Yakima Valley Breweries Shine At Washington Beer Awards

Washington does several things right.

Washington has outstanding agriculture when it comes to fresh produce, some of the best seafood in the world, and we know how to make an amazing beer.

It only makes since that the Washington Beer Awards happen every year in our state and, with the Yakima Valley being home of about 75% of the hops used for beer in the United States, it should also only make sense that Yakima Valley beer and brewing companies take home some of those awards.

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And that's exactly what happened.

Not every award, of course. With something like 426 brewing companies in Washington State alone, and with over a handful here in the Yakima Valley, Yakima held its own very well with the likes of some of the biggest beer companies based in Seattle.

And why wouldn't they? Yakima's the best.

According to Washington Beer Awards website, they received 1,219 entries from 170 companies. All of them brewed in Washington State, of course. These beers were sampled by a panel of judges in a blind format using a standardized style for them.

Representing Yakima Valley, here's some of our award winning beer.

Varietal Beer Company based out of Sunnyside had a nice showing, taking home silver in the American-style light beer with their Moxee Light as well as silver for their cream ale named Two Wolves.

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Single Hill Brewing Company from Yakima had a great showing as well. Single Hill took home gold for their American-style pilsner named Adams Pils, gold for a contemporary American style pilsner named Super Delicious, bronze for Other American-style lager Flight Cancelled, and silver for their American-style strong pale ale Eastside.

In the category for Imperial or Double IPA, Single Hill took Gold while Bale Breaker took silver. Nice to have two Yakima beers on one set.

Single Hill Brewing Company also won the award for Large Brewery of the Year. Congrats, Single Hill!

Here are a few awards from breweries found in Eastern Washington. They also deserve our love.

Ten Pin Brewing from Moses Lake took home bronze for their Snake Eye Stout, bronze for Black Eyed Katy, and silver for Groove Pineapple Wheat Ale.

Hat Trick Brewing out of Spokane got bronze for their Stouty McStouterson. It's an Irish stout, if you were wondering.

The very popular Icicle Brewing Company out of beautiful Leavenworth was awarded gold for Enchantments which is their hazy IPA, bronze for their Little Giant hazy pale ale as well as silver for their chili pepper beer, Cot In The Heat.

Ice Harbor in Kennewick took home gold for their famous Tangerine Hefeweizen. That should surprise nobody as it wins awards often for that specific beer which has to be their flagship. They also took home bronze for their Bruneau Brown.

And then our friends in Goldendale completely swept the category of Brett Beers with Dwinell County Sales winning gold for Summer Blush, silver for Fever Dream, and bronze for Fuzzword.

Congrats to all. If you'd like to see the full list (it's a long list) visit the Washington Beer Awards website.