Oregon breweries claimed a total of 17 medals at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) held October 5-7, 2017 in Denver, Colorado.
From the press release –
Oregon Breweries brought home 7 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 7 bronze medals. The Portland Metro area won 8 medals, Central Oregon won 4 medals, the Willamette Valley won 3 medals and Mt. Hood/The Gorge won 2 medals.
The GABF is the world’s largest beer competition and recognizes the most outstanding beers that were entered into the competition from the United States. The top three medalists in each of the competition’s 99 beer-style categories were announced October 7th at the 31st GABF Awards Ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center.
The 2017 GABF Competition winners were selected by an international panel of 276 beer experts from an impressive field of 8,041 competition entries, including 118 entries in the Pro-Am category (an 11 percent increase from 2016) received from 2,217 U.S. breweries.
Items of interest from the 2017 GABF Competition:
The Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year | 1,000 – 14,999 BBLS
Sponsored by O-I was awarded to Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR to the Sunriver Brewing Team
Sunriver Brewing tied for the most number of Gold medals with 2.
The Breakside Brewery team over their three brewing locations in Milwaukie and Portland won the most medals at the 2017 GABF with 4 medals, with at least one from each brewing location.
Breakside IPA also won the Bronze medal in the largest category of any beer competition ever held with 408 entries. Breakside is the only repeat medal winner in the American IPA category in the last 5 years. Oregon breweries have won the gold medal in this category in 2 of the last 5 years. Breakside was also the only brewery to win more than one medal in the top 5 categories with the most entries.
2017 Oregon GABF Medal Winners
Category 1: American-Style Wheat Beer – 39 Entries
Gold: Sweet As Pacific Ale, GoodLife Brewing Co., Bend, OR
Category 2: American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast – 52 Entries
Gold: Fuzztail, Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR
Category 5: Belgian-Style Fruit Beer – 58 Entries
Silver: ZuurPruim, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Hood River, OR
Category 14: Rye Beer – 49 Entries
Bronze: Breakside Rye Curious?, Breakside Brewery, Portland, OR
Category 16: Session Beer – 40 Entries
Bronze: Stonefly Session Ale, Three Creeks Brewing Co., Sisters, OR
Category 22: Gluten-Free Beer – 33 Entries
Gold: Dark Ale, Ground Breaker Brewing, Portland, OR
Category 24: American-Style Sour Ale – 35 Entries
Gold: DAM Wild: Hops and Lemon Verbena, Flat Tail Brewing Co., Corvallis, OR
Category 25: Fruited American-Style Sour Ale – 105 Entries
Bronze: Breakside Passionfruit Sour Ale, Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Milwaukie, OR
Category 26: Brett Beer – 71 Entries
Bronze: Touch of Brett Mosaic, Alesong Brewing & Blending, Eugene, OR
Category 36: American-Style Pilsener or International-Style Pilsener – 98 Entries
Silver: Sesión Cerveza, Full Sail Brewing Co., Hood River, OR
Bronze: Lemon Pils, Elk Horn Brewery, Eugene, OR
Category 41: German-Style Pilsener – 145 Entries
Gold: Zoigl-Pils, Zoiglhaus Brewing Co., Portland, OR
Category 59: American-Style Strong Pale Ale – 182 Entries
Bronze: Breakside Stay West, Breakside Brewery + Beer Hall, Portland, OR
Category 60: American-Style India Pale Ale – 408 Entries
Bronze: Breakside IPA, Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Milwaukie, OR
Category 63: Double Red Ale – 72 Entries
Silver: St. James, Coldfire Brewing, Eugene, OR
Category 64: Imperial Red Ale – 41 Entries
Gold: Cinder Beast, Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR
Category 81: Specialty Saison – 81 Entries
Gold: Rye Saison, Base Camp Brewing Co., Portland, OR
Please note that the following beers won medals and are also made at an Oregon brewery:
Fat Head’s Brewery – Midnight Moonlight / American-Style Black Ale – Bronze
Fat Head’s Brewery – AlpenGlow / German-Style Wheat Ale – Gold