Oregon comes out on top with 70 medals, at this year's Best of Craft Beer Awards with Breakside Brewery named Brewery of the Year
The results are in for this year’s “Best of Craft Beer Awards”. With over 2000 different beers, judged across 86 categories resulting in 245 total medals to 152 breweries.
During the weekend of January 26-28th, professional brewers and judges descended upon the picturesque beer/ski town of Bend, Oregon to judge over 2,000 entries into the 2018 Best of Craft Beer Awards competition. Breweries of all sizes, from nearly every state in the union, as well as Columbia, Canada, and Belgium, sent over 10,000 containers of their finest product for evaluation based on a combined 156 specific beer styles.
Judging took place in five sessions over a 3-day period by nearly 80 of the finest West Coast judges. They awarded 245 gold, silver, and bronze medals to 152 brewery locations in a total of 86 categories.
Breaking it down state-by-state in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon received 70 medals including 23 Gold and 28 Silver. Receiving less than half the recognition of Oregon, Washington brought home 29 with nine Gold medals and 11 Silver. Rounding out the list, Idaho was awarded 2 medals, a Gold, and a Silver.
In light of these facts, we will dig into each state’s ‘winning haul’ and see which breweries came out on top. But first, we want to announce the ...
2018 Brewery of the Year - Breakside Brewing, Portland/Milwaukie, Oregon
The finer details.
Oregon
In reviewing the list of breweries based on medal count we see Breakside Brewery (located in Milwaukie and Portland), with 11 medals followed by 10 Barrel Brewing (Bend) with 9 and finally, Eugene breweries Falling Sky Brewing and Alesong Brewing and Blending in a tie at 3 medals each. For a complete breakdown of medals for Oregon visit http://bestofcraftbeerawards.com/best-of-craft-beer-awards-winners/
Washington
Unlike Oregon, which featured a clear winner in Breakside Brewery, Washington had a 2-way tie for most medals between Bellingham’s Kulshan Brewing and Barrel Mountain from Battle Ground. Backing these guys up there was a multitude of breweries with 2 medals, including Bron Yr Aur Brewing Co. in Naches, Chainline Brewing Company (Kirkland), Postdoc Brewing (Redmond), Ravenna Brewing Company (Seattle), Standard Brewing Company (Seattle), and Stoup Brewing Company (Seattle). If your favorite Washington brewery wasn’t listed here, look at http://bestofcraftbeerawards.com/best-of-craft-beer-awards-winners/ to learn more.
Idaho
Finally, it was Boise’s Sockeye Brewing Company who received a Gold Medal for their Brown Porter to Wallace Brewing Company’s Silver medal from their Irish-style Red Ale.
Final thoughts
When reviewing the data between the three states, it’s easy to conclude that Oregon produces the best beers in the region. However, one has to wonder if geography played a factor in Oregon’s haul or if Oregon’s brewers truly produce the best beers in the Pacific Northwest. We’re reserving our judgment but that shouldn’t stop you from absorbing these facts and deciding which state has the best beers from this year’s competition.
About the Best of Craft Beer Awards
The Best of Craft Beer Awards just completed its 5th year of competition seeing a successive growth rate in participating breweries year over year. In that short amount of time, the competition has grown to be the third largest professional brewing competition in the country.
