Portland, OR January 22, 2018 - Willamette Week and the Oregon Beer Awards executive committee are proud to announce that tickets are now on sale for the 2018 Oregon Beer Awards Ceremony to be held on Wednesday, February 28th at Revolution Hall in southeast Portland. The Oregon Beer Awards is the state’s premiere beer competition and one of the few in the nation to feature an awards show open to the public. The 2018 Beer Awards recognize beers, breweries, beer bars, bottleshops, brewers, and festivals in twenty-nine categories with over 1,000 entries.
The 2018 Oregon Beer Awards Ceremony is a multi-media show, with more than two dozen beers pouring for attendees, live acceptance speeches, music, touching video tributes, a hall of fame and even a live-streamed show and pre-show with red carpet interviews and much, much more. (Watch last years live stream of the 2017 awards here .)
1,029 Oregon craft beers were entered and judged in a double-blind competition on January 20-21. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded in 24 categories at the Awards Ceremony on February 28. In addition, the OBA Voting Academy (comprised of over 200 members with industry backgrounds) nominate and then vote on five non-beer style categories including Best New Brewery, Best Beer Bar/Bottleshop, Best Beer Festival, Hall of Fame/Lifetime Achievement Award and Brewery of the Year.
Tickets for the public are just $18 and available at bit.ly/oba2018 . $2 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.
OREGON BEER AWARDS, THE VISION...
We wanted to see great beers from across the state selected in a blind tasting by the best impartial judges in the state—we wanted a fair, transparent process that everyone felt good about. Second, we wanted everyone in Oregon’s ever-growing beer industry to get together and celebrate the winners in a proper theater—it’s been our goal to make the OBA ceremony a night where folks in the state’s beer industry can catch up with old friends and cheer on their colleagues and peers.
Last year’s Oregon Beer Awards were bigger, better and more fun than even we anticipated. A capacity crowd roared, laughed, booed and even got a little misty-eyed. We were humbled by the response and grateful to all the entrants, judges, volunteers and sponsors for making it happen. This year, we’re going a little bigger. We’ve added a few categories and reorganized others. We’ve also added a fresh hop contest that was judged when the beers were at their peak in early Fall and added a "Hazy Hoppy Beers" category based on new trends.
Part of the objective of the OBA is to reward beers for being harmonious and dynamic. This differentiates it from other competitions in which medals are given based on strictly written style guidelines. As such, a beer with no technical flaws that varies from classic style parameters will be judged in greater esteem than a beer with technical flaws that adheres to style. The Committee drafts descriptions (with input from the industry) that are meant as general guidelines for each category. These are not proscriptive guidelines, which define beer by process, raw materials, or particular technical specifications. Judges use their expertise and familiarity with styles and trends to determine what constitutes the appropriate ‘boundary’ of each style.
OBA Executive Committee
Rachel Coddington rcoddington@wweek.com - Program Director Ben Edmunds ben@breakside.com - Competition Director, Co-Founder Ezra Johnson-Greenough newschoolbeer@gmail.com - Ceremony + Media Director, Co-Founder
Jenn McPoland jenn.mcp@gmail.com - Co-lead steward Jeremie Landers mcpolanders@gmail.com - Co-lead steward
Martin Cizmar mcizmar@wweek.com - Co-Founder
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