Sunriver Brewing Company’s Record Run in 2024
Sunriver Brewing Company became the dominant independent brewery at beer competitions in 2024, winning award after award. The Bend, Oregon based brewery which started as a small brewpub in Sunriver, has long been a favorite, but this year everything seemed to click perfectly into place like a well oiled machine. Last weekend they achieved perhaps their biggest accomplishment yet being named Brewery of the Year (5,000-15,000 Barrels) at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival (GABF).
Sunriver Brewing began their incredible year’s worth of accolades back in February when their beer ‘The Suspense is Terrible’ won first place at the famed The Bistro Double IPA festival in Hayward, California during SF Beer Week.
One month later at the Best of Craft Beer Awards the brewery took 2 gold medals for both ‘Bondi IPA’ and ‘Cinder Beast’ red ale.
Next up was the Oregon Beer Awards, where on April 4th Sunriver won a whopping 7 bronze medals, 2 silvers, and 3 gold medals. It was enough for them to topple perennial winners in the large brewery of they year Breakside, pFriem and 10 Barrel, and become the 2024 champion large brewery of the year.
And then just 20 days after the OBAs, was the international competition World Beer Cup in Las Vegas, where Sunriver won a silver and a bronze medal for ‘Something Dank This Way Comes’ and ‘Cinder Beast.’
In July at the U.S. Open Beer Championship the Sunriver’s ‘Wood Series Bourbon Barrel Barleywine’, and ‘Rippin IPA’ both took gold medals, and ‘Bondi Beach Party’ a silver.
For the fresh hop harvest season, Sunriver garnered a first place gold medal at Best of Craft’s Late Harvest competition for ‘Doug Said So Fresh Hop.’
But the biggest win of the year has to be at last Saturday’s Great American Beer Festival, arguably the most prestigious and competitive beer festival in the country.
‘Fuzztail’, their American Hefeweizen, won gold for a second time at GABF in the American Wheat Beer category. ‘Che Figata’ took home a Silver for Italian Style Pilsner. And in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, aptly named ‘Something Dank This Way Comes’ brought home the Gold.
That was enough to put Sunriver Brewing over the top to become the brewery of the year in the 5,000-15,000 barrels category, the second time they had earned this honor previously the small brewery of the year in 2017.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be named GABF Brewery of the Year for a second time. Head Brewer, Patrick Raasch, along with our incredible brewery team continues to produce some of the best beer in the world. Our work ethic and dedication to our Culture of Quality have generated another phenomenal win,” says Director of Brewing Operations, Brett Thomas.
Sunriver Brewing Company started as a small brewpub, opening in the resort town of Sunriver, Oregon in July of 2012. The brewery expanded in 2014 to a Bend, OR production facility with brew master Brett Thomas. Two years later with their second location the Galveston pub and beers beginning to really hit their stride, the brand began to pick up steam. In 2019 Sunriver opened the Oakway Pub in Eugene, Oregon. In 2022 the expansion continued with a second location in Bend called the Eastside Pub, The latest expansion was a beer-only 21+ tap room that opened in their Bend brewery/production space in 2023. Sunriver now operates 5 locations where you can find their beers and is distributed in most parts of Oregon via Maletis Beverage.