The NCAA basketball tournament is underway as today (March-16) is one of the best sporting days of the year. College basketball fans around the world are ready to find out if they've done the impossible and picked the perfect Madness bracket. The 8th-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes take on the 9th-seeded Auburn Tigers today, with the tip-off scheduled for 5:50 p.m.

As exciting as watching your bracket fall perfectly into place might be, as you've chosen the correct upsets and have all of your final four teams still in play, there's another bracket Iowans might want to pay attention to during tournament time. "The National Beer Bracket" is also underway.

House Divided Brewery, located in Ely, will represent the Iowa Hawkeyes in this year's National Beer Bracket. The sports website called The Athletic has been putting on this contest for the past 3 Marches. They reach out to local breweries with one simple question; "If you could drink just one of your beers while watching the NCAA Tournament, which would it be?"

Cal Corrin is the owner of House Divided and according to KCRG, he's been brewing beer at home since the 1990s and opened House Divided in 2019. He recently got an email saying he was picked for this year's "The Athletic NCAA Beer Guide" and he was chosen to represent the Iowa Hawkeyes.

He told KCRG,

At first, I thought it was a hoax, but I looked it up, and it was legit. There are several bigger choices in Iowa city and even in Cedar Rapids. We’re just a small nano-brewery here in the small town of Ely, Iowa. I was surprised.

One of the best parts about this contest is the local breweries actually get to choose which beer to represent their team. Cal knew exactly which beer to choose to represent the black and gold Iowa Hawkeyes. He chose his very own Back in Black. According to KCRG, this is a fusion of an IPA and a porter.

The House Divided Brewery has a pretty fun story on how it got its name. Cal actually went to Iowa State and is mostly a Cyclone fan. His wife, Lisa, is a Hawkeye fan. According to KCRG, they have a fun bet that the loser of the Cy-Hawk football game has to wear the winning team's shirt to the city's Fall Fest.

Fans of the Hawkeyes don't have to worry about Cal rooting against the team. Cal has no problem cheering for the Hawkeyes... under 1 condition. He told KCRG,

As long as the Hawkeyes aren’t playing the Cyclones, I’ll root for the Hawkeyes.

 

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