The 2016 Best of Beer Awards and Why They Won't Happen

We've done two years of "Best of Beer" awards and after all the squabbling and social media fiascos, I'm left with a rather sickly taste in my mouth when I think about them.Yes, from a purely statistical point of view, they drove traffic to our website, but who cares how many people see it when it isn't a true representation of the craft beer scene in our area. To a point, the Best of Beer awards divided the community when our initial intent was to strengthen it. We've burned bridges with local brewers and ultimately hurt our credibility. Hopefully, we can rebuild and revive those relationships.So this year, Best of Beer will be sent to its much-awaited demise, to be replaced with something a bit more organic, more true-to-the-heart. We're planning on traveling around the Pikes Peak Region to visit every brewery, brewpub, and beer bar so we can then sit down with our contributors and hash out a Top Ten for beer in Colorado Springs. In accordance with our new mission for the blog, we want to champion the breweries who are putting Colorado Springs on the map, driving our local industry forward, and creating freaking awesome beer.Sound familiar? No, this isn't new, it's actually what's been done by Eric and the crew back in the day. We're going retro just like Netflix did with Stranger Things. Our scene has changed greatly since they did the last Top Ten in 2012. Some places on the list don't exist anymore, so we're going back to the drawing board.We'll even talk about it on the podcast, so you can actually hear each of our crew personally give their reasons for ranking. Side note: If you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing some good listening. That way, we can personally back up our rankings, not just rely on a non-scientific vote. See, we're learning too.In addition to our own view of the Top Ten, we'll also be sending out a survey to notable local brewers asking for their take on the scene. It'll be interesting to see how different breweries view our growing craft beer community.So sit back and enjoy the beer you're currently enjoying. If a place we rank isn't in your top ten, don't think we're trying to force you to immediately change your opinion—we're just telling you how we feel.So look for something on here in December. As always, if you have a suggestion of a criteria, a thought about this change, or even place we might not have heard of, let us know in the comments!