MADISON (WITI) -- Watching the games and wearing red isn't the only way to cheer on the #1 seed Wisconsin Badgers as they begin NCAA Tournament play this week. There's a new Badgers-themed beer, available just in time for March Madness!
"Grateful Red" is the name of Capital Brewery's newest beer. While the red IPA isn't affiliated with the University of Wisconsin or the Badgers basketball team, they're hoping it's the drink of choice for many during the big dance.
"We like to be, we're one of the hometown breweries, so we like it when people are drinking Capital while watching any kind of sports -- especially our hometown teams," brewmaster Ashley Kinart said.
It's no coincidence that Capital Brewery is releasing their Grateful Red IPA just in time for the NCAA Tournament.
"We have been releasing beers on April 1st for IPAs especially the last few years, so we tried to push it up a little bit and at least get some kegs and some draft sales out there ahead of time because it is a little more beer drinking, sitting watching the games," Kinart said.
Grateful Red is the second recipe from brewmaster Ashley Kinart.
"Just a really fun, super unique characteristics to it that I thought would go really, really nicely as an IPA," Kinart said.
The IPA isn't too bitter, but it has a lot of hops.
"This one I wanted to do, we've got a little bit higher alcohol IPA, so I wanted to something a little more kind of sessionable. This one's going to be about 5.3 percent, so a little easier to have a couple of them," Kinart said.
It just may be the perfect beer to drink while cheering on the Badgers.
"We'll definitely get some on tap at the Capital Tap Haus. That should be there right away and we've got a few other accounts all over town actually that will be debuting it, so definitely in the Madison area, we should have a whole bunch of it," Kinart said.
Bottles and cans of Grateful Red will roll out at the beginning of April.