Editor’s note: Hey everyone! Thanks for all your great comments! I’m going to close the comments in this post, as they don’t count as votes. If you want to vote in the contest, please go to https://nebraskabeerbracket.com/ and cast your ballot there! — Sarah Baker Hansen

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Welcome back to bracket season! My team has been scheming this year’s first-ever statewide Nebraska Beer Bracket for many months — and just like last year, we’re letting you in on the action before the voting begins Monday.

The big news is that we’ve gone well beyond the boundaries of Omaha, and have divided Nebraska into four solid regions with plenty of breweries to choose from.

Thanks to a grant from the Nebraska Craft Brewery Board, our team has been able to expand the contest, write about more beer, include more locally owned businesses and, most exciting of all, welcome voters from every single town in Nebraska.

Like the past Omaha Pizza Bracket and Omaha Burger Bracket, the contest is independently conceived, seeded, designed and written by me and my partners, Ben and Quentin, at Hanscom Park Studio. For the first time ever, the grant we applied for and received as part of a competitive process will allow us to be paid for the time and work that goes into the contest each spring.

And, one pretty funny side note: A State of Nebraska grant can’t pay for alcohol. So I’m footing the bill for all the beers myself (including the ones the team consumed during the planning of this bracket.)

This year, we’ve brought in local, regional experts from across Nebraska to help us in the seeding process, but we still want to know from you, in the comments on this post or on social media:

What brewery must we have on our list of 64?