Few pairings are as popular as pizza and beer. Well, now you can get them both in one product. Although, if you live in Wisconsin, it’s going to take some effort.
Say hello to I(Pizza)A.
The limited release brew comes to us courtesy of Voodoo Ranger – a trendy brand of Fort Collins, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing – and Tombstone Pizza, a national frozen pizza line that got its start in a bar in the north-central Wisconsin city of Medford.
The Tombstone pizza-flavored beer is set to drop on April 7 aka National Beer Day.
Now you might be saying, “That sounds grotesque,” in which case, the rest of this article probably does not apply to you.
But if you’re saying, “Pizza-flavored beer? Sign me up,” then we have some bad news. You can’t get I(Pizza)A in Wisconsin. Despite the beer deriving its flavor from a Wisco brand, it will be sold in New Belgium’s breweries in Fort Collins and Asheville, North Carolina in 16-ounce four-packs for $14.99.
New Belgium does offer shipping – but only to a few states: Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington D.C. Also, it’s much, much more expensive to ship – $49.99, in fact.
So your options, Wisconsin folks who wish to taste the pizza beer (pizzeer?), are not great. You could head to Colorado or North Carolina and buy some. Or you could have it shipped to Ohio or North Dakota maybe, at a premium, and pick it up there.
The question you must ask yourself is this: Is it worth the time, travel and expense to taste a liquified, hoppy Tombstone pizza?
To find the answer, you must look within yourself. Examine your soul. Examine your conscious. Examine the fortitude of your digestive system. What would you do for the pizzeer?
According to the product description on the Voodoo Ranger website, the beer “delivers the flavors of Tombstone’s crispy crust, tangy tomato sauce and savory herbs and spices into an ice-cold beer and a finishing pepperoni kick of heat that will make you reach for another slice … or another pint.”
So keep that in mind.
“We wanted to create a pizza-flavored beer with a partner that aligned with our brand’s bold, flavor-forward positioning, as well as reinforce the connection with our target consumer in a new and adventurous way,” a spokesperson for the Tombstone brand told Milwaukee Magazine. “I(Pizza)A is the ultimate blend of flavors, pairing Voodoo Ranger’s innovative take on flavorful IPAs with the bold taste of Tombstone pizza.”
Brothers Ron and Pep Simek, along with two others, started Tombstone Pizza in 1962 at the Tombstone Tavern in Medford. The establishment’s name stemmed from its proximity to a cemetery. Tombstone Pizza gradually gained popularity in Wisconsin over the years. In 1998, the Tombstone Pizza Co. became a wholly owned but freestanding division of Kraft Foods. The move eventually led to national distribution of Tombstone, which would become one of the best-selling pizza brands in the country. In January 2010, food giant Nestlé agreed to acquire Kraft Foods’ frozen pizza business in the United States and Canada, which included Tombstone, for $3.7 billion in cash.
With that kind of money you could have 74,014,802 four-packs of I(Pizza)A shipped to Ohio!
