pFriem takes gold at Brussels Beer Challenge

The brewery’s Fruited Spontanee won silver in the old-style Lambic flavored beer category in the Nov. 3-5 event featuring 1,800 beers from around the world.

“There were a lot of German beers entered, and ours is a beer we are proud of so it felt really good to win,” said pFriem founder Josh Pfriem.

As an annual beer, the spontanee is available at pFriem pubs, for the time being. The helles, pale and West Coast beers are in the waterfront brewery’s standard rotation.

Pfriem said that what made the medal special was meeting or beating the Belgians at their specialty.

“The fun part of the Brussels award is (the pFriem beer) was sandwiched between two notable lambic producers; it’s always the Belgians that win that category,” Pfriem said. “Spontanee is essentially a gueuze, but we can’t call it that, only Belgians can call their beers a geueze, so out of respect to those guys we call it a spontanee. It is blended and cellared in the same manner as a gueuze, using a blend of heavy raspberries and some cherries,” Pfriem said.

“These guys (Belgians) have been doing it for hundreds of years now,” Pfriem said.

U.S. breweries won 37 medals a the challenge, up from 19 last year.

The Brussels honors cap a medal-filled year for the brewery. It won mid-sized brewery of the year at Oregon Beer Awards and two golds and a silver at the World Beer Cup, including a gold for its Cold IPA in the largest of the contest’s categories. It had a big year at Great American Beer Festival, taking three medals including Golds for its Spontanee in the Belgian Ale category.

Pfriem won a gold for its Mexican lager at European Beer Star contest in Germany, and beating the Germans at their game was another bonus.

“We twice medaled at Beerstar, the first non-German or non-Austrian that’s medaled,” Pfriem said. “In the same way it was pretty fun to win a gueuze category.”

In addition to the medals, the brewery received praise from the online Vinepair magazine, which named pFriem among “The 30 Best Breweries in the Country Right Now, According to Beer Pros.” The only other Oregon brewery on the list was deGarde Brewing of Tillamook.

Writer Evan Rail pointed out pFriem’s standout beers Belgian Strong Blond and Pils, and added, “The welcoming pub’s wide and deep beer lineup is matched by a menu brightened by dishes made with ingredients local to the Columbia River Gorge.”