Oregon breweries claimed a total of 23 medals at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival held Oct. 11-13 in Denver, Colo.
Oregon breweries brought home five gold medals, 11 silver medals and seven bronzes.
Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, located near Odell, won the gold medal for American style Brett Ale with its Seizoen Bretta.
Silver medals went to Full Sail Brewing Co., Hood River, among American lagers for its Session Premium Lager, and Session Black in the American Style dark lager judging.
Logsdon ales are available in bottles in local stores and on tap in selected restaurants.
Full Sail recently released its 25th anniversary pale doppelbock, “25,” to celebrate this special occasion:
“It was a great, competitive category, and we’re really pleased the bretta did so well against good competition,” said David Logsdon. “We’re glad to bring home the gold,” he said.
“We have definitely seen an increase in demand, a boost in interest for sure,” Logsdon said, “and being able to have that as one of our flagship beers is a nice plus as well. It’s letting the world know the beer we focus on, that we consider the beer that exemplifies our brewery, is a world-class beer, and we’re proud of that.”
Logsdon also produces a Kili Wit (white) beer and Cerasus and Peche ales made with cherries and peaches, respectively, grown in the Gorge and Columbia basin.
The Logsdon peche and cherry 2012 versions are both in the tanks, and will be released toward the end of the year, along with seasonal releases: oak- aged Bretta, and fresh-hopped Sieoen.
According to Full Sail’s executive brewmaster, Jamie Emmerson, “25” is a complex, luxurious beer brewed with Vienna malt and Saaz hops. Extended lagering produces full-bodied flavors of caramel and honey with a hoppy backbone of white pepper and lemon spice.
“We are very grateful to our fellow employee owners, our distributors and our retail partners, all who helped to make our dream real and thriving for 25 years,” said co-founder Irene Firmat. “And mostly, we are deeply grateful to every one of our customers who have toasted, celebrated, quenched their thirst and enjoyed our beers over the last 25 years.”
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The Great American Beer Festival is the world’s largest beer competition and recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the United States today. The top three medalists in each of the competition’s 84 beer-style categories were announced Oct. 13 at the 31st Great American Beer Festival Awards Ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center.
The 2012 Great American Beer Festival Competition winners were selected by an international panel of 185 beer experts from a field of 4,338 entries received from 666 U.S. breweries — that’s an increase of 408 entries and 140 additional breweries from 2011.
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