Central Oregon winners from the 2020 Oregon Beer Awards

Oregon Beer Awards 2020

The annual Oregon Beer Awards ceremony took place in Portland the other night at Revolution Hall, the culmination of a massive judging of over 1200 all-Oregon beers across 30 categories. The Willamette Week has a good capsule description of the endeavor:

In 2020 the Oregon Beer Awards will select and celebrate our state’s top beers in 30 categories, and honor Oregon’s exceptional breweries, bars and festivals in seven additional categories. It is the only statewide double blind beer tasting competition in Oregon.

The event was also livestreamed, which is what we watched (mostly—we missed a chunk of it midway through) and it’s always entertaining on several levels. It’s also interesting to me because while I’ve never judged the beers for OBA, I’ve been a member of the voting academy for a few years now, and get a chance to suggest and vote on the non-beer-style categories like Best Beer Bar, Best Brewpub Experience, and so on. This year I batted about .500 on my votes.

Each year’s winners always reveal surprises from around the state, and this year is no different. However I’m not going to post the full list—The New School has that posted along with a good recap of the night—just the Central Oregon winners (naturally!). And some commentary.

The big winners from Central Oregon were 10 Barrel Brewing, Sunriver Brewing, and Immersion Brewing. They weren’t the only local winners, but they brought home the most medals and Immersion went on to win Small Brewery of the Year on top of that, which is huge!

Here’s the list of who won what (in order by number of awards):

  • 10 Barrel Brewing (7 medals):
    • Gold in “Stout” for Re-Vive
    • Gold in “Classic UK Styles” for RedeuX
    • Silver in “Classic North American Styles” for Twheat
    • Silver in “Barrel Aged Beers” for Vino de Grano
    • Silver in “Coffee and Smoke Beers” for C4K
    • Silver in “Experimental Beers” for Gindulgence
    • Silver in “Fruited Mixed Culture Beers” for Old Stoner
  • Sunriver Brewing (5 medals):
    • Silver in “American Pale Ales and Other Sessionable Hoppy Beers” for Rippin
    • Bronze in “American IPA” for Alluvial IPA
    • Gold in “Dark Hoppy Beers” for Cinder Beast
    • Bronze in “Flavored Beers” for Cocoa Cow
    • Silver in “Pastry or Dessert Beers” for Haole at the Moon
    • Also the regional “Excellence in Brewing Operations” award for the Central region
  • Immersion Brewing (2 medals):
    • Gold in “Golden, Blonde, and Other Light Ales” for Packin’ The Arena
    • Bronze in “Dark Hoppy Beers” for Ring the Alarm
    • Small Brewery of the Year
  • Deschutes Brewery (2 medals):
    • Gold in “Barrel Aged Beers” for Home at Port
    • Bronze in “Emerging IPA or Experimental Hoppy Beer” for Cloudy & Rowdy
  • Worthy Brewing (2 medals):
    • Bronze in “Pilsner” for Sol Power Pilsner
    • Silver in “Hazy or Juicy Pale Ales” for Saturn Gold
  • Bend Brewing (1 medal):
    • Silver in “Rare Historical and Other Traditional Beers” for Mad Dogs of Glory
  • Boneyard Beer (1 medal):
    • Bronze in “Fruit Beers” for Incredible Pulp
  • Crux Fermentation Project (1 medal):
    • Silver in “Mixed Culture Beers” for In the Pocket
  • Silver Moon Brewing (1 medal):
    • Bronze in “American Sour Beers” for Bangarang
  • The Ale Apothecary (1 medal):
    • Gold in “American Sour Beers” for The Beer Formerly Known as La Tache
  • Boss Rambler Beer Club – Best New Brewery

Big congratulations for Immersion Brewing, particularly on that SBotY win!

While it’s always interesting to see the various specialty, perhaps one-off or esoteric beers that win awards, I have to give respect to those core, “everyday” beers that pick up medals. Brewing the same beer consistently a lot of the time isn’t always sexy or exciting, but it shows how strong those breweries are. Sunriver’s Rippin for instance—I just had that on draft a week ago and I forget just how good a beer that is. Kudos also to Worthy for picking up a medal in the coveted “Pilsner” category, and to Boneyard for the Incredible Pulp win, which ironically is not one you would usually think of when you think “fruit beer” (in my opinion—I think of it more as a pale ale).

I’m impressed by the number of (Oregon-only) beers assembled and judged this year—a stunning reminder of how big this industry is getting. With more beers comes more diversity from across the state, and it’s good to see winners outside of the Portland metro area. (In the early years of the Oregon Beer Awards, I felt that it did seem to be too Portland-centric in its winners—as viewed from outside the area. Which was essentially a quantity factor as most of the entries were from there.)

The style system the beers are judged by is also interesting. Here’s Jeff Alworth describing it:

It’s also one of the more interesting competitions in that the categories don’t follow GABF/BJCP guidelines. Fest organizers have reconsidered what styles make sense conceptually and from a consumer standpoint, and although I have a quibble or two, they are a vast improvement on the sprawling and picayune categories of the GABF.

There are only 30 categories defined for OBA, and while it largely makes a lot of sense, I also have some quibbles. Follow along with the 2020 style guidelines here. To wit:

  • In “Light German and European Lagers” how on earth do Gose and Berliner Weisse qualify for being included? These are not lagers last I checked, and it seems very out of place for German sours to pop up in a lager category.
  • “Belgian Beers, German Wheat Beers, and Traditional Brett Beers” seems like a category that was assembled at the end of a long night when everyone was getting cranky and wanted to go home.
  • In both the “Classic U.K. Styles” and “Classic North American Styles” it’s a little strange to me to be judging, say, American Wheat or American Lager against Wheat Wine and Imperial Porter, but the notes do point out that these are catch-all categories.
  • I like the inclusion of the two Fresh Hop categories, though bear in mind these beers are judged months before when the fresh hop beers are at their peak.

One of the guiding factors behind these guidelines is commercial availability/sales of these beers, which accounts for lumping some of these otherwise-disparate styles together. But it wouldn’t hurt to add a category or two to break up some of the oddities.

All in all I think this the OBA is a great showcase of Oregon beer and does a great job of selecting the best beers in the state. Congrats to all who won, and to all involved in putting it together, great job. I’m looking forward to next year.

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