The 6th annual 2022 Oregon Beer Awards Fresh Hop competition was held last Saturday, October 16th and it was the largest one to date. So large that it actually eclipsed even the recent Great American Beer Festival 2021 Fresh Hop competition by more than 40 beers. Nine beers won either gold, silver or bronze in three different fresh hopped categories, winners and analysis on this years stats reveal some of the more interesting developments for these awards which will be handed out at the ceremony in 2022.

In 2016 the first OBA fresh hop competition was held in conjunction with the Hood River Hops Fest with just one category. In 2018 the entries were rising, and there were more breweries making styles other than IPA and Pale with fresh hops, so organizers added the “Other Fresh Hop” category. Then last year in 2020 it became evident a third category for Hazy IPA’s was necessary. Despite the pandemic, entry totals in 2020 were down only slightly from the year before and the pendulum swung slightly back to IPA. Competition organizer Ben Edmunds said at the time “that suggests that brewers were hedging their bets and cutting back on non-IPA fresh hop beers this year,” says judging competition director Ben Edmunds.

This year we are happy to report that entries were up 15% over last year, and more than even pre-pandemic numbers. 124 beers were entered from 55 Oregon breweries. Also cause for celebration, the growth came only in two of the three categories: Fresh Hop West Coast IPAs were up from 66 entries to 74, and Other Fresh Hop was up to 30 entries from 17 last year. Fresh Hop Hazies were down by 20% this year from 25 to 20.

FRESH HOP BEER COMP 2022 WINNERS:

Other Fresh Hop Beers

GOLD - Baerlic Brewing Co.: Fresh Hop Pioneer ESB

SILVER - Breakside Brewery: Fresh Hop Sterling Pilsner

BRONZE - Zoiglhaus Brewing Co.: Fresh Hop Kolsch

Fresh Hop Hazy Pale Ales and India Pale Ales

GOLD - Deschutes Brewery: Strut Your Strata

SILVER - McMenamins Old Saint Francis School: Little Green Bag

BRONZE - Ruse Brewing: Identical Truths

Fresh Hop Pale Ales and India Pale Ales

GOLD - Breakside Brewery: Fresh Hop Chinook IPA

SILVER - Migration Brewing: Fresh Coast IPA

BRONZE - Breakside Brewery: Fresh Hop Strata Wanderjack

FUN FACTS:

• Baerlic Brewing’s fresh hop Pioneer ESB won for the 3rd time, and their 2nd GOLD.

• Zoiglhaus Brewing has now medaled 3 times in a row in the ‘Other Fresh Hop’ category.

• Ruse Brewing won their 2nd consecutive medal in the Fresh Hop Hazy category, albeit a different beer this year than last.

• Breakside Brewery also won Gold in the West Coast/American IPA category for the 2nd year but with a different beer than last.

• The exact same 3 beers medaled in the ‘Other Fresh Hop’ category as last year, but in reverse order! This is a first for the OBA’s, and maybe the first in any other similar competition.

• 4 of the 6 breweries that won medals this year also won last year: Baerlic, Breakside, Ruse, and Zoiglhaus

• 3 of the 7 winning breweries were first time OBA Fresh Hop winners, Deschutes, Migration, and McMenamins Old Saint Francis school. This is also McMenamins' first OBA medal. 

NUMBER OF ENTRIES EACH YEAR:

2018: 87

2019: 122

2020: 108

2021: 124

JUDGES AND COMPETITION:

There were 18 judges at this years competition who evaluated 33 different flights of beers in total. 2/3 of judges were professional brewers or brewery staff, 1/3 of the judges were beer experts and pros from the retail, wholesale, supplier, and media sectors. 90% had judged OBA before.

This year there was also a change in how the beers were judged. A new double elimination system was used for the first time, this means every single beer was evaluated by two sets of judges instead of one panel. This meant that beers had two chances to survive the initial elimination round. Medal winning beers were evaluated by anywhere between 3 and 6 sets of judges.