Earlier this week, the winners of the U.S. Open Beer Championships were announced. This included gold, silver and bronze medal awardees in 140 different ale and lager style categories. San Diego County breweries brought home a total of ten medals—four gold, three silver and three bronze.
Escondido’s Stone Brewing won three medals, the most of any local operation. That included a silver in the highly contested West Coast IPA category and a bronze in a special, one-time category grading imperial stouts which were brewed as part of the Black is Beautiful equal-rights-focused fundraising campaign established by Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio, Texas.
South Park Brewing was awarded two gold medals in the Herb and Spice Beer and Specialty Pale Ale category. “Pale has always been a white whale of sorts from pales we brewed at [our previous brewpub] Monkey Paw through SPBC. This year it kind of clicked as we won a bronze and a gold for the beer, so I think we closed that loop and finally found what we were looking for,” says South Park Brewing owner Scot Blair. “As someone who has always advocated for and produced award-winning traditional and historical ales, the gruit winning a second gold medal in a tricky category is gratifying, considering this batch was a special rendition using a different mélange of herbs.”
San Diego newcomer Athletic Brewing took a gold and a bronze in non-alcoholic beer categories. Oceanside’s Black Plague Brewing‘s secured a gold in the Coconut Beer category for its Medusa Imperial Milk Stout, the Brigantine restaurant group’s in-house beermaking arm, Ketch Brewing, won a silver for its Alta Mar lager, and El Cajon’s Burning Beard Brewing grabbed a gold for its popular extra special bitter, Banksy.
More than 6,000 beers were entered into this year’s U.S. Open Beer Championship. South Park Brewing also took two golds last year, when San Diego County breweries amassed eight awards. In 2018, local breweries earned seven medals, after winning eight total the year before. Stone and Burning Beard are the only San Diego brewing companies which have won medals in all of the past four years.
Gold Medals
- Coconut Beer: Medusa Imperial Milk Stout, Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside)
- Herb & Spice Beer: Herb & Honey, South Park Brewing (South Park)
- Non Alcoholic IPA: Run Wild IPA, Athletic Brewing (Miramar)
- Specialty Pale Ale: South Park Pale Ale, South Park Brewing (South Park)
Silver Medals
- American Amber / California Common: Alta Mar, Ketch Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Near Gluten Free – IPA / Double IPA: Stone Delicious IPA, Stone Brewing (Escondido)
- West Coast IPA: Stone IPA, Stone Brewing (Escondido)
Bronze Medals
- ESB (Extra Special Bitter): Banksy, Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon)
- Non Alcoholic Stout: All Out Stout, Athletic Brewing (Miramar)
- Special Category—Black is Beautiful Imperial Stout: Stone Brewing (Escondido)
The U.S. Open Beer Championship represents the final event of the 2020 beer-award season, but there is more competition to come, and soon. January will mark the arrival of the first annual San Diego Beer News Awards, which will bring craft-beer fans and members of the local brewing community together like never before to determine the very best of the beers and breweries throughout San Diego County in a manner in which everyone can participate in a meaningful way.
More information on the San Diego Beer News Awards will be shared on this site as well as SDBN’s social-media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) later this month.