The 39th annual Great American Beer Festival concluded Saturday with the 2025 GABF awards ceremony. The GABF is the largest and most prestigious beer-judging competition in the nation. Washington and Oregon breweries brought home 28 medals this year. I share the winners below. (Pictured above: Grains of Wrath Brewing and Von Ebert Brewing celebrate.)
Top highlights: Upp Liquids of Bend, Oregon earned Brewery and Brewer of the Year for its size category. Breakside Brewing earned a medal for its Breakside IPA, making it the most-winning IPA in GABF history.
I’ve been tuning in to the awards ceremony for many years and one thing that has changed over time is the notable increase in the use of words like Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana when mentioning the locations of the winning breweries. Not long ago, the awards announcements used the words California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington with much greater frequency, but the craft beer landscape has changed and now there are great breweries in every corner of the nation.
Quick Competition Facts 2025
- Washington breweries earned 22 medals.
- Oregon breweries earned 26 medals.
- Over 8,300 beers were submitted for consideration.
- More than 1,500 breweries from across the nation submitted beer.
- Beers were evaluated by 250 beer judges. Over 100 style categories were judged.
- Juicy/Hazy IPA was the most-entered category with 301 entries, followed closely by West Coast IPA with 300 entries.
Northwest Notables
- Upp Liquids of Bend, Oregon was one of the top medal winners this year, bringing home five medals. This earned the brewery the title Brewery and Brewer of the Year in its size category (251-500 barrels per year).
- pFriem Family Brewers earned three medals this year. Most impressively, it earned two of the three medals in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale category.
- Grains of Wrath Brewing (gold) and Breakside Brewery (bronze) earned two of the three medals in the American-Style IPA category. This is far from the first time these two breweries have earned impressive accolades for their IPAs. These two breweries are among the finest producers of IPA in the nation. Fact.
- Breakside IPA is now the most-winning IPA in GABF history! Damn!
Timeless Classics
- Silver City Brewery earned a medal for its Magnificent scotch ale. This is the beer formerly known as, and previously awarded as, Fat Bastard. It’s been around for a long time. This proves that you don’t need to be new to be cool.
- Pelican Brewing won a medal for its Tsunami Stout, Again, you don’t need to be new to be cool. That beer has been around for a very long time.
- Mac & Jack’s Brewery earned a medal for its Serengeti Wheat. Again, you don’t need to be new to be cool. That beer has been around for a very long time.
Most-Entered Categories
This year, the most-entered categories provide further evidence that the nation’s craft beer palate is evolving. Breweries are in the business of making beer that people want to drink and it is becoming increasingly apparent that people want to drink lager: three of the five most-entered categories were lagers.
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Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (301 entries)
- GOLD: TourBus Double Dry Hopped Hazy IPA, DESTIHL Brewery, IL.
- SILVER: MadeWest Hazy, MadeWest Brewing Co, CA.
- BRONZE: Cloud Counter, Pollyanna Brewing Co, IL.
West Coast India Pale Ale (300 entries)
- GOLD: How the West Was One: Mosaic, Westbound & Down Brewing Co., CO.
- SILVER: Coast Molinos, Los Molinos Beer Co., CA.
- BRONZE: Cosmic Guava West Coast IPA, pFriem Family Brewers, OR.
Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (186 entries)
- GOLD: Festbier, Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co., CO.
- SILVER: Festbier, Northwoods Brewing Co., NH.
- BRONZE: Penn Oktoberfest, Pennsylvania Brewing Co., PA.
German-Style Pilsener (184 entries)
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- GOLD: Helper Beer Schloss Tor, Helper Beer, UT
- SILVER: Tiny Bomb, Wiseacre Brewing Co., TN
- BRONZE: Second Rodeo, Starr Hill Beer Hall, VA
Hoppy Lager (171 entries)
- GOLD: Coral Crush, Alma Mader Brewing, MO.
- SILVER: Infinity Pils, Westbound & Down Brewing Co, CO
- BRONZE: Sound Sail, MadeWest Brewing Co, CA
Most-Medaled Breweries, Five-Medal Winners
- Fat Head’s Brewery, OH
- UPP Liquids, OR
- Westbound & Down Brewing Co, CO
Washington and Oregon Winners
The typical caveat applies: we know who won, but do not know who entered. Below I share the Washington and Oregon winners.
