(Photo above courtesy of Sunriver Brewing Co.)
Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is the world’s largest beer competition with 2017 featuring 7,923 entries from 2,217 breweries from all fifty states and Washington D.C. Sunriver Brewing Company earned two gold medals and the prestigious Best Small Brewery and Brewer of the Year accolades. The small brewery category includes all those with annual production between 1,000 and 14,999 barrels. Sunriver Brewing received its first gold medal for Fuzztail Hefeweizen in the category of American Wheat Beer with Yeast. Fuzztail also earned a Gold Medal at the 2016 World Beer Cup and a Gold at the 2016 Best of Craft Beer awards. The second gold came later in the competition with Cinder Beast Imperial Red Ale in the Imperial Red Ale category.
“We couldn’t be happier about the acknowledgement of our team’s work over the last couple years,” says Director of Brewing Operations, Brett Thomas. “It’s been a long journey of refinement and hard work and we’re grateful to be competing and winning at this level.”
The fourth award was for the Alpha King Challenge. This competition takes place annually during the GABF and honors the country’s best hop laden beers in the land. Sunriver’s Double Dank Double IPA took home second place.
“From the very beginning our team has worked together to build something special” says Ryan Duley, director of sales and marketing. “The recognition validates that we’re doing a lot of the right things and it feels really good.”
Sunriver Brewing Company’s pub in the Village at Sunriver opened to rave reviews in the summer of 2012. Recognizing that the original pub would not accommodate demand, a 13,000-square foot building was purchased in the Business Park at Sunriver where in 2014 the company sold 926 barrels. Since then the brewery has expanded several times and will sell about 7,500 barrels in 2017. Director of Brewing Operations Brett Thomas prides himself on making the highest quality beer. Since 2014, Sunriver Brewing Company has garnered many national and international awards including three gold, three silver and one bronze at the North American Beer Awards (NABA), four gold and one silver at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and a gold medal at the World Beer Cup. In February of 2016, Sunriver opened its second pub location on Galveston Avenue in Bend Oregon.
