2018 GABF Winners

It’s that time of year again, the GABF competition awards.  Once again, I was able to livestream the awards ceremony while I was at work.  Even more exciting is that the brewery I work for (Portland Brewing) won a medal!

Oregon and North Carolina both represented themselves very well this year.  Here we go!

Starting with Oregon:

10 Barrel Brewing – Bend, OR
Silver Medal – American Style Stout
Gold Medal – Berliner-Style Wiesse
Gold Medal – Fruit Wheat Beer (103 entries!)

Goodlife Brewing – Bend, OR
Gold Medal – American Style Wheat Beer

Sunriver Brewing – Sunriver, OR
Silver Medal – American Style Wheat Beer with Yeast
Bronze Medal – Imperial Red Ale

Widmer Brothers Brewing – Portland, OR
Bronze Medal – American Style Wheat Beer with Yeast

Worthy Brewing – Bend, OR
Silver Medal – Australian Style Pale Ale

Alesong Brewing and Blending – Eugene, OR
Bronze Medal – Brett Beer
Silver Medal – Brett Beer
Silver Medal – Experimental Beer (112 entries!)

Omission Brewing – Portland, OR
Gold Medal – Classic English Style Pale Ale

Portland Brewing – Portland, OR
Silver Medal – Classic English Style Pale Ale

Wayfinder Beer – Portland, OR
Silver Medal – Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest

Pelican Brewing – Pacific City, OR
Silver Medal – English Style IPA

pFriem Family Brewers – Hood River, OR
Silver Medal – German-Style Pilsener (159 entries!)
Gold Medal – Mixed Culture Brett Beer
Mid-size Brewing Company of the Year

Ground Breaker Brewing – Portland, OR
Bronze Medal – Gluten-Free Beer

Oregon City Brewing Company – Oregon City, OR
Bronze Medal – Mixed Culture Brett Beer

Lompoc Brewing, 5th Quadrant – Portland, OR
Gold Medal – Robust Porter

Three Creeks Brewing – Sisters, OR
Bronze Medal – Session Beer

Great Notion Brewing – Portland, OR
Silver Medal – Specialty Beer

22 overall medals + Midsize Brewing Co. of the Year. Big jump over last years 16 medals, not surprising to see Portland and Bend dominate the list.  6 Gold, 10 silver, 6 bronze.

Now for North Carolina,

Crank Arm Brewing – Raleigh, NC
Gold Medal – American Belgo-style Ale

Brown Truck Brewery – High Point, NC
Silver Medal – American Belgo-style Ale

Appalachian Mountain Brewery – Boone, NC
Gold Medal – American Style Lager or American Style Malt Liquor

Triple C Brewing – Charlotte, NC
Bronze Medal – English Style Summer Ale

Hillman Beer – Asheville, NC
Silver Medal – Extra Special Bitter

BearWaters Brewing Co. – Canton, NC
Gold Medal – American Style Fruited Sour (149 entries!)

Wooden Robot Brewing – Charlotte, NC
Gold Medal – Fruited Wood and Barrel-aged Sour Beer (102 entries!)

D9 Brewing Co. – Cornelius, NC
Bronze Medal – Gose

Divine Barrel Brewing Co. – Charlotte, NC
Silver Medal – Historical Beer

Carolina Brewery, Chapel Hill – Pittsboro, NC
Silver Medal – Oredinary or Special Bitter

NoDa Brewing, NE – Charlotte, NC
Gold Medal – Pumpkin/Squash or Pumpkin Spice Beer

Little City Brewing – Raleigh, NC
Bronze Medal – Session IPA

Little Brother Brewing – Greensboro, NC
Gold Medal – Southern German Style Hefeweizen (152 entries!)

13 total medals for NC, which is one less than last year’s 14, however this year was a higher quality of medals.  6 gold (up from 3), 4 silver (up from 3) and 3 bronze (down from 6), and taking home gold in some really big categories! It’s nice to see Charlotte coming on to the scene.  Lots of good beer from the Queen City.

Others:

I noticed a couple of non Oregon and NC breweries that caught my eye in the medal ceremony mostly because it was places we had been to before.

New Belgium Brewing (Fort Collins, CO) took home two medals, a Gold in Collaboration for Transatlantique Kriek, and a Silver in American Style Cream Ale for Dayblazer.  We tasted both of those beers when we toured the brewery in Colorado, and hopefully will get to tour their Asheville facility on our upcoming East coast trip.

Washington State had a pretty good showing as well with 17 total medals.  Several breweries just across the border won medals including Loowit Brewing, 54-40 Brewing, and recent sensation Grains of Wrath Brewing.

I also want to shoutout to my fellow North American Breweries partner Genessee Brewing who won a silver medal in Chocolate Beer for their Pilot Brew House Chocolate Scotch Ale.

 

Into the Woods – Part 7; Summer Edition

It was a brutally hot summer here in Portland.  Record breaking numbers of days at 90°+.  Certainly not barrel aged beer weather, but with several waves of friends and family coming into town to visit there were opportunities to break out a few nice things from the cellar.

Deschutes 2017 Abyss: This beer was strange.  Opened it with a group and we all seemed to get the same things off it.  It had a very strong Umami/soy sauce aroma.  Also had some molasses, cherry and stone fruit in the aroma.  Very heavy molasses flavor with light cherry and stone fruit.  Some light chocolate and vanilla on warming.  Ordinarily,  I would think this beer year’s beer wasn’t that good, but I had it on draft in Austin and it was amazing.  Perhaps my storage? I’m not sure.  I’ll be interested to see how it compares with the 2013 bottle we picked up at Brews for New Avenues. (4.5 stars for draft, bottle version unrated)

St Arnold Bishop’s Barrel 21 – Barrel aged Quad with Cherries: This is a bottle I brought home from Houston.  St Arnold was closed the day we were there, but found this at a local bottle shop.  Dark brown/red highlights.  Heavy cherry aroma, whiskey highlight.  Very sweet cherry flavor, whiskey, oak and wood aftertaste.  This mouthfeel, effervescent carbonation.  Sticky on the lips but not cloying.  (3.75 stars)

Ecliptic Oort BBA Imperial Stout – Batch 3 (2018): This was a bring home from Best of Craft Beer in January.  About 8 months of bottle time when we opened this one.  Strong whiskey aroma, slight umami/soy.  Whiskey flavor, vanilla and coconut from the barrel.  Whiskey lingers long on the palate.  Thick mouthfeel/viscous.  Super smooth, alcohol hidden.  Sneaky at 12%.  (5 stars)

Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout: This bottle was a birthday present (May) so it took a while to make it’s way out.  Brown sugar and whiskey aroma.  Vanilla and coconut barrel flavor.  Light cola and coffee flavors.  Thin, low carbonation.  I gave this beer 5 stars back in 2014, and while I don’t think I liked it quite that much this time around, I didn’t rate it a second time.  (5 stars – 2014)

Now that the weather has turned cooler and we’ve started getting some rain, pretty soon it will be the heart of dark beer season.  Stay tuned!