Golden in the cup, and Golds at the Cup.
So it went for Pfriem Family Brewing of Hood River, earning two more wins for its beer, last month at the World Beer Cup in Philadelphia.
Pfriem won World Cup gold medals in the Kellerbier or zwickel-beer category for its Kellerbier, and in the Belgian-style spontaneous sour category for its Spontanee. The brewery took bronze in the Rice Lager category, new this year, for its Japanese lager.
“One of the best parts of winning the awards we did this year is that they were in international categories which usually see many German, Belgian, and Japanese breweries enter into,” said brewery founder Josh Pfriem.
The event is known informally as the “Beer Olympics.” While dominated by U.S. entries, beers also came from countries such as Germany, Belgium, Japan, Ecuador, Honduras, Italy and Australia.
“To be recognized along-side breweries who have a distinct home-court advantage in these style categories makes it extra special,” Pfriem said. “These have been a mix of our portfolio, ranging from Lager, Hoppy, and our Barrel Aged program.”
In addition to the international prizes, pFriem also won several awards at the Oregon Beer Awards on April 7, for beers including its lagers and IPAs, and was named large brewery of the year in 2026 and 2025. Pfriem was also named Regional Brewery of the Year in the Central region. (Pfriem also expanded a year ago with its first outpost, a retrofit of the old city hall in Milwaukie.) It won Gold and Silver in the Pilsner category for its Pilsner and Czech Lager, and golds for three more categories: its Lager in the Light German and European Lagers; French pilsner in the Hoppy Lagers; and IPA in the American IPA. It also took bronze in the Collaboration Beer category, for West Coast IPA done with Westbound & Down.
Kings and Daughters Brewery of Hood River received three honors at OBA: Best New Beer Destination, for its public house The Walled Garden, at Fifth and Columbia streets, and Best Branding and Labels, along with a bronze in the Sessionable Hoppy Beers for its Upstream.
The World Cup awards were presented April 22 during the annual conference of The Brewers Association, which sponsors the cup.
The brewery won three medals at the Cup in 2025 and two in 2024. Judging this year was done in 113 categories; 1,611 breweries submitted a total of 8,166 beers. Judges hailed from the U.S., Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Germany and Czech Republic.
“We’ve been brewing our Japanese Lager since 2017, and it has been winning big gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival, World Cup, OBA, European Beer Star, and Brussels Beer Challenge for many years,” Pfriem said. “We are incredibly proud of these beers, as we have been one of the leading US craft breweries that have championed this style. It’s a great honor to have contributed to the specifications for this style and to have medaled in the first year that the style has been recognized as a singular rice lager,” added Pfriem, who helped write the specifications for the new Rice Lager category. Previously its Japanese Lager has won in the “International Lager” category at the World Beer Cup.
Pfriem observes Earth Day
Shortly after celebrating its World Cup wins, pFriem Family Brewing employees spent a morning on a cleanup project on the Hood River and the waterfront, April 26. The brewery partnered with the nonprofit Native Fish Society to brew Earth Day IPA, a West Coast IPA, which poured at a post-cleanup party at the brewery. The society advocates for the conservation of free-flowing rivers and wild fish populations in the Northwest and beyond, and recently established a Hood River chapter to serve the mid-Columbia basin.
Daniel Ritz of the Hood River chapter thanked the pFriem employees and community members who collected three truckloads of debris in a project that centered at the Powerdale area.
“We had a great haul today, and are looking forward to doing more of these,” Ritz said. The society focuses on stewardship and outreach, Ritz said.
“This is a unique opportunity. We do more than this, but efforts like this that are led by people who live here, I sort of swell with pride.”
He called the society “a place-based advocacy group working collaboratively on advocacy for river health and wild native fish populations, working with nature groups, government agencies.”
Pfriem co-owner Rudy Kellner told the volunteers, “a shout-out to a whole group of people who care about this river and restoring the watershed to what it used to be and can be. It’s inspirational.”
Pfriem did a similar cleanup earlier this month on the Clackamas River in Milwaukie.
Pfriem noted that the Earth Day IPA (6.6 ABV, 48 IBU) used “wonderful malt from Goschie Farms in the Willamette Valley, and some of our favorite hops from Coleman Agriculture that we’re working with right now to give us guava, lychee, and juicy pineapple flavor.”
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