West Coast breweries dominate 2026 Best of Craft Beer Awards
West Coast breweries took 95 of 153 medals, and the heaviest traffic was still in IPA, with 138 entries in American-style IPA alone.
California, Oregon and Washington didn’t just show up at the 2026 Best of Craft Beer Awards in Sunriver. They took 95 of the 153 medals, a blunt reminder that the West Coast still sets the pace when judges start rewarding technical precision, hop character and clean execution.
The competition ran April 10-12 in Central Oregon and drew 1,498 entries from 270 breweries, with judging spread across six sessions over three days. A panel of 58 to nearly 60 professional brewers and industry experts handed out medals across 51 style categories, and 108 brewery locations around the world left with hardware. That scale makes the results more than a bragging-rights list; it is one of the clearest snapshots of where craft beer is actually landing right now.
The headline brewery honors were spread beyond the coast, which matters. Breakside Brewery & Taproom in Milwaukie, Oregon, was named Large-Sized Brewery of the Year. Logboat Brewing in Columbia, Missouri, took Medium-Sized Brewery of the Year, and Fruition Brewing in Watsonville, California, won Small-Sized Brewery of the Year. That mix says the awards were not a simple West Coast sweep, even if the medal map was heavily tilted west.
The regional numbers still tell the bigger story. Washington led the coast with 34 medals, Oregon followed with 35, and California added 26. Put together, those three states accounted for more than three-fifths of the total medals. For anyone watching the market, that concentration is the part that matters: the breweries still getting recognized are the ones pairing regional identity with tight process and beers that can travel.
The style data backs that up. American-Style India Pale Ale was the most-entered category at 138 entries, followed by Hazy or Juicy IPA at 69. Dark Lagers drew 64 entries, Pale European Lagers 57, North American Lagers 56, and Red & Strong Red Beers 51. The field still leans hard toward IPA, but the strength of lager categories suggests judges are rewarding balance and brewing discipline, not just dry-hop volume.
Compared with 2025, when the competition drew more than 1,200 entries and awarded 135 medals across 61 categories, 2026 was bigger on entries and medals but tighter on categories. ProBrewer calls it the third-largest professional brewing competition in North America, and after 12 years and more than 1,500 participating brewing locations, the results still track the same message: the West Coast is where the style bar keeps getting set, even when the trophies travel.
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