pre-Super Bowl game too easy? Are they just too good? Will they try too hard to win their first big game in nearly a decade? Will they just do their jobs?

Beer:

As mentioned before, Massachusetts is not a craft beer bastion of the US but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good brews to choose from.

Boston was the home of the American Revolution, cradle of the constitution and literal cradle of such historical figures as John Hancock, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and, of course, Samuel Adams.

By tradition a brewer himself, the name of the Revolutionary hero was picked by the Boston Brewing Company for its flagship beer when it launched in 1984 and the brand today is much better known than the brewery’s actual name.

Considered one of the pioneers of US craft brewing, Boston Brewing/Samuel Adams is now ranked as the biggest craft brewer in the country though with a production of around 2.5m barrels a year compared to Budweiser’s 16m, Sam Adams is hardly “big beer”.

An icon of American brewing and of great importance to the craft brewing movement, “Boston Lager” should be the beer of all true Patriots fans come Super Bowl Sunday.

There are other Massachusetts brews to consider of course and this wouldn’t be much of a guide if it didn’t address them.

Highly rated breweries include: Harpoon, Clown Shoes, Portico, Westfield, Tree House and Naukabout to name but a few.

A bluffer’s guide to American football

Newcomers to the NFL may initially wonder what on earth is going on but rejoice! It is not as complicated as it first appears and the basics are easy to pick up.

Like all sport the object is to take a ball from one end of the field to another, as long as you see that happening you have at least some idea of what’s going on.

American football, or gridiron as it sometimes known and even more simply just “football” as we shall call it, is about fast, explosive plays and has its roots in rugby.

They might pass the ball forward but it is egg-shaped and it’s a contact sport.

Think of the line of scrimmage as a cross between a lineout and a scrum and the quarterback as the scrum half crossed with the hooker as a good way to start, more similarities will make themselves obvious the more you watch.

The pitch: the pitch is 100 yards long and divided into 10-yard segments. Each end has an additional 10-yard “end zone”, (see picture, below) with goal posts at either end.

The teams: the basic NFL team is made up of two 11-man squads, one “offensive” the other “defensive”.

The quarterback, generally considered the star of the team, is the key player in the offensive line-up.

One side’s offense will face the other’s defense at each “down” as shown in the picture (below), although they can vary their positions.

There are also “special teams” made up of the faster players in either the defense or offense who come on to make kicks and run the ball to where the first line of scrimmage will take place.

Timings: The game is divided into four quarters of 15 minutes each. There are short breaks between the change-over of each play, each quarter and a slightly longer one at half time.

If the ball goes dead or out of bounds then the clock is stopped, so while the game in theory lasts an hour it does in fact last much longer, three at least.

If the teams are tied at the final whistle then another 15 minutes are added on, a coin is flipped to decide who has the ball and the very next team to score wins.

Gameplay: The team that wins the coin toss can decide to kick or receive the football. The kicking team will then kick the ball down the field to the receiving side.

The receiving team then run the ball up the field until tackled. The spot they are tackled is where the first line of scrimmage will take place.

If the ball bounces out of the back of the field or if a player catches the ball and takes a knee then play will continue from the 20-yard line, the equivalent of a 22-metre drop-out. A player can also call for a fair catch if he thinks his position advantageous enough – again, similar to calling “mark” in rugby.

The receiving team’s offensive side then come out and face-off against the other side’s defense and they line up at what is known as the line of scrimmage (above) which is relatively well known even to casual observers of the sport.

Pinging the ball back from the centre player to the quarterback is known as a “snap”.

Football is based on plays, set-piece actions that are constantly rehearsed. When the quarterback is heard yelling he is telling his side the play they are about to go through with or making amendments to it if the defense have lined up in a manner he thinks will hamper the original play. Alternatively his calls may be meaningless and designed to fool the opposition.

When the ball is snapped, the quarterback can do several things. The most well-known play is to throw (pass) the ball up field to a wide receiver (a pass play).

Alternatively he may decide to hand the ball to one of his running backs (a run play) and if there is no other option he may run the ball himself and try and make yards.

The aim of each play is to advance up the field, making at least 10 yards in four attempts before it must hand the ball over to the other team’s offense.

The defensive team is obviously trying to stop them and do so by tackling the ball carrier or breaking through to reach the quarterback and either tackling him (known as a “sack”), forcing him to throw a rushed pass which his receiver cannot catch or making him throw the ball out of play in order to avoid the sack.

If and when the offense makes 10 yards or more they get another four downs to repeat the process and so advance up the pitch to the end-zone.

At the fourth down, if the offensive line is struggling to make 10 yards they will usually bring on a placekicker to punt the ball downfield and ensure that the opposition’s offense have further to advance.

If they are within range of the goalposts but think it unlikely they will break through the defense then they can try for a field goal.

The first down is referred to as the “first and 10”. If the team only goes four yards then the next down will be the “second and six”, and so on until 10 yards are made or not.

The offense and defense are cycled through as often as necessary throughout the game.

Scoring: A touchdown (the equivalent of a try in rugby) is accomplished when a ball carrier crosses into the end zone or catches a pass from the quarterback in the end zone.

The ball has only to break the line of the end-zone to be ruled a touchdown so a play can seemingly be stopped on the line yet still be a legitimate score.

A touchdown is worth six points and a conversion a further one point. A field goal is worth three points just like a penalty or drop goal in rugby though drop goals do not happen in the NFL.

A team can opt for a two point conversion where, in place of a kicker, the quarterback will attempt to rush or pass the ball into the end-zone as they did to score the touchdown and makes the team eight points in total but it is very difficult and not often attempted.

Similarly if a ball carrier is tackled in his own end-zone that is known as a “safety” and is worth two points to the opposition.

As in all sports, the team with the most points at the final whistle has won and, in this case, is crowned Super Bowl champion.

Turnovers and fumbles: The ball can be turned over if the quarterback throws an interception, that is to say his pass is caught by a member of the opposition.

The catcher will then run the ball until tackled and his offensive team will come out for a new down at that spot.

If a player drops the ball (called a fumble) it can be picked up by the opposition with similar consequences.

Penalties: There are quite a few penalties in gridiron and they result in loss of yards and occasionally downs as well.

The most common are “holding” and “pass interference”. Although players are allowed to tackle other players off the ball and otherwise impede their progress they can only do so at certain times.

“Holding” refers to physically holding onto someone to prevent them getting to the ball carrier. If you stand in front of them and get in the way or push them over, fine but you can’t hold them.

“Pass interference” is a classic case of playing the man not the ball and is when the ball is in the air heading for a wide receiver and the player covering him appears more interested in deliberately making sure he won’t get it rather than trying to compete for it himself and force either an interception or incomplete pass.

Other penalties include “unsportsmanlike conduct”, “unnecessary roughness” (both of which are charmingly antiquated) as well as “hands to the face” and “roughing the passer” (both of which fall under the unnecessary roughness tag).

A penalty will result in the loss of five, 10 or 15 yards and occasionally loss of a down depending on the severity of the foul.