The making of the Ultimate Minnesota Beer Bracket field

It's time to vote on the Sudsy Sixteen round of Minnesota brewery matchups — and you can do so here — but if you're wondering how we got here ...

How the field was determined:

• Readers voted for their top five breweries, giving 5 points to their top choice and 1 point to their last choice. A total of 128 breweries received votes.

• All votes were tallied and the 16 breweries with the highest vote totals made the cut.

• The breweries were seeded 1 through 16, with the 1-seed having the highest vote total and the 16-seed, the lowest among the 16.

• The seeds were arranged into bracket form, NCAA tournament-style.

The final point totals of the 16 teams that made the field:

• Surly Brewing Co., 654

• Bent Paddle Brewing Co., 532

• Indeed Brewing Co., 414

• Dangerous Man Brewing Co., 406

• Summit Brewing Co., 298

• Castle Danger Brewery, 289

• Fulton Beer, 285

• Steel Toe Brewing, 279

• Schell's Brewery, 186

• Bad Weather Brewing Co., 156

• Fair State Brewing Cooperative, 155

• Bauhaus Brew Labs, 152

• Lift Bridge Brewing Co., 141

• Town Hall Brewery, 135

• HammerHeart Brewing Co., 130

• Copper Trail Brewing, 127

What we learned:

• Surly, by a landslide. Maybe it could have been predicted, but the Twin Cities powerhouse crushed the competition.

• Duluth is coming in strong. For a while, Bent Paddle was closely challenging Surly for the top seed. It settled for No. 2, but was just the headliner of a strong Duluth class of breweries.

• Copper Trail drinkers are extremely loyal. The Alexandria brewery received just 27 votes — fewer than a couple of teams that didn't make the field — but all but four of those votes were 5's.

• Others were liked, but not a priority. Modist Brewing (32 votes, 84 points), Urban Growler Brewing Co. (33 votes, 83 points), Fitgers Brewhouse (33 votes, 79 points) and Tin Whiskers Brewing Co. (40 votes, 111 points) got a lot of nods but missed the cut.

• Only 40 of the 128 breweries were tabbed by fewer than five voters.

• 15 breweries received vote totals of 60 points or more: Insight Brewing (121), Tin Whiskers (111), Disgruntled Brewing (100), Angry Inch Brewing (90), Modist (84), Urban Growler (83), Fitgers (79), LynLake Brewery (76), Bang Brewing (74), Badger Hill Brewing Co. (70), Lake Monster Brewing (68), Omni Brewing Co. (65), Excelsior Brewing Co. (67), 612Brew (63) and Bent Brewstillery (61).

Amelia Rayno • 612-673-4115