Oregon’s Very Special GABF (And Other Notes)

The Great American Beer Fest announced their 2024 winners today, and Oregon had quite a year:

• 38 total medals

• Three Brewery of the Year winners: Alesong (251-500 bbls), Grand Fir (501-1000 bbls), and Sunriver (5,001-15,000 bbls)

• Cidermaker of the Year (2 Towns)

Five of the medals were won by cideries, so Oregon breweries took home 33 medals—ten more than in 2023. Our friends to the north didn’t do too shabby, either, raking in 26. You can find all the winners here. A few more notes below.

This year 326 medals were up for grabs, and 273 breweries nabbed at least one. The winningest states were:

• 71 - California

• 41 - Colorado

• 38 - Oregon

• 26 - Washington

• 13 - Virginia

• 9 - Illinois, Texas

• 8 - Georgia, North Carolina

• 7 - Nevada

It’s always a little hard to judge how well a state is doing in absolute terms, because we never know how many breweries enter each year. Would a GABF held in Boston or New York Ciry draw a different range of participants—and therefore winners? Hard to say. But western states dominate the competition each year.

This year was the most lopsided I remember. The West Coast won over a third of the medals, and the number of medals won by a lot of very strong brewing states like Pennsylvania (5), Wisconsin (5), and Michigan (2), to cite three examples, was decidedly anemic. I have to assume that’s a sample issue, and it’s becoming more and more glaring. New England has never really participated, and again won just a handful of medals as a result.

That doesn’t mean the competition isn’t competitive. It is—insanely so. Just 3.7% of the 8,836 beers entered managed to medal. Any brewery winning in that environment has done something special, so celebrate the winners. They’re badasses!