The Big Winners at the GABF

 
 

The Great American Beer Fest announced its winners this year, and Oregon once again had a great showing, winning 29 medals. One of the most amazing showings was Tonya Cornett’s new project, UPP Liquids. You may recall that Cornett, having just won the most prestigious brewing award (The Russell Schehrer) was fired by her longtime employer 10 Barrel. This year UPP took five medals. Add two more for Grand Fir, founded by 10 Barrel alumna Whitney Burnside, and the the ex-10 Barrel brewers won seven more medals than 10 Barrel this year. Other big winners included pFriem (3), Breakside (2), Von Ebert (2), and Monkless (2). Alesong continued its remarkable run of victories as well, picking up another gold for mixed fermentation beer.

  1. California: 79

  2. Colorado: 39

  3. Oregon 29

  4. Washington: 23

  5. Texas: 21

  6. Ohio: 19

  7. Virginia: 11

  8. North Carolina: 8

  9. Arizona, Michigan andMissouri: 7

A year after three Oregon breweries (and a cider maker) were awarded best breweries of the year in their respective size categories, we fell back down to earth this year with just one winning—the incredible UPP Liquids.

 
 
 
 

A bit more from the fest:

A total of 273 breweries and cideries took home 347 medals in this year’s Great American Beer Festival competition. Over seven days and three judging phases, 250 expert judges evaluated 8,315 beer and cider entries—including 68 Collaboration and 40 Pro-Am submissions—from breweries spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Just 4.2% of the beers entered managed to medal. Any brewery winning in that environment has done something special, so celebrate the winners. They’re badasses!

Jeff Alworth1 Comment