Sunriver Brewing Co. was the biggest winner both locally and statewide at the 2024 Oregon Beer Awards, taking home 13 medals and being named the Large Brewery of the Year.

The Oregon Beer Awards, an annual competition with the goal of celebrating and promoting the most outstanding beer in Oregon, is open only to breweries within the state. This year marked the ninth iteration of the event, with the awards ceremony taking place April 5 in Portland.

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The OBA stands out from other beer contests in that its style guidelines are designed for categories that are competitive and meaningful to a consumer. Unlike large competitions like the Great American Beer Festival with over 100 beer categories, the Oregon Beer Awards keeps it simpler and features only 29.

Those 29 categories included 1,088 beers from 124 breweries across the state, and this year, nine Central Oregon breweries brought home medals.

Most of them won one medal each, including Bevel Craft Brewing, Crux Fermentation Project, Deschutes Brewery, McMenamins Old St. Francis School, Monkless Belgian Ales, The Ale Apothecary, and Van Henion Brewing Co.; 10 Barrel Brewing Co. won two medals.

But the notable winner was Sunriver Brewing Company, earning an astonishing total of 13 medals and also being named the Large Brewery of the Year.

Wins across cross-section of categories

Sunriver Brewing Co. typically performs well at competitions, and in past years has won awards primarily in hoppy categories. This year’s OBA wins span a wide cross-section of the categories, including highly contested ones such as lagers and barrel-aged beers along with hop-forward ones.

“I couldn’t be happier with what Patrick Raasch and our entire brewery team has accomplished with this epic victory,” said Director of Brewing Operations Brett Thomas in the brewery’s news release. “The diversity of our wins, with 13 medals across (29) very different categories truly reflects our dedication to our culture of quality.”

I reached out to Thomas directly to find out more about this year’s awards, particularly the variety of styles represented.

“The primary driver for this is getting beers into categories that we typically hadn’t in the past,” he said via email. “We’ve always made exceptional pale hoppy beer, but we have evolved. We’ve stepped up our barrel program. We’ve stepped up our lager game. We’re confident in our culture of quality and how that translates to performance across styles.”

Winning brews include Bondi Beach Party

Among the winning beers that Sunriver put up this year are two versions of its Bondi Beach Party, its year-round tropically inspired IPA. Designed as a refreshing, lighter bodied ale, Bondi is redolent with tropical fruit aromas and is 6.4% alcohol by volume with 50 IBUs.

The brewery won a gold medal for Bondi in the “Sessionable Hoppy Beers” category, and another gold for the fresh hop version of the beer in the “Fresh Hop Pales & IPAs” category.

A third gold medal was also for a fresh hop beer, the fresh hop version of Fuzztail Hefeweizen, in the “Other Fresh Hop Beers” category.

The company’s flagship stout, Cocoa Cow Chocolate Milk Stout, often performs well in competitions, and this year one of the variants, Mocha Cow, earned a bronze medal in “Coffee and Smoke Beers.” This mocha-inspired version includes an infusion of coffee from Backporch Coffee Roasters, specifically the company’s Peloton blend. The finished beer is 7% ABV with 28 IBUs, with rich notes of chocolate, cocoa and cold brewed coffee.

‘So bold and noisy’

I asked Thomas if he had a favorite among the winning beers.

“From a team effort point of view, I’d say the lager beer winners (Deseo, Rivermark, and Sunstreak),” he said. “From a personal viewpoint, it’s always nice to see Cinder Beast medal. The beer is just so bold and noisy.”

Cinder Beast is billed as an imperial red ale, a burly beer with 9.8% ABV and 85 IBUs that drinks smooth and malty with a firm backbone of hop bitterness and resinous flavor. It earned the silver medal in the “Dark Hoppy Beers” category, and it has also won a number of other awards over the years, including three in past Oregon Beer Awards.

Cinder Beast is currently on tap at the company’s Sunriver and East Bend locations, and a number of its other OBA winners including Deseo Mexican Lager, Bondi Beach Party, and Critical Few Imperial IPA are also available at the various pubs.

Central Oregon winners

10 Barrel Brewing Co.

• Silver in American Sour Beers for Riviera
• Gold in Experimental and Historical Beers for Agrio Morado

Bevel Craft Brewing

• Gold in Flavored Beers for Midnight Crave

Crux Fermentation Project

• Bronze in International Lagers for Bochi Bochi

Deschutes Brewery

• Silver in Pilsner for King Crispy

McMenamins Old St. Francis School

• Silver in Coffee and Smoke Beers for Bamberg Obsession

Monkless Belgian Ales

• Bronze in Flavored Beers for Friar’s Festivus

Sunriver Brewing Company

• Brewery of the Year: Large
• Gold in Fresh Hop Pale Ales and India Pale Ales with Bondi Fresh Hop — Strata
• Gold in Other Fresh Hop Beers for Fuzztail Fresh Hop- Luminosa
• Gold in Sessionable Hoppy Beers for Bondi Beach Party
• Silver in Barrel-Aged Stouts for Wood Series: Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Stout
• Silver in Dark Hoppy Beers for Cinder Beast
• Bronze in Barrel-Aged Beers for Wood Series — Applejack Brandy Quad
• Bronze in Coffee and Smoke Beers for Mocha Cow
• Bronze in Pilsner for Rivermark
• Bronze in Golden, Blonde, and Other Light Ales for Deseo
• Bronze in Imperial India Pale Ale for Critical Few
• Bronze in India Pale Ale for West Coast Hospitality
• Bronze in Stout and Porter for Lava Lands

The Ale Apothecary

• Gold in American Sour Beers for The Beer Formerly Known as La Tache

Van Henion Brewing Co.

• Gold in Golden, Blonde, and Other Light Ales for Van Henion Kolsch

Find the full list of winning beers and breweries at oregonbeerawards.com/2024-winners.