I have to admit, I was out of touch with this year’s Great American Beer Festival with everything going virtual. So I was unaware that the GABF’s first-ever virtual award ceremony was taking place last Friday afternoon, so I missed a bunch of it. (Poor excuse for a beer blogger, I know! That’s okay, it’s been a weird year.)

Even so, I see that Oregon breweries brought home 22 medals across a range of categories! Before I get to the winners, some quick stats on this year’s competition from the Brewers Association release:

The Brewers Association (BA) awarded 272 medals* to 240 breweries across the country during the 2020 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition awards ceremony. The best beers in 91 beer categories covering 170 different beer styles (including all subcategories) were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals during a virtual ceremony hosted on The Brewing Network.

Judges for the 34th edition of the celebrated competition evaluated 8,806 entries from 1,720 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Socially distanced judging took place in 35 sessions over 18 days with strict safety measures in place.

• 34th edition of the GABF competition
• 8,806 beers judged
• 1,720 breweries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
• 115 judges from 21 states
• Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 97
• Category with the highest number of entries: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (377)
• 272 total medals awarded
• 240 medal-winning breweries
• 337 first-time GABF entrants
• 19 first-time GABF winners

Honestly I was surprised there were that many entries (see “weird year,” above), but that’s pretty amazing. Kudos to the organizers and the judges who were able to judge safely.

Now let’s get to Oregon’s winners! Naturally I’ll start with my local, Central Oregon breweries:

• 10 Barrel Brewing: Bronze in American-Style Wheat Beer for 10 Barrel TWheat
• Bend Brewing: Bronze in Brown Porter for Old Normal
• Monkless Belgian Ales: Gold in Belgian-Style Abbey Ale for Dubbel or Nothing
• Three Creeks Brewing: Silver in Brown Porter for FivePine Porter
• Three Creeks Brewing: Gold in Fresh Hop Beer for Conelick’r
• Wild Ride Brewing: Gold in American-Style Wheat Beer for Whoopty Whoop Wheat

In addition, Three Creeks won “Brewery Group of the Year” and Monkless won “Mid-Size Brewpub and Mid-Size Brewpub Brewer of the Year”! That’s a solid cleanup of awards, with Central Oregon breweries nearly sweeping both the American-style Wheat and the Brown Porter categories, which is fantastic! Three golds to show for it too, and for Three Creeks to win in Fresh Hop Ale strikes me as a Big Thing.

For the rest of Oregon:

• Alesong Brewing: Silver in Brett Beer for Touch of Brett
• Alesong Brewing: Gold in Specialty Saison for Farmhouse Cuvée
• Block 15 Brewing: Silver in Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale for Peche
• Breakside Brewery: Gold in German-Style Sour Ale for Breakside Gose
• Coldfire Brewing: Gold in Mixed-Culture Brett Beer for Wild James
• Coldfire Brewing: Silver in Specialty Saison for Seeds of Infinity
• Ex Novo Brewing: Gold in Bohemian-Style Pilsener for Perle Haggard
• Old Town Brewing: Bronze in American Pilsener for Pilsner
• Old Town Brewing: Bronze in American-Style Amber/Red Ale for Paulie’s Not Irish
• Pelican Brewing (Tillamook): Silver in American-Style India Pale Ale for Updrift IPA
• pFriem Family Brewers: Gold in German-Style Koelsch for Kolsch
• pFriem Family Brewers: Gold in International Pilsener for Japanese Lager
• Rogue Ales: Bronze in Pumpkin Beer for Pumpkin Patch Ale
• StormBreaker Brewing: Silver in Extra Special Bitter for Extra Special StormBreaker
• Von Ebert Brewing (Pearl): Bronze in American-Style India Pale Ale for Nothing Noble
• Von Ebert Brewing (Glendoveer): Bronze in Specialty Saison for Obeisance

This is an amazing list, with Oregon breweries sweeping “Specialty Saison” entirely, and big wins for high profile categories, not to mention some underappreciated ones (ESB, American Amber/Red, Pumpkin).

If you’re looking for great Oregon beers to be drinking this season, start with this list of 22.

Congrats to all the winners! This year’s been especially tough on breweries, so wherever you are, check out the full winners list for great breweries near you.

(Photo courtesy of GABF.)