Last night at The Growler Guys in Seattle, the Washington Beer Awards announced the winners of this year’s Fresh Hop Beer Competition. I share the results below.
In the 2026 competition, 49 Washington breweries entered 156 fresh hop beers. We are talking about commercially available beers brewed in Washington using fresh hops. A panel of trained beer judges evaluated the entries in a blind format using the Brewers Association Style Guidelines and awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze placements for each category grouping.
Fresh hop judging is just one part of the Washington Beer Awards, which evaluates Washington-brewed beers across dozens of style categories. The judges recently concluded their work for 2026, and they will announce the results on November 2nd at the Washington Beer Awards Ceremony and Dinner Party. (See last year’s results.) The awards ceremony is an add-on to and an extension of the Washington Craft Beer Summit. To be clear, the fresh hop winners are announced earlier than the rest of the results.
Washington Beer Awards 2026 Fresh Hop Winners
Fresh Hop Pale Ales:
- Gold: Old Stove Brewing – Mosaic
- Silver: Ladd & Lass Brewing – Fresh Hop Pale Ale – Roy Chinook
- Bronze: Old Stove Brewing – Citra Pale
Fresh Hop American-Style Strong Pale Ales:
- Gold: Stoup Brewing – Simcoe Fresh Hop Fiend-Loza Farms
- Silver: Fremont Brewing – Cowiche Canyon
- Bronze: Trap Door Brewing – Ashes Of Summer
Fresh Hop Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ales:
- Gold: Trap Door Brewing – Fresh Glowed Up
- Silver: Fremont Brewing – Hazy Cowiche
- Bronze: Lumberbeard Brewing – Hip Hap Hop
Fresh Hop American-Style India Pale Ales:
- Gold: Brothers Cascadia Brewing – Amarillo Slim
- Silver: Perry Street Brewing – Wetflix And Chill
- Bronze: Fremont Brewing – Fresh Hop Lush
Fresh Hop West Coast-Style India Pale Ales:
- Gold: Formula Brewing – Formula 35
- Silver: Holy Mountain Brewing – Hex Me!
- Bronze: Holy Mountain Brewing – Cone + Cone
Fresh Hop Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ales:
- Gold: Uprise Brewing – Dolcita Fresh Hop
- Silver: Ladd & Lass Brewing – Fresh Hop Hazy IPA – Perrault Krush
- Bronze: Single Hill Brewing – Skyfinder
Fresh Hop Imperial or Double India Pale Ales:
- Gold: Vice Beer – Lupulin Overdrive
- Silver: Logan Brewing Company – Reach
- Bronze: Holy Mountain Brewing – Dream Flower
Other Fresh Hop Beers:
- Gold: Stoup Brewing – Simcoe Fresh Hop Fiend Italian Pils-Perrault Farms
- Silver: MIRAGE – SLASHER
- Bronze: Halcyon Brewing – Msg In A Bottle (W/ Little Letters Lager)
Multi-Medal Winners
Congratulations to Stoup Brewing, which walked away as the grand champion. I just made that title up, admittedly, but if you rank by medal quality, giving gold the most weight, Stoup comes out on top with two golds. That’s true, but Fremont Brewing and Holy Mountain brewing each earned three, but no gold. Evaluate as you will. Here are all of the multi-medal winners.
Holy Mountain Brewing: 3 medals
- Silver: Hex Me! (West Coast IPA)
- Bronze: Cone + Cone (West Coast IPA)
- Bronze: Dream Flower (Imperial/Double IPA)
Fremont Brewing: 3 medals
- Silver: Cowiche Canyon (Strong Pale Ale)
- Silver: Hazy Cowiche (Juicy/Hazy Strong Pale Ale)
- Bronze: Fresh Hop Lush (American-Style IPA)
Old Stove Brewing: 2 medals
- Gold: Mosaic (Pale Ale)
- Bronze: Citra Pale (Pale Ale)
Stoup Brewing: 2 medals
- Gold: Simcoe Fresh Hop Fiend-Loza Farms (Strong Pale Ale)
- Gold: Simcoe Fresh Hop Fiend Italian Pils-Perrault Farms (Other Fresh Hop Beers)
Trap Door Brewing: 2 medals
- Gold: Fresh Glowed Up (Juicy/Hazy Strong Pale Ale)
- Bronze: Ashes Of Summer (Strong Pale Ale)
Ladd & Lass Brewing: 2 medals
- Silver: Fresh Hop Pale Ale – Roy Chinook (Pale Ale)
- Silver: Fresh Hop Hazy IPA – Perrault Krush (Juicy/Hazy IPA)
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