Tons on tap for the 2025 SDBN Awards Ceremony

Over the past half-decade, we’ve been proud to present the annual San Diego Beer News Awards Ceremony. What started as a virtual celebration in 2021 has blossomed and grown into one of the most fun and highly anticipated nights of the year for the San Diego brewing industry and fans of local beer. Free to attend and open to the public, this year’s event will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25 at Societe Brewing in Kearny Mesa.

Each year, we work to introduce new features and incorporate fun surprises, and this year will be no different. For starters, hosting duties will be handled by a quartet that has great familiarity with each other as well as craft-beer fans, the cast of The Indie Beer Show. Podcast founders Brian Beagle and Esthela Davila, producer Abel Garcia and SDBN founder Brandon Hernández will reunite for one special evening, resurrecting some staples from their popular show, which ran from 2018 to 2021, while providing some laughs and keeping things moving along.

The TIBS crew will be joined on stage throughout the night by multiple members of the San Diego brewing industry, craft-beer community and local media outlets, who will be charged with announcing the winners in 31 different categories celebrating the best breweries, beers, venues, staffers and more, as nominated and voted on by thousands via our online ballot. Those  categories are as follows:

Brewery & Brewer Awards: Champion Brewery, Best Brewery by Region (Central, North, South, East, West), Best New Brewery, Larry Smith Customer Service Award, Vanguard Brewer Award, Nate Soroko Community Impact Award, San Diego Brewers Guild Outstanding Service Award, Best Expansion Project, Best Interior / Exterior Design, Best Can or Bottle Design, Best Food / Menu

Beer & Beverage Awards: West Coast IPA, Hazy IPA, Imperial IPA, Niche IPA, Hoppy Beer (Non-IPA), Pilsner, German Beer (Non-Pilsner), Belgian Ale, U.K. / Irish Ale, Coffee Beer, Sour / Wild Beer, Light Beer / Adjunct Lager, Strong Beer, Barrel-Aged Beer, Non-Alcoholic Beer, Alternative Beverage, Collaboration Beer

This marks the first year for the Best Alternative Beverage Award, recognizing standout non-beer products from local breweries, cideries, meaderies, distilleries and more. Those beverages include hard seltzer, hard kombucha, hard sparkling tea, hard cider, mead, ready-to-drink cocktails and non-alcoholic hop water. Also new this year is the consolidation of the Sour Ale and Barrel-Aged Sour / Wild Ale categories into a singular entity, Best Sour / Wild Beer.

But that’s not all. For the first year ever, there will be an official San Diego Beer News Awards After Party, which will take place directly following the ceremony at nearby Kearny Mesa beer bastion and USA TODAY‘s reigning Best Beer Bar in America, O’Brien’s Pub. That standout spot will welcome revelers with some of this year’s award-winning beers and keep the kitchen open beyond normal hours to keep the party rolling into the wee hours. Like the ceremony, this event is open to the public and there’s no need to RSVP. Just show up and enjoy!

We hope you can make it out to this year’s event. It’s going to be a great time and we have plenty of surprises in store for attendees. And thank-you to the following sponsors for not only making this event possible, but for allowing us to keep it free for all to attend and enjoy…

Yakima Chief Hops, Arryved, Country Malt Group, Jenny Mann Photography, RahrBSG, San Diego Brewers Guild, Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient, Classic Beverage of San Diego, HRVST, Premier Stainless Systems, TapCraft, Admiral Maltings, Ale Tales Taproom, Alternative Strategies, Bottlecraft, The Bountiful Bag, CSU San Marcos Brewchive, Dalum Beverage Equipment, Hauck Architecture, Hoppy Beer Gear, John I. Haas, Katalyst Public Relations, LHK Noodle Bar, MiraCosta College BrewTech, Omega Yeast, RadCraft, Real Nice Merchandise, San Diego Mesa College Fermentation Program, SoCal Brewing Supply, Two Track Malting, WestAir, White Labs

Societe Brewing is located at 8262 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in Kearny Mesa, and O’Brien’s Pub is located at 4646 Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa