BTU BRASSERIE, Portlandâs only Chinese-style brewpub, earned its first medal at the 35th annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver earlier this month as one of the 21 awards that came home to Oregon. Moreover, BTUâs Butt-Ah-Nut earned the only medal in the Pumpkin/Squash Beer category. But they didnât take gold. Not even silver. BTU earned a bronze. Only 10 breweries even entered a beer in this categoryâthe first year for the style, though there have been pumpkin beer categories of various guidelines since 2011âwhich means the certified beer judges deemed the others unworthy of GABFâs precious medal. When asked for response, BTUâs brewer Nate Yovu said, âI donât think itâs a snub.â
Competition grows stiffer every year; 1,752 breweries submitted a total of 7,227 beers. That means 6,941 beers did not earn their brewers any hardware. And nine of themâthe others that entered the Pumpkin/Squash Beer categoryâwere told, admonished really, from the stage during the awards ceremony to âRead those guidelines carefully.â
If a beer wins, thatâs proof itâs phenomenal. If it doesnât win, maybe it came in fourth or maybe the expert judges just werenât feeling it during that session. Twenty-one Oregon beers won out of a combined 17 breweries. Only California and Colorado fared better, as usual.
Breakside was the big winner, with a gold in the Rye Beer category (Rye Curious?), silver in Classic English-style Pale Ale (Breakside ESB), and bronze in Australian-style or International-style Pale Ale (Lunch Break ISA). Australian refers to the usage of Southern Hemisphere hops, and Lunch Break is heavy on Galaxy hops. Breakside has earned nine GABF medals in its six-year history.
Oregon brewers were undoubtedly frustrated about being shut out of all four IPA categories (for the first time since 2010), but this shows that thereâs great parity of quality across the country. Rather than viewing the hundreds of non-winning beers entered from across Oregon as losers, it means that many didnât fit the guidelines.
Indeed, running through the list of winners reveals several medalists in the least narrowly defined categories. Vertigo from Hillsboro won for Apricot Cream Ale in American-style Fruit Beer. Thatâs pretty much any olâ beer that has fruit in it. Speaking of which, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales placed third in Belgian-style Fruit Beer with their amazing Cerasus (a Kriek-style ale thatâs their Flanders Red with Hood River cherries), while newcomers Great Notion Brewing won silver in American-style Sour Ale with Heart of Gold, a barrel-aged saison with peaches.
In more peachy news, The Commons Brewery bronzed twice in broad-reaching categories, which makes sense, since that brewing team, led by Sean Burke, is more often inspired by what is mused than mandated. Their Crème de Peche won in the Specialty Saison category, for which the guidelines proclaim entries âinclude a very wide family of specialty beers.â Now Iâm dying to try thisâa cream ale with fresh peaches and soured with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus then aged in spent Old Tom gin barrelsâside by side with Heart of Gold! The Commonsâ other honor came for Petite Classique in Other Belgian-style Ale. This tasty, dry saison is given a faint kick from pink peppercorns.
Strangely, it couldâve been entered in the Mixed-Culture Brett Beer category, in which Corvallisâs Flat Tail won bronze for DAM Wild: Marionberry Pink Peppercorn. Damn skippy. Two wildly different beers with pink peppercorns won in different categories (and I assure you the guidelines do not specify how much peppercorn character the beer should display). Speaking of the funky Brett, Eugeneâs brand-spanking new Alesong Brewingâthe project co-founded by former Oakshire brewmaster Matt Van Wykânabbed (their first) gold medal in Brett Beer for a beautiful number called Touch of Brett. The already limited number of bottles that hit Portland is dwindling. I picked up a 500ml bottle at Brewed Oregon, and despite advertising itself as a dry-hopped saison, I was caught off guardâin a good wayâat how much Citra hop character it possesses in the face of that wine barrel aging and Bretty mustiness.
Having said that, a few of the classics were well repped. Barley Brownâs Shredderâs Wheat earned its sixth medal in eight years (bringing the companyâs total to 21). One of the winningest breweries in the world, Pelican, took silver in American or International-style Pilsner, thus earning the companyâs fortieth GABF medal. (Only Deschutes has moreâ43 dating back to 1990âbut theyâve come up dry the last two years.) Since 1998, Pelican has only come home empty handed twice, and Pelicano Extra, a toasty Mexican-style lager, kept the streak going. Sunriver Brewing also took silver in the American-style Strong Pale Ale category, which is fitting since this abundantly citrusy âNorthwest Aleâ occupies the sliver between a pale and an IPA. If thereâs one common thread among the above disparate breweries and medal-winning beers, itâs that theyâre each Northwest ales (and a few lagers).