Shipyard & Scofflaw Breweries Make Super Wager

In advance of the upcoming Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots, Scofflaw Brewing Company (Atlanta, Ga.) and Shipyard Brewing Company (Portland, Me.) are making a wager regarding their respective NFL teams.

The wager features high stakes for the breweries and their fans.

The losing brewery will have to brew a special batch of beer from a recipe chosen by the winning brewery. The beer recipe must include indigenous ingredients from the winner’s state and will be named by the winning brewery.

On tapping day, the losing brewery must fly the winning team’s flag for one week or until the beer is gone, whichever comes first.

“We won’t be flying any Falcons flag here,” said Fred Forsley, Shipyard’s founder. “We’re going to clip the Falcons’ wings on Sunday.”

“I think we’ll call our beer Feel the Pressure,” he added, referencing the Deflategate scandal that involved Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. “We look forward to watching NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell eat crow when he hands the Lombardi Trophy to Brady and coach Bill Belichick.”

“Goodell,” Forsley adds, “is welcome to stop in at Scofflaw and check the pressure of the kegs Scofflaw will be filling with our winning beer.”

"The Patriots coach and quarterback are both known as scofflaws when it comes to the NFL’s rulebook,” said Matt Shirah, co-founder of Scofflaw Brewing. “But there’s no Scofflaw like Basement, our dank and juicy New England-style IPA.”

Shirah and Brewmaster Travis Herman said they are looking forward to sending Shipyard a special recipe that is a variation on Basement. “We think the Falcons flag will look great flying at Shipyard while they serve our beer,” said Shirah.

“We like breaking the rules as much as anybody,” Shirah says, “so we’re thinking about making a Tom Brady-style IPA that stretches the boundaries. All of our IPAs are unfiltered, so maybe we should call it Dirty Bird Basement, since the Falcons will be dancing in the Patriots end zone all game. We’d like to hear from fans with name suggestions, too.”

Shipyard is asking its social media followers to suggest homegrown ingredients and names for the winning beer recipe it will send to Atlanta.

The losing team will also send a case of its beer to the winner.