Quarter final preview and Roddy's cocktail secrets

I can't believe that the quarter finals are upon us, starting tomorrow.

Friday's matches are:

• Denmark (Elephant - the contentious competitor) vs Honduras (sub Cristal from Cuba). I expect the strength of the Elephant to overwhelm the more delicate Cristal.

• France (Kronenbourg) vs Australia (VB). I think this one is too close to call, and much depends on our mood at the time.

On Saturday, the judging panel will be joined by Paul, Evelyn, Alan and Helen. Paul and Evelyn know lots about beer. Alan and Helen have been having lots of practice. Not only will we be assessing the quarter finalists, we will also take the opportunity to share some of the more unusual losers - we fully expect the 2 litre Apatinsko Serbian beer to be consumed. The matches on Saturday are:

• Germany (Bitburger) vs Mexico (Bohemia). Now, Bitburger has had a bit of an up & down tournament. So the result all depends on how it shows on the day.

• Slovakia (Zlaty Bazant) vs Cote D'Ivoire (sub Flag from Togo). I shall be rooting for the Zlaty Bazant! The Flag has also been having an up & down tournament, so this one should be close.

Good luck to all the quarter finalists. Mike will tweet the results and we will continue to post match reports.

Now to Roddy's cocktail secrets. To get your guests into the party mood, make sure that you stiffen the Pimms with a little extra gin! And to make a great champagne cocktail (see blogs passim), always soak the sugar cube in bitters.

Last R16 match. And a confession.

Yesterday saw the last R16 match and off we go to the quarterfinals.

We started the proceedings with Cote D'Ivoire (Flag) vs Spain (Alhambra). The Alhambra came up a bit dull and disappointing. The Flag had an agreeable fizziness and was tasty. So it was Cote D'Ivoire 5, Spain 3. Good bye Alhambra.

My personal favourite Slovakia (Zlaty Bazant! What a name! What a label!) then slugged it out with Cameroon (Castel). Close close close! In the end, Slovakia edged it 5-4. So a sad farewell to Castel.

I must admit that I have a confession to make. The Flag beer is an impostor. I had to look closely at the labels yesterday (I couldn't remember which beer was from Cameroon and which from Cote D'Ivoire). A very close inspection of the label has revealed that Flag is not, in fact, from Cote D'Ivoire at all. It is from Togo. From now on we will have to refer to it as Cote D'Ivoire (sub Flag from Togo). Apologies to all our readers.

We now have two rest days. I will do a quarterfinal preview on one day, and I hope to share with you Roddy's Cocktail Secrets on the other day. Stay tuned.

Yesterday's matches - question marks about Denmark

What was confusing for everyone for the matches on Sunday is that the Beer Competition followed the Football Competition (Germany v England, Argentina v Mexico).

Well there was no such confusion on Monday when we had Denmark v Italy and Portugal v Honduras.

First up was Portugal (Super Bock) against Honduras (sub Cristal from Cuba). Regular blog readers will know my views on Portugese beer by now. As it happened, we thought the Super Bock had more flavour than the Cristal but the flavour it had wasn't as nice. Result - Honduras 4, Portugal 3. Honduras are through to fight another day, and goodbye Super Bock.

The big match was Denmark (Elephant) against Italy (Peroni, one of our old standby favourites). The mouth feel and slight sweetness of Elephant, presumably from its high alcohol content, managed to edge the Peroni. 5-4.

I see from Wikipedia (so it must be true) that Elephant counts as a "strong lager" rather than a "lager". Is it really eligible for this competition? We try to have a level playing field (no stouts, bitter or banana beer...) and maybe we haven't quite managed it this time. However, Mike did find something on the Internet that he used to persuade me that Elephant was a legitimate entry. I will post it if I can find it. But it is a bit of a slippery slope, as I recall that Cote D'Ivoire (Flag) is more than 6%. So would we have to disqualify Flag (which we wouldn't as the choice of beers available in the UK from Cote D'Ivoire is strangely limited.)? Flag competes today against Alhambra, but it should win as I don't think we have the best Alhambra beer.

So only one more day of R16 then onto the quarter finals on the week end. The football will be competing big time with the tennis. However, if Serena Williams gets through on Saturday then I fully expect her match to be completed well before the afternoon football!

Almost too depressed to blog...

What a dismal day, and I am talking about the football this time. We are considering taking down our England bunting. But that would be churlish.

Never mind, on to the beers. We had fully expected England (Hop) to have an easy win over Germany (Bitburger) but it was not to be. As it happened, I preferred the Bitburger and Mike preferred the Hop. We thought we would let the football score decide the beer winner (and therefore postpone the vexed question of beer penalty shoot outs). But when Lampard's goal was ignored, we thought Hop should win! However, unfortunately for Hop, we then watched the second half. There are no two ways about it. After such a dismal performance, we had to declare Germany the winner. Goodbye England. Goodbye Hop.

And in the other, earlier, match Mexico (Bohemia) soundly and conclusively beat Argentina (Quilmes). So goodbye Quilmes.

Yesterday's matches

We're in the knock out stage at last.

Yesterday, the winner of Group A (France - Kronenbourg) faced the runner up in Group B (Greece - Vergina). We had expected an easy win for France but we were surprised. The Greek beer came up strong and it was only after much discussion that we decided that the French beer was marginally better. So Kronenbourg goes through to the quarterfinals.

In the second match of the day, the winners of Group C (USA - Dixie) faced the runner up in Group D (Australia - VB). Here, the extra flavour of the VB saw it through, so it goes into the quarterfinals.

