The past three days have seen personnel from many of California’s 1,100-plus breweries converge in Sacramento for the 2023 California Craft Beer Summit. One of the highlights of that combination convention, expo and legislative influencing event is the awards ceremony for the Brewers Cup of California, a professional brewing competition organized by the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild with assistance from other brewing-industry guilds throughout the state. This year’s Brewers Cup of California awards ceremony was held on Tuesday, March 21 at Sacramento’s Crest Theater.
While the competition (which originally operated as the California Craft Brewers Cup) has been held on something of a bi-annual basis since its inception in 2019, it was envisioned as an annual event. The COVID-19 pandemic laid waste to the 2020 edition, but it returned in 2021 as part of that year’s Summit. Rather than hold its Summit in 2021, the California Craft Brewers Association opted to shift it ahead seven months to hold it this week, so the competition was rescheduled as well. Moving forward, Brewers Cup of California should finally be able to be held on a yearly basis as originally intended.
Despite its infrequency, the competition has grown into a high-profile event for Golden State brewers. This year’s competition included 1,306 entries from 191 breweries. A panel of more than 50 certified and otherwise qualified judges selected the top three breweries in 83 beer-style categories, awarding a total of 37 medals to San Diego County interests. Of those, 13 were gold, eight were silver and 16 were bronze. It was nearly double the 19 awards collected by local breweries at the 2021 competition.
Two Kearny Mesa brewing companies tied for the most medals won by a local operation with four apiece, Kilowatt Brewing (two golds and two bronzes) and Societe Brewing (two silvers, two bronzes), while Vista’s Eppig Brewing (one gold, one silver, one bronze) and Miramar’s AleSmith Brewing (one gold, two bronzes) earned three medals each.
Double-gold-winning Sorrento Mesa brewpub Gravity Heights headed a septet of local operations that brought home a pair of medals. That group also included Oceanside-based Black Plague Brewing, Carlsbad-based Rouleur Brewing, North Park’s TapRoom Beer Co., El Cajon’s Burning Beard Brewing, Ramona’s Smoking Cannon Brewery and Pizza Port’s Ocean Beach brewpub.
Beyond San Diego, Brewery of the Year honors went to Tracy, California’s Morgan Territory Brewing, which amassed eight total medals, the Best in Show beer was a Bamberg-style smoked helles lager from Los Angeles’ Arts District Brewing called Kindling, and Guild of the Year, which is awarded to the organization representing the region whose breweries took the most medals, went to the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild.
The following is a list of every San Diego County beer that medaled in this year’s Brewers Cup of California competition…
GOLD MEDALS
- American-style Pale Ale: Creekside Pale Ale, Double Peak Brewing (San Marcos)
- Belgian Low Gravity Ales: Domestique Blonde Ale, Rouleur Brewing (Carlsbad)
- Belgian Strong Darks: OB Bubble Dubbel, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Belgian Strong Pales: Le Village, Pizza Port Brewing (Carlsbad)
- English Ales: Brewers’ Best, Gravity Heights (Sorrento Mesa)
- English-style Brown Ale: Nut Brown, AleSmith Brewing (Miramar)
- Experimental / Specialty Beers: S3-2X Peach Cobbler, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- German-style Pilsener: Take Two Pils, Gravity Heights (Sorrento Mesa)
- Irish Stouts: Sinister Path, Eppig Brewing (Vista)
- Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale: PB Haze, TapRoom Beer Co. (North Park)
- Session Beer: Clever Kiwi, Burgeon Beer Co. (Carlsbad)
- Specialty Honey Lager or Ale: EZ Drankin’, Mike Hess Brewing (North Park)
- Specialty Stout: Medusa, Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside)
SILVER MEDALS
- American Historic / Indigenous Beers: Juniper Flats, Smoking Cannon Brewery (Ramona)
- American-style Cream Ale or Lager: Surf Punk, Hodad’s Brewing (Serra Mesa)
- American-style India Pale Lager: Elevation 5353, Julian Beer Co. (Julian)
- Belgian Low Gravity Ales: The Harlot, Societe Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Belgian Sours: In Praise of Bacchus, Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon)
- Experimental India Pale Ale: Supernatural, Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside)
- Imperial or Double India Pale Ale: The Roustabout, Societe Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Other Strong Ale or Lager: 6th Anniversary Imperial Schwarzbier, Eppig Brewing (Vista)
BRONZE MEDALS
- American Imperial Porters & Stouts: Benevolent Dictator, Arcana Brewing (Carlsbad)
- American Light Lagers: Light Beer, Societe Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- American-style Barley Wine Ale: Barley Legal, Thr3e Punk Ales Brewing (Chula Vista)
- Belgian-style Fruit Beer: In Praise of Plum, Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon)
- Chocolate / Cocoa-flavored Beer: Double Chocolate Macadamia Stout, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Experimental / Specialty Beers: Puckeur Factor, Rouleur Brewing (Carlsbad)
- Fruit Beer: Paloma Sour, Pizza Port Brewing (Ocean Beach)
- German Weissebiers: Junk In Da Trunkel Dunkel, Pizza Port Brewing (Ocean Beach)
- Herb & Spice Beer: Hall, Smoking Cannon Brewery (Ramona)
- Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double India Pale Ale: Esoteric Knowledge, Pure Project Brewing (Vista)
- Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale: Tomorrowland, TapRoom Beer Co. (North Park)
- Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage: Non-Alcoholic IPA, AleSmith Brewing (Miramar)
- Scottish Ales: Wee Heavy, AleSmith Brewing (MIramar)
- Session Beer: Natural Bridge: Vienna Lager, Eppig Brewing (Vista)
- Session India Pale Ale: The Coachman, Societe Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- UK Strong Ales: Wee Heavy, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
A complete list of winners can be found online.