Each summer, a battle for geo-specific hoppy-beer supremacy takes place in The Beaver State. That myrcene-marked melee is organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild and is called the Best of the West Coast India Pale Ale National Throwdown. While the overarching IPA category has ballooned over the past two decades, growing to include imperial, session, cold, fruited, and even sour and smoothie-style IPAs, this professional brewing competition is purposefully precise. Craft brewers may only enter single-strength (6-8% alcohol-by-volume) IPAs, allowing for an apples-to-apples face-off wherein judges’ results are as accurate as can be and 100% asterisk-free.
This year’s Best of the West showdown took place over the weekend amongst the vibrant green bines at host venue TopWire Hop Project in Woodburn, Oregon. Winners were announced in various categories, including Traditional American IPA, West Coast IPAs (WCIPA) coming in over and under 6.7% alcohol-by-volume and IPAs produced by brewing companies in six different size classes determined by overall annual production.
When it came time to hand over medals in the International IPA and Flagship IPA categories, local operation North Park Beer Co. (NPBC) was called to the podium for Dead as a Doornail and its core beer, Hop-Fu!, respectively. Not only that, but Hop-Fu! merited top marks over every other IPA in the competition, earning it the lofty title of “Grand Champion” for 2025.
“I’m deeply honored and incredibly proud of our brewing team. Hop-Fu! is the most important beer of my entire brewing journey, and North Park Beer Co. simply wouldn’t exist without it,” says NPBC owner and Brewmaster Kelsey McNair. “Winning Grand Champion at the 2025 Best of the West Coast IPA National Throwdown is truly surreal. To see a beer that started in my homebrewing days now earn top recognition on a national stage is an amazing full-circle moment.”
In previous years’ competition, Hop-Fu! took gold (2023) and silver (2024) in the Flagship IPA category. The beer also garnered both gold (2022) and silver (2024) medals at the largest annual brewing contest on the planet, the World Beer Cup, as well as a bronze (2022) at its U.S. counterpart competition, the Great American Beer Festival. And before it was a commercial beer, Hop-Fu! earned McNair gold at the American Homebrewers Association’s National Homebrew Competition in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Other award-winners at this year’s Best of the West event included Cannonball Creek Brewing (West Coast IPA above 6.7%, Grand Champion runner-up), Sunriver Brewing (WCIPA below 6.7% for its collaboration with AleSong Brewing & Blending and Grand Fir Brewing), Victor 23 Brewing (Traditional American IPA), Ghost Town Brewing (Oregon Hop IPA), Brujos Brewing (Very Small Brewery), Grains of Wrath Brewing (Small Brewery), Moonraker Brewing (Medium Brewery), Pinthouse Brewing (Large Brewery) and Breakside Brewing (Very Large Brewery).
“This competition has grown tremendously since its inception,” says McNair. “To come out on top among so many talented West Coast IPA brewers from across the country makes this recognition even more meaningful.”
North Park Beer Co. is located at 3038 University Avenue in North Park, with satellite locations at 3095 Fifth Avenue in Bankers Hill and 3801 Ingraham Street in Pacific Beach