The annual Best of Craft Beer Awards took place recently here in Bend; this was its fifth year taking place, and it has grown into an impressive size, becoming (according to the description) the third-largest pro brewing competition in the U.S.

Over 2000 entries were amassed, and judges were selected from a pool of BJCP-certified judges, brewers, and other industry people. Beers are judged according to Brewers Association 2017 guidelines, and I believe it’s more GABF-style than BJCP-style—shorter score sheets in advance/reject style, rather than the detailed notes BJCP judging entails.

Here’s the press release:

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 Cra 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.

2018 Brewery of the Year – Breakside Brewing, Portland/Milwaukie, Oregon

About Us
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.

You can view the list of winners here (as well as winners from previous years). It’s a good and interesting spread of winners this year, with some surprises, and yes, Portland’s Breakside Brewery absolutely cleaned up (as they do).

Congratulations to all the winners! And start prepping your recipes and beers for next year’s awards.