Yo, Johnny Budweiser: You can't handle our bold microbrews

A Super Bowl prediction: A Seattle yuppie will walk into a Detroit sports bar and order a hefeweizen — making sure to pronounce it HAY-fe-VITE-tzen — with a lemon in it.

Another prediction: In addition to the typical spike in beer sales for the annual event, there will also be a small spike in emergency-room visits in the state of Michigan.

If sports rivalries are about more than just the teams, then Seattle vs. Pittsburgh in Detroit is also about the sometimes preposterously Epicurean Pacific Northwest vs. meat-and-potatoes land. The culture clash beneath this Super Bowl extends to Chad Microbrew vs. Joe Sixpack. Since beer is an indisputable part of football (Pyramid Alehouses report five times the normal business in their beer gardens during the two weeks of playoffs), it makes sense to check out our liquid lineup.

Northwesterners traveling in other parts of the country who ask waitresses what kind of beer they have sometimes get served up a look as if they'd just asked about the contents of Grant's Tomb — while wearing a tutu. The choice isn't as complicated elsewhere. It often involves choosing between a Bud and a Bud Light.

What happens — continuing with the gross generalizations — when the tables are turned on lager-lovers?

Arlen Harris, a brewer at Issaquah Brewhouse, recalls, "We had some people come through our pub recently, and one of our regulars who loves the IPA had a friend here from the Midwest. The guy took one sip and got bitter beer face. He said, 'How can you drink this? It's awful.' Talk about culture shock. You go through the whole list and even hefeweizen was just too much. He just said, 'Do you have a Budweiser?' "

There's a reason for the bitterness in this rivalry, according to Shannon Borg, a writer for Northwest Palate and other food-and-drink publications: "Northwest brewers have basically learned from each other and have developed the 'Northwest style' of beer — not German, not English. Those beers are definitely more wimpy. Northwest style is very hoppy, and I think there's a testosterone thing going on — they try to out-hop each other."

Hops are the conelike flowers that balance out the sweetness and put the bitterness in beer, and Washington's Yakima Valley is the largest hop-growing region in the United States.

"We're all just trying to outdo each other in that vein," agrees Harris, who is also director of the Washington Brewers Guild, which encompasses 55 of the state's 82 breweries.

"As our consumers have gotten into the idea of these aggressively hopped beers, they ask for more and more," Harris says.

What's a good, hard hopping entail?

"We put a lot of hops that have been growing in the Yakima Valley through the brewing process in large quantities, and it gives the beer an often very citruslike aroma, a very bitter mouthfeel, and very grassy or piney flavor to the beer," Harris explains.

IPA — India Pale Ale — is the Northwest's benchmark hoppy beer, says Elysian Brewing Co. sales director David Buhler. The name, he explains, comes from the time of the British Empire, when a beer higher in alcohol and hops was brewed to survive the long voyage to India without spoiling. Fast forward a few generations.

"Now brewers are making double IPAs," Buhler says. "There's always a brewer that wants to make the biggest, baddest beer. It's a big mouthful. It's like drinking our coffee. You go 'Whoa!' And after a couple of days you go back to other stuff, and it's weaker."

So Northwesterners' bitterness — that is, our taste for it — coincides with our other tastes.

"Seattle is similar to a lot of Northern European cities I've been to," says Pyramid Breweries CEO John Lennon. "It likes bold tastes, bold coffee, bold seafood, bold cheeses and bold beers."

Redhook Ale Brewery CFO Dave Michelson reports, "The orders for Michigan went up last week, so we're very pleased about that."

Available in 48 states, Redhook is much more widely available than other local craft beers. As a result, Michelson says, "We've gotten inquiries from around the country from people wanting to have Seattle beer when they watch the Super Bowl. They want to make sure they have a little tie to their hometown beer."

So employees must be gearing up for big Super Bowl plans for Redhook's Woodinville pub.

Nope, says Michelson. "We're going to close our retail facilities at 3 p.m. and let them go home and watch it, themselves."

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com