In annual honors awarded by the Washington Beer Commission, Southwest Washington breweries leapt from a regional second-to-last-place finish in 2017 to a strong second-place finish in 2018. (The commission divides the state into seven beer-brewing regions; Southwest Washington’s regional brewers have adopted the cooler nickname North Bank.)
In all, 181 Washington breweries entered 1,297 beers in the competition. Trained beer judges sampled them blindly and awarded gold, silver and bronze medals at the June Washington Brewers Festival, held in Redmond.
Our awesome local results: 37 North Bank breweries won 38 medals. As a region, that’s second only to Seattle/King County, whose 107 breweries took 73 medals — and our breweries’ overall success rate is notably higher.
North Bank breweries Barrel Mountain, 54 40′, Backwoods, Brothers Cascadia, Dick’s (in Centralia), Grains of Wrath, Everybody’s (in White Salmon), Fortside, Heathen, HUB Vancouver, Loowit, McMenamins (on the Vancouver waterfront), North Jetty (Seaview), Trap Door, Trusty, Walking Man (Stevenson) and Willapa (Raymond) all took one or many medals home — and Camas newcomer Grains of Wrath also won special recognition as the 2018 Very Small Brewery of the Year.
