Oregon was awarded 35 medals at the 2025 World Beer Cup, but only 33 of them went to Oregon based breweries and cideries. Confused? In a strange mix-up, World Beer Cup credited Vancouver, Washington-based Victor 23 Brewing as a Portland, OR based brewery and their 2 medals are listed in the state-wide count for Oregon in all official listings. In reality Oregon breweries won 26 medals, and Oregon Cideries won an additional 9 medals during the first-ever year which cider has been included in the prestigious competition.
The World Beer Cup is considered the most prestigious international beer competition and referred to as “The Olympics of Beer Competitions,” winners were announced on May 1st, 2025 at the closing of the Craft Brewers Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Washington/Oregon Mix-up:
Victor 23 Brewing of Vancouver, Washington won 2 medals at the World Beer Cup, but was incorrectly listed as being from Portland, Oregon and thus their awards are counted in Oregon’s total medal count on the official WBC website. V23’s medals included a bronze for “Coconspirator” in the German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock category, and a gold for “Birkebeinerpils” in the incredibly competitive International-Style Pilsener category.
We asked V23’s acclaimed brewmaster Tom Torresdal about it and this is what he had to say: “That’s a bit of a head scratcher for me. Got to figure out why that happened. Only thing I can think is owner lives in Oregon, and I paid for entries with a credit card based from Oregon.”
Regardless of the reason, Victor 23 Brewing is just a short drive from Portland, Oregon and obviously well worth a visit. Congrats to Tom and the team!
Oregon Cider dominates:
2025 was the first year that cideries were allowed to enter the World Beer Cup and just as they did at last year’s GABF, Oregon cideries crushed it. Out of a total possible 15 awards in 5 cider style categories, Oregon cideries won 9 of them, including a total sweep of gold, silver, and bronze in the Tannic Cider category.
