How Oregon Cider won the 2024 Great American Beer Festival

American cider entered the craft beer big leagues last week with the official recognition of the Brewers Association’s Great American Beer Festival, and Oregon’s hands were all over it. After 38 years the nation’s longest running beer fest cracked open the door for ciders to participate in 2023, but with the recently concluded 2024 event the door was kicked wide open with ciders inclusion into the prestigious competition portion of the event. In the end, Oregon’s McMenamins nabbed gold for their Blackberry Cider in the most competitive category, and Corvallis’ 2 Towns Cider scored a historic win as the first ever GABF cider maker of the year.

Ciders addition to GABF was not without controversy and trepidation from both the beer and cider industries. On one hand longtime beer aficionados derided the inclusion of non beer into a hallowed event where “beer” is literally in the title and presented by the BA industry trade group who’s sole stated purpose is to advocate for small and independent brewers. On the other hand some cider makers worried it would water down their own competitions and events like CiderCon in Chicago, or prestigious cider-only competitions like GLINTCAP, or Oregon’s own Northwest Cider Cup.

“Although cider is not beer, the two categories have a lot in common–especially routes to market–making collaboration possible and exciting,” says once-upon-a-time New School contributor and now American Cider Association CEO Michelle McGrath.

Craft beer and cider have often traversed the same path, yet often seem far apart in both their fanbases and their identities. As they both evolve perhaps they are beginning to find more common ground at events such as GABF.

“It’s true that cider and beer have historically attracted different audiences,” says Lee Larsen, the co-founder and CEO of 2 Towns Ciderhouse. “What we’re seeing at GABF (and in the general market) is an increasing overlap and curiosity between the two. We believe craft beverage enthusiasts are starting to explore cider more, especially as they discover the craft and care that goes into producing a truly great cider. The contrast between the two fanbases is still there, but we’re excited to see how the lines continue to blur, with both communities learning from and appreciating each other’s craftsmanship. GABF offers a unique platform to bridge those gaps and showcase the best of both worlds.”

But does the cider industry need craft beer…or is it the other way around? Craft beer is in total a much larger segment, but sales have been falling, breweries closing, and the market share on the decline. While craft beer sales started falling during COVID-19, cider sales began surging. Just this year 2 Towns Ciderhouse surpassed all craft breweries in the state in terms dollar sales to grocery stores according to IRI data for the four weeks ending September 22, 2024. Based on that metric, this is the first known example in the country when a cider tops the entire craft beverage sector. That remarkable statistic aside, it may be time that small breweries and cideries each begin tapping into each others areas of strength.

Lee Larsen agrees, “Continued collaboration between cider and beer makers could also foster more cross-pollination between the two communities, further bridging the gap between these two vibrant fanbases.”

The GABF competition started in 1987 and has grown to be one of the largest beer competitions in the world, with over 9,000 individual beers entered each year. In 2023, 9,298 entries spanning 99 beer categories across 175 styles were judged, and 263 breweries were awarded 303 medals. Chris Williams, competition director for the Great American Beer Festival said, “This year, we are pleased to invite the more than 1,300 commercial cider producers to compete for medals in the inaugural cider categories.”

The Boulder, Colorado based Brewers Association reached out to their counterparts at the Portland, Oregon headquartered American Cider Association before including cider as a competitive category at GABF. The two unrelated non-profit organizations have worked together before with ACA representing cider at the Craft Brewers Conference and speaking and educational events in the beer world. But this would be a brand new project that would bring them much closer together with the potential to ruffle some feathers.

“GABF has such a large reputation that the ACA staff and board were all in at first mention, especially because it was clear our input on the direction of the competition was welcomed and valued,” says McGrath.

Dave Takush is the head Cidermaker for 2 Towns, and a board member for the ACA who was a huge proponent of the integration from the beginning: “I grew up in the heart of the craft beer movement in Oregon and GABF has always been 'THE' event to set your hopes and dreams on. Medals at GABF have a lot of meaning -to consumers, to buyers, but most importantly to brewers. When talking to my colleagues at the American Cider Association there was a bit of buzz that popped up when we heard the news, everyone was speculating on who might win.”

While the ACA was not involved with ciders pouring on the floor of the festival they did have their own booth pouring multiple small cideries products from around the country, and the organization was instrumental in recruiting ciders to enter the competition portion. Working hand-in-hand the GABF and ACA developed five cider categories for the first time this year. It was very important to both GABF and the ACA that cider professionals were judging the cider entries. The Portland-based Northwest Cider Association was instrumental in this as well, being the first cider competition to launch tannic and no/low tannin categories that guided the discussion into their GABF translations, and developing a highly educated judging pool for GABF of certified pommeliers.

“It was a diverse pool of judges by geography, age, race, profession and gender, so I felt the cider viewpoints were well rounded. All of the judges were either Certified Pommeliers, senior BJCP cider judges with GLINTCAP judging experience, cider experts with years of cider sensory experience, or sometimes all three,” adds McGrath.

Judging spanned seven days and three phases and included 233 cider entries and 8,836 beer submissions from all 50 states. Of the 15 medals awarded to cideries, five were from the Pacific Northwest, and four were awarded to 2 Towns Ciderhouse, the only cidery to claim 4 awards in the cider category — in addition to being named Cidermaker of the Year.

Bronze medal for 2022 Cidre Bouché, in Tannic Cider category

Bronze medal for 10th Anniversary Cider, in No/Low-Tannin Cider category.

Bronze medal for Pacific Pineapple, in Fruited or Botanical Cider category.

Silver medal for 2019 Pommeau, in Experimental or Barrel-Aged Cider category.

”Having ciders recognized in the competition at GABF is an incredible milestone for our industry” adds 2 Towns Lee Larsen. “We don’t see it as a competitor to cider-dedicated events, but rather as a complementary addition to the craft beverage landscape. Beer and cider both share deep roots in the craft community, and by including cider in such a prestigious beer competition, it highlights the diversity and craftsmanship that both beverages bring to the table. We have always joked that we are a winery with a craft beer spirit and it's a great opportunity to introduce more people to the complexity and creativity behind cider.”