After many polls, many votes, and us chasing down many photos, we have reached the week of the regional finals in our first brewery patio bracket-style tournament. As we have done for each round, we start with the breweries in the southern part of New Mexico.

Back in the first round, Cloudcroft Brewing and 575 Brewing ran away with the Southeast and Southwest regions, so we granted them byes to their respective regional finals. For the second round, it was time to decide between the next three highest vote totals as to which brewery would advance to face them in those finals.

Well, in the end, the same patios that came in second place in the first round ended up winning the right to advance out of the second round. There were no surprises here, except perhaps in just how big of a margin one of them won by this time.

Southeast: 1. Sierra Blanca Brewery 69 votes, 2. Lost Hiker Brewing 45, 3. Guadalupe Mountain Brewing 35

Southwest: 1. Spotted Dog Brewery 167, 2. Picacho Peak Brewing 29, 3. Truth or Consequences Brewing 18

Once again, this entire tournament is purely for fun. It is up to each and every one of you to decide what makes a patio the best, there are no wrong answers. Only one patio per each regional final will advance to the championship round. Voting will be wrapped up for all regional finals by Tuesday, Sept. 8, at noon.

Southeast Regional Final

Cloudcroft Brewing made use of its mountain setting and dominated the first round, but can it maintain that momentum against one of the older and more successful breweries in the state in Sierra Blanca and its expansive beer garden?

Southwest Regional Final

For a brewery that has not even celebrated its first anniversary, 575 Brewing has already gained quite a loyal following, rolling to the bye. Spotted Dog, however, has the benefit of building up its own loyal fanbase over a longer period of time, and cruised out of the second round. Something has to give here.

The regional finals continue Tuesday as we tackle three contentious brackets of offsite taprooms, where it is still anyone’s game in each for either the top spot, second spot, or both.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister