Washington Takes Home 9, Oregon Takes Home 23 at GABF

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Bitch Beer Blog in Beer Events, Beer Tripper, Breweries, Choose your Bitch Beer, craft beer, Craft Beers, Festivals, Great American Beer Festival Coverage, Portland, SEA Beer, Seattle Beer // 0 Comments

The Pacific Northwest is known for its established beer scene and great breweries. This year at the Great American Beer Festival Washington and Oregon breweries did their home states proud, taking home a total of 31 medals. Powerhouse Oregon took home 22 medals, making it the third most winning state. The winning breweries were Propolis Brewing, Airways Brewing Co., Sound Brewery, Chuckanut Brewery, Pyramid Breweries, White Bluffs Brewing, Fremont Brewing Co., and Silver City Brewery from Washington. The Oregon winners were Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Logsdon Organic Farm Brewery, Breakside Brewery, The Commons Brewery, 10 Barrel Brewing Co., Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Pelican Pub & Brewery, Caldera Brewing Co., Buoy Beer Co., Old Town Brewing Co., 13 Virtues Brewing Co., Ground Breaker Brewing, Bend Brewing Co., Deschutes Brewery, and Arch Rock Brewing Co..

Washington: The most winning brewery from Washington was Fremont Brewing Co. Taking home silver medals in both International-Style Pale Ale and Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout categories. They were the only Washington brewery awarded more than one medal at this year’s fest. They may or may not have been selling Summer Ale for $2 in their taproom the weekend before it won. Fremont’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star was also one of the top picks from our Bitch Beer Recap.

Washington took home 5 gold medals, only two less than Oregon that won many more medals overall. Larger brewery Pyramid took home gold for their well-known Apricot Ale. This follows its first two gold medals in the fruit beer category in 1994 and 2008. Also taking gold were Airways, Propolis, White Bluffs and Chuckanut, all smaller breweries that span from Port Townsend to Bellingham.

Oregon: Located in Baker City, OR, Barley Brown’s Brew Pub took home the most awards by a single brewery in the PNW, as well as 3rd place in this year’s Alpha King competition. They were awarded medals in the following categories:Gold: Fresh or Wet Hop Ale, Gold: International-Style Pale Ale, Bronze: American-Style Black Ale, Silver: American-Style Stout. They have been winning awards at both GABF and World Beer Cup since 2005.

Another notable win was Breakside Brewery’s win in the American Style IPA category. It is only fitting that a brewery from hop country would take the gold here. What is exciting is that Breakside IPA won the biggest category of the festival, knocking out 278 other contenders for the gold. The best part of this moment in the awards ceremony was the early celebration of their award as it flashed up on-screen. #spoileralert

The thirteen other Oregon breweries span the state as well as style categories. Some of the highlights are: 10-Barrel’s gold for Cucumber Crush in the Field beer category, Bend Brewing’s gold for Salmonberry Sour in Indigenous/Regional Beer, and Old Town having a beer named “I’d Like To Buy The World A Kolsch.”

Festival by the Numbers

-222 beer experts from 10 countries

– 5,507 commercial enteries

-89 PROAM entries

-medals awarded were in 90 beer categories spanning 145 recognized styles

-Washington and Oregon combined took home 11% of all medals awarded

(Full Press Release Here) See below for the full breakdown of all the medals won by Washington and Oregon at this year’s fest.

Washinton by the Numbers

– Washington State took home 9 medals up from 4 medals last year

– Over half of the medals received by Washington breweries were gold medals. The total count is 5 gold medals, followed by 3 silver medals and 1 bronze

– Washington had 25 breweries representing at the festival this year

– Fremont Brewing Co. was the only WA brewery to take home more than one award, winning silver medals for both their Summer Ale and Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star