An Impressive Debut: The Oregon Beer Awards

For decades, Americans have been trying to judge their beers. The Great American Beer Festival dates back, amazingly, to 1982. Homebrew competitions predate that by four years. As the decades have piled up, so have the competitions, and there are now so many of them they’re like white noise playing in the background. So many breweries have won so many awards that nobody pays much attention to them anymore. Given the history, I wouldn’t blame you if you tuned out the latest awards ceremony, which will happen at Portland’s Revolution Hall in four days’ time. But for once, you shouldn’t. The Oregon Beer Awards are something truly new and different, and they may change the way we think about this whole judging business.

A Philosophical Change
Why would you judge beers in the first place? To try to identify and laud the best ones, right? This seems intuitive enou …