‘Beer Bowl’ 2018: Boston vs Philadelphia

Another year another Super Bowl with the Patriots in it but can the city of Brotherly Love channel its underdog status and soar to footballing glory? And which city has the best craft beer?

Will ‘TB12’ get another Lombardi?

Yes, for the second year in a row and for the ninth time since 2002 the New England Patriots and their 40-year-old quarterback Tom Brady are playing to win in the biggest game of the NFL season.

If they win – and they are the favourites – it will be their sixth Lombardi Trophy in that span with just two losses both against the Giants in 2008 and 2012 blemishing an otherwise astonishing record.

Up against them from the city of Brotherly Love are the Philadelphia Eagles who despite their excellent season over in the NFC, are considered the underdog’s in this Sunday’s game.

The two teams have met before in the Super Bowl, back in 2005 for what proved to be a closely contested 24-21 encounter in favour of the Patriots.

We can at least hope that Super Bowl LII proves equally entertaining and the Patriots previous outings against teams with bird emblems – the Seahawks in 2015 and Falcons in 2017 – were indeed fabulously exciting games…it’s just that they ended in Patriots victories.

Anyway, as ever, important as the playcalling may be on the field a key aspect of any Super Bowl is what kind of beer battle they offer and in Philadelphia and Boston it’s a match-up between two of American craft brewing’s most venerable names.

Click through to see a quick match-up of both the teams and top brews from each city.

A word from our sponsors…*

Watched by an estimated 1 billion people, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest events in global sport, despite American Football still being little-played professionally anywhere outside of the US.

As such it’s potential as an advertising platform is well-known to advertising execs throughout the land and competition for airtime is ferocious – and expensive.

The cost of a 30-second advertising slot during the game now stands at US$5m on average and beer sponsor AB InBev, as well as dominating all the beer sales and advertising in US Bank Stadium in Minnesota (where this year’s game is being played) usually shells out somewhere in the region of US$30m for advertising in prime game break spots.

Brands getting advertising this year include Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Stella Artois.

Any non-American followers of US sports may be aware of Bud Light’s current campaign featuring a fictitious medieval kingdom where the beer is downed to the rallying cry, ‘Dilly, dilly!’

Budweiser meanwhile is eschewing using all its air-time to big-up its beer preferring instead focusing on its clean water programme which was put into action last year to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Meanwhile, movie A-lister Chris Pratt has been roped in as a bit-part (sort of) in Michelob’s spot for its low calorie brew.

Finally, in an advertising world dominated by beer (and principally AB InBev) Australian wine brand Yellowtail is airing an ad during the Super Bowl for the second time. It’ won’t be on the NBC broadcast but Yellowtail has said it hopes to improve on the 85m people it estimates its ad reached last time and make it to 100m this time around.

The Super Bowl is being aired on NBC from 6.30pm Eastern Time on Sunday 4 February and on BBC One and Sky Sports from 23.15.

*Not literally

New England Patriots

Coach: Bill Belichick
Quarterback: Tom Brady
Key Players:  Chris Hogan, Rob Gronkowski, Don’t’a Hightower, Danny Amendola, James Harrison

The hopes from the Patriots’s opponents that the 40-year-old Tom Brady would go into decline this season proved to be – wishful thinking of the highest order.

Brady is at the top of his game showing little sign of his age and this is a Patriots team that’s not too knocked about.

As usual, whatever gaps have been caused by injuries have been quickly shored up by the next man to step into the breach.

‘Die Mannschaft’ of the NFL world, if you applied Gary Lineker’s pithy comment about the German soccer team to American football your punch line would be, “and at the end, the Patriots always win.”

The only potential worry for the Patriots would be if the ferocious Philadelphia defense gets to Brady and sacks him enough or even knocks him out of the game with an injury, then all of the Patriots hopes would rest on the shoulders of journeyman QB Brian Hoyer.

How clever would the Patriots’ decision to trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers look then?

The beer:

Massachusetts is not a craft brewing heaven in the mould of Washington or Colorado but it is the home of the brewery often credited with kickstarting the whole movement in the US.

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.

Philadelphia Eagles

Coach: Doug Pederson
Quarterback: Nick Foles
Key Players:  Jay Ajayi, Zach Ertz, LeGarette Bliunt, Nelson Agholor, Fletcher Cox

After a hot start and then rapid cooling in his first season, there was no small measure of interest in how this Eagles team would be with young quarterback Carson Wentz under centre in 2017.

The answer was, dynamite. The Eagles went 13-3 in the regular season and went into the playoffs as the number one seed in the NFC, the downside? Wentz who had been a magician all season, went down in week 14 with an ACL tear.

Since then backup and veteran Eagles QB (via brief spells in Kansas and LA) Nick Foles has been under centre and despite reservations about his abilities he and the Philly defense have seen off both the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings and advanced to just the third Super Bowl in franchise history – and in a rematch against the Patriots no less.

Easily one of the best teams in the league and deserving of being in the Super Bowl (fun as it would have been to see the Vikings play in their home stadium), the Eagles are the underdogs this game and should be the team of choice for neutral fans.

The beer:

If Boston is the home of Sam Adams then the go-to beer for Eagles fans is Yuengling which is brewed in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and carries the tag of ‘America’s Oldest Brewery’.

Founded in 1829, the brewery has been producing its signature ‘Lord Chesterfield Ale’ and Porter for 189 and has been brewing on the same site in Mahntongo Street since 1831 (the original brewery on Centre Street burned down that year) – it also has a brewery at Mill Creek in Florida.

Now producing two million barrels of beer a year, Yuengling is still considered a ‘craft’ producer and with an eagle on its logo is the natural beer choice for Philadelphia fans.

If you can get your hand son it though then also look out for brews from: Philadelphia Brewing Co; Yards Brewing; Dock Street; Victory Brewing; Nodding Head, Flying Fish; Manayunk and Sly Fox.