Tickets for the 2020 Oregon Beer Awards are Now On Sale
Portland's gala-style awards ceremony for the 6th annual Oregon Beer Awards will be held Tuesday, February 18th at Revolution Hall from 6-10pm. Tickets are now on-sale for this annual event, which always sells out. The Oregon Beer Awards are a double-blind judged professional beer competition that culminates in an Oscars-style party where the awards are announced. Check out our recap of the 2019 awards, and note that I am an organizer and co-founder of the OBA's.
Rub elbows with the best and brightest of the Oregon beer industry, where the stars come out to shine and the next great beers, brewers, taprooms etc. are crowned. The OBA ceremony is open to the public and features a multimedia show with live music, video, acceptance speeches and plenty of great beers. More than two dozen past award-winning and fresh beers will be pouring for attendees at this years ceremony. (Watch last years live stream of the 2019 awards here)
This year's OBAs will be the largest yet, with 41 different categories receiving awards. Over 1,000 beers will be tasted, swirled, sniffed and prodded at a double blind tasting competition held in January at Maletis Beverage. A group of more than 60 judges comprised of brewers, writers, and Cicerones will award gold, silver and bronze awards in 30 beer style categories (up from 25 last year). The 2020 competition has condensed or eliminated 3 beer style categories from last year and 5 new styles have been added: Juicy/Hazy beers now have session, standard and Imperial categories, Barrel-Aged and Adjunct Stouts have their own category, and the Emerging IPA has been created to recognize innovation in hoppy ales. The Brewery of the Year awards will be handed out to medal winners based on judged beer scoring for the best small, medium and large brewing operations.
The split of the categories is intended to reflect the Oregon beer market as it is currently popularly segmented, while also allowing for all styles to be entered in some category. For example, we’ve added categories for hazy hoppy beers and overhauled the way fruit beers are entered in order to acknowledge their ongoing popularity with brewers and consumers. The split of categories will evolve from year to year based on market trends, judge and brewer input, and the number of entries in a category.
In addition, the OBA Voting Academy (comprised of over 200 members with industry backgrounds) will vote on 8 non-beer style categories: Best Bottle Shop, Best Beer Bar, Best New Brewery, Best Festival, Best Brewpub, Best Beer Label, Best Regional Breweries, and the Hall of Fame lifetime achievement award. Several categories have been altered, created or eliminated this year. Past years have seen one winner for best bottle shop/beer bar, this year will recognize a winner in both. Last years Best Branding award has been altered to Best Beer Label. Brewer of the Year is typically awarded based on both academy votes and judged competition but will now be determined solely by the judged beer competition. In its place, a new “Regional Brewery of the Year” award has been created.
Tickets for the public are just $20 and available at https://bit.ly/2S2Nfr9. $1 of every ticket goes to our non-profit partner Oregon Wild. Oregon Wild works to protect and restore Oregon's wildlands, wildlife and waters as an enduring legacy for all Oregonians.