Bend Breweries Dominate 11th Annual Oregon Beer Awards

When people compare the Oregon Beer Awards to the Academy Awards, given that it’s a night full of talented people earning well-deserved plaudits for their body of work the past year, what they leave out is that it’s like the entire Oscars experience. The sudsy equivalent of the red carpet is part and parcel of the pageantry. There’s always a humorous opening sketch and a can’t-miss opening ceremony. And of course, win or lose, it’s all about the afterparty. The OBAs are like the Oscars because it’s of, by, and for the participants and the rest of us are free to enjoy them from afar if we so choose.

At the Eleventh Annual Oregon Beer Awards on April 2, precisely half of Oregon’s 208 brewing companies self-submitted nearly 1,000 beers into competition. After the winners—rewarded not with statuettes like the Oscars but with medals like the Olympics—from all 29 categories were announced, a record 25 medals came home to Central Oregon breweries.

By comparison, 37 medals stayed in Portland. But while Portland brewers earned 43% of the medals and Central Oregon won 29%, Portland is home to more than double the number of breweries, thus making Central Oregon the undisputed best place for beer per capita according to the judges, who are largely comprised of Portland-area beer experts.

UPP, Up and Away

Every local brewery that earned hardware at this year’s OBAs deserves to be celebrated, and I’ll get there in a minute, but the brewery that easily stole the spotlight was months-old UPP Liquids, the brewery formed when Immersion Brewing brought on the four brewer wunderkinds who’d been terminated by 10 Barrel after leading its innovation team to nearly 50 OBAs, second only to Breakside. Needless to say, 10 Barrel got blanked.

UPP was named both Small Brewery of the Year (Large went to Breakside Brewery with 10 total medals and Medium went to Wayfinder with three) and Best New Brewery of the Year as a result of winning five total medals.

If I may gripe for a moment, UPP should’ve been named Regional Brewery of the Year in the Central division, too, but that honor went to pFriem Family Brewers.

While I’m on record as saying pFriem is the best brewery in Oregon and, by extension, the whole country, no brewery an hour from Portland should be deemed Central Oregon.

Among the spectrum of styles, the OBA’s American Sour Beer category saw UPP win both gold and bronze medals for Flower Child and Moments Made, respectively. In a fun twist, Moments Made earned gold at the most recent GABF while Flower Child earned silver. Eugene’s ColdFire Brewing prevented UPP from getting the sweep like Breakside pulled off in the Barrel-Aged Stout category and pFriem’s crew of brewers did in the Pilsner category* (*I word it that way because bronze went to Hetty Alice Beers founded by former pFriem brewer Gavin Lord).

UPP’s other medals were gold for Pinball Wizard in the Stout and Porter category and a pair of bronzes (Golden, Blonde, and Other Light Ales) and Strong Beers

Central Oregon Gold (and Silver and Bronze)

Also in Strong Beers, the godfather of Bend beer—Deschutes Brewery—earned silver for its doppelbock, Co-Munichator. In the Dark German and European Lagers category (which also could’ve included the doppelbock), Deschutes took the second and third spots on the podium with Miniature Donkey Dunkel and Count Crispy, respectively. In the Dark Hoppy Beers category, Deschutes won bronze for Midnight Shenanigans while Sunriver Brewing got gold with its 10% American Barleywine, Not Tomorrow Yet. And in the Other Fresh Hop Beers category, Deschutes earned silver for Fresh Hop King Crispy while neighbor Bend Brewing Co. (BBC) begat bronze with FH Oregon Summer Ale.

Deschutes Brewery earned a silver for its Co-Munichator and second/third for Miniature Donkey Dunkel and Count Crispy. Credit: Deschutes Brewery

Hardly also-rans, Sunriver earned a total of five medals including gold for Rippin in the Sessionable Hoppy Beers. Sunriver swiped silver in the Fruit Beers category with Wood Series: Hawaiian-Styled Imperial Stout where the Bend outpost of the McMenamins empire, Old St. Francis School, won gold with Pistol Peach. Sunriver earned two bronzes for Cocoa Cow in the Flavored Beer category and Fresh Hop Rippin in the coveted Fresh Hop Hazy IPA category.

Above BBC’s aforementioned bronze, Bend’s second most senior brewery also nabbed two golds awarded to Keyboard Warrior in Fresh Hop Hazy Pale Ales and Because Science in the ultra-competitive Hazy or Juicy IPA category.

Expectedly, Oregon’s only all-Belgian-style brewery, Monkless Belgian Ales, brought home both silver and bronze in the Belgian, German Wheat, and Traditional Brett(anomyces) Beers category for Dubbel or Nothing and Meet Your Maker, respectively.

No slouches, Terranaut Beer has a new gold medal for Pudsy (Experimental and Historical Beer) and Smooth Music (the same light beer category UPP earned bronze in). Speaking of light beers, the beer I order almost every time I’m at Van Henion Brewing, Leightbier (a 3.9% true session beer) won silver and finally, the gold medal for Classic UK and North American Styles went to Before the Break from Worthy Brewing.

This article appears in the Source April 9, 2026.