The Best Brewery of 2016

2016 was a big year for craft beer. The torrid growth of the industry continues unabated and with it comes new ideas, new hot beer commodities as well as new breweries.

To celebrate the year that was, we've put together our list of Top 100 Beers of 2016 -- featuring a whopping 34 beers that scored a 96 or above, The Beer in Review -- compiling some of our most populous styles for the past year and, last but not least, our 2016 Brewery of the Year.

Brewery of the Year
pFriem Family Brewers
Two World Class Beers & One Exceptional Beer
Total Score: 291
Highest-scoring beers: Frambozen -- 99, pFriem Wit -- 97, pFriem Pilsner -- 95

We are thrilled to announce that pFriem Family Brewers of Hood River, Oregon was awarded two world-class beer reviews, including a coveted and exceedingly rare score of 99 (only 1 of 4 scores of 99 in our history), making it our 2016 Brewery of the Year!

Speaking of history, pFriem will certainly go down as purveyors of delightful and delicate craft brews, painstakingly created with the love and care that only a family can bestow. As our first-ever Brewery of the Year, pFriem pulled ahead of the competition with an impressive collection of masterfully executed beer styles, including its 99-scoring raspberry Lambic, Frambozen, which was an aromatic tour-de-force of subtlety, nuance and mouthfeel -- as close to perfection as one could find. 

Falling in behind Frambozen's excellence were pFriem Wit, a flawless representation of the classic Belgian Witbier style and pFriem Pilsner, an expertly crafted German Pils.

It goes to show just how amazing our craft beer scene is when you can have 3 different beers with wildly disparate, globe-trekking styles, all made by the same small brewery in the Pacific Northwest. What a time to be alive.