Washington
Arranged by: Brewery Name, Medal, Style Category, Beer Name
- Barrel Mountain Brewing, Gold, American Amber/Red Ale, Ash Cloud
- Dru Bru – Cle Elum, Bronze, American Sour Ale, Margarita Sour
- Formula Brewing, Gold, American Wheat Beer, Wetland Wheat
- Mac & Jack’s Brewery, Bronze, American Wheat Beer, Serengeti Wheat
- Grains of Wrath Brewing, Gold, American-Style India Pale Ale, Built for Speed
- Grains of Wrath Brewing, Silver, American-Style Pale Ale, Papermaker
- Bale Breaker Brewing Co., Bronze, American-Style Pale Ale, Daybreak Pale Ale
- Fremont Brewing, Silver, Classic Non-Alcohol Ale or Lager, NA Dark
- Trap Door Brewing, Gold, Fresh Hop Beer, Fresher than Fresh
- Single Hill Brewing Co., Silver, Fresh Hop Beer, Six Sisters
- Aslan Brewing Co., Gold, German Sour Ale, Disco Lemonade
- Resonate Brewery + Pizzeria, Silver, German-Style Altbier, Lithium
- Figurehead Brewing Co., Bronze, German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock, St. Charlie
- Loowit Brewing, Bronze, German-Style Koelsch, Corsair Kolsch
- Cloudburst Brewing, Silver, German-Style Schwarzbier, No Mistakes
- Chuckanut Brewery, Silver, Historical Beer, Chuckanut Grodziskie
- Vice Beer, Silver, International Amber Lager, Don’t Sweat the Czechnique
- Recluse Brew Works, Bronze, International Amber Lager, Speciální 13 Czech-Style Amber Lager
- Silver City Brewery, Bronze, Irish-Style Red Ale, Ridgetop Red
- Project 9 Brewing Co., Bronze, Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale, Beer Gardner
- Fair Isle Brewing, Silver, Mixed-Culture Brett Beer, The Knitting Circle Batch C
- Silver City Brewery, Bronze, Scotch Ale, Magnificent Scotch Ale
Oregon Winners
Arranged by: Brewery Name, Medal, Style Category, Beer Name
- Von Ebert Brewing, Gold, American Fruit Beer, Drink Me Potion
- Monkless Belgian Ales, Silver, American-Belgo-Style Ale, Capitulation
- Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Bronze, American-Style India Pale Ale, Breakside IPA
- Von Ebert Brewing, Gold, American-Style Light Lager, Clubhaus Lager
- Oregon City Brewing Co, Bronze, Belgian Fruit Beer, My Cerise Amour
- pFriem Cascade Locks Barrelhouse, Gold, Belgian-Style Sour Ale, Spontanée
- pFriem Cascade Locks Barrelhouse, Bronze , Belgian-Style Sour Ale, Fruited Spontanée
- Deschutes Brewery, Gold, Classic Non-Alcohol Ale or Lager, Super Stoked
- UPP Liquids, Silver, Contemporary Gose, Flower Child
- ColdFire Brewing – Production, Bronze, Czech-Style Pale Lager, Czech Pilsner
- McMenamins Breweries, Silver, Experimental India Pale Ale, Pistol Peach IPA
- Hopworks Urban Brewery, Silver, Extra Special Bitter, Velvet Organic ESB
- UPP Liquids, Silver, Field Beer, UPP Yours
- Alesong Brewing & Blending, Gold, Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, Mezcla
- UPP Liquids, Gold, Honey Beer, Buzz Box
- UPP Liquids, Bronze, Imperial Stout, Reduction Ratio
- Wayfinder Beer, Silver, International Dark Lager, Secret Secret
- Fort George Brewery – Waterfront, Gold, Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale, City of Dreams
- Monkless Belgian Ales, Bronze, Other Strong Beer, Peppercorn Imperial Wit
- Hopworks Urban Brewery, Bronze, Pumpkin Beer, Great Gourds of Fire
- Grand Fir Brewing, Gold, Rye Beers, Westwood Pale
- UPP Liquids, Gold, Specialty Berliner-Style Weisse, Moments Made
- Grand Fir Brewing, Gold, Stout, Heartwood Stout
- Pelican Brewing Co, Silver, Stout, Tsunami Stout
- pFriem Family Brewers, Bronze, West Coast IPA, Cosmic Guava West Coast IPA
- Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Bronze, Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout, Breakside La Maison du Bang!
You can see the complete GABF results here.
You can see our report about the 2024 GABF here.