No need yet for penalty shoot outs, which is just as well as we're not quite sure of our rules yet!

Back to beer - Group Stage results, and a focus on the losers

Dear followers

Thank you for your patience whilst we indulged in real tennis, lawn tennis and Pimms. But now we know we must focus on the important things - the football World Cup and the Boxbeck Beer World Cup!

A few thoughts about the losers. I won't blog about the winners because their time will come in the knock out stages of the tournament.

One of the disadvantages of our Beer Tournaments is that we are left with a phenomenal quantity of losing beers. Generally they don't taste so bad on their own (particularly on a hot day or after enduring 3 days worth of Tuborg at Reading Festival).

The exotic beers (ie those really hard to source beers) were a mixed bag, and so are a high risk purchase. We found the Nigerian Star, the Serbian beer, the Swiss beer and, sadly, the incredibly hard to source North Korean beer all fairly nasty.

The fact that we have to follow the football groups rather than introducing beer seedings meant that we lost some really good beers (Ghana, Slovenia and New Zealand) whilst some pretty dull beers went through (in particular Argentina's Quilmes and Portugal's Super Bock). This is sad but an inevitable consequence of our rules.

So I recommend to you Ghana (Star in a bottle), Slovenia (Lasko Brewery's Zlatorog, allegedly soon to be available in the UK - check it out) and New Zealand's Speights). But fair well, and better luck in the next beer tournament.

The full results from the Group Stage:

Group A winner: France (Kronenbourg)
Group A runner up: Mexico (Bohemia)
Group A loser 1: South Africa (Castle)
Group A loser 2: Uruguay (sub Patagonia from Argentina)

Group B winner: Argentina (Quilmes) (!!!!!)
Group B runner up: Greece (Vergina)
Group B loser 1: Korea Republic (Hite)
Group B loser 2: Nigeria (Star in a tin, brewed in Nigeria)

Group C winner: USA (Dixie)
Group C runner up: England (Hop) (and no, this result was not fixed!)
Group C loser 1: Slovenia (Zlatorog)
Group C loser 2: Algeria (sub Casblanca from Morocco)

Group D winner: Germany (Bitburger)
Group D runner up: Australia (VB)
Group D loser 1: Ghana (Star in a bottle, brewed in Ghana)
Group D loser 2: Serbia (Apatinsko)

Group E winner: Denmark (Elephant)
Group E runner up: Cameroon (Castel)
Group E loser 1: Netherlands (Bavaria)
Group E loser 2: Japan (Kirin Ichiban)

Group F winner: Slovakia (Zlaty Bazant)
Group F runner up: Italy (Peroni)
Group F loser 1: New Zealand (Speights)
Group F loser 2: Paraguay (sub Brahma from Brazil)

Group G winner: Portugal (Super Bock ) (!!!!)
Group G runner up: Cote D'Ivoire (Flag)
Group G loser 1: Brazil (Palma Louca)
Group G loser 2: Korea DPR (Taedonggang & sub Tsingtao from China)

Group H winner: Spain (Alhambra)
Group H runner up: Honduras (sub Cristal from Cuba)
Group H loser 1: Chile (sub Cusquena from Peru)
Group H loser 2: Switzerland (Swiss Mountain Beer)

Please note, dear followers, that from now on the countries competing in the Beer Tournament diverge from the countries competing in the Football Tournament. The Beer Tournament does follow the same structure as the Football Tournament (eg  winner of Group A plays runner up of Group B on Saturday) but of course the Beer Tournament follows the results of the Beer Tournament Group Stage. Stands to reason, doesn't it?

Results of the last day of the Group Stages, tomorrow's matches and unlucky losers

Today Portugal (Super Bock) was pitted against Brazil (Palma Louca).  Brazil scored two first;  why is it that Brazilian beers taste so insipid?  Brahma (also a Brazilian beer but representing Paraguay in this competition) also scored two.  Ali and I speculate that Brazilians must like their beers in this style, rather like Italians seem to like their white wine to taste of as little as possible.  At first we thought it was going to be a 2 all draw but at the last minute Portugal went up to 3 and gained itself a place in the next round where it meets Honduras (sub Cristal from Cuba);  Honduras are the favourites, but in this competition you can never be completely sure of the result....

The other results were:

Cote d'Ivoire (Flag) drew Korea DPR (sub Tsing Tao from China - a choice made on politics as well as geography) 3-3 and goes through to meet Spain (Alhambra) in the next round
Spain beat Chile 4-3 (see above)
Honduras beat Switzerland 4-2 and goes through to meet Portugal in the next round

Tomorrow's Matches

Saturday sees France playing Greece - should be an easy win for France on past performance

and USA up against Australia - USA on great form but the Aussies are real battlers

Losers - some surprises

The biggest surprise and disappointment of the competition so far is the exit of Slovenia (Zlatarog) which showed such promise in its first match against Algeria (Casablanca).  Particularly disappointing given the efforts made to enable it to compete and the generosity of the sponsors Trevor and Linda Lester.  We think that all it needs is bottle and hopes are high for the future.

Good to see a strong African field still in the competition but sad that Ghana (Star in a bottle)could not make it through Group D, but it was always going to be tough with USA and Germany in the same group.

Algeria (Casablanca) in Group C was also a worthy performer which might have made its way through in a weaker group but just could not stand up tothe might of USA and England.

Ali will do a round up of the results by group shortly.