Organized by U.S. non-profit trade organization, the Brewers Association (BA), the World Beer Cup is the world’s most prestigious international brewing competition. Once a biennial affair, it now takes place every year in conjunction with the country’s largest brewing-industry convention, the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), which was held this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A significant percentage of CBC attendees showed up in SIn City several days ahead of the event to help judge the competition. It took a total of 280 judges from 37 countries to assess this year’s field, which included 9,300 beers from 2,060 breweries in 50 countries submitted in a total of 110 style categories. Winners were announced earlier this evening and 15 beers from 12 local brewing companies (plus an out-of-county interest with with an Oceanside location) earned awards.
Craft Coast Beer & Tacos, North Park Beer Co. (NPBC) and Pizza Port Brewing brought home multiple awards, with two each. The lattermost of those concerns’ pair of golds came for a dunkelweizen from its Ocean Beach brewpub and a barrel-aged blend developed at its Carlsbad brewpub for that location’s 24th annual Strong Ale Festival.
NPBC once again flexed its muscles where hoppy beers are concerned, earning a gold for a cold IPA in the Hoppy Lager category and coming in second in the hotly contested American-style India Pale Ale category with its much-medaled flagship beer, Hop-Fu! Meanwhile, Craft Coast nabbed a silver in the International Pilsner category and a bronze in Australian-style Pale Ale.
San Diego’s fourth and final gold went to Coronado Brewing in International Lager for Nado. Earning an award for the second year in a row – a silver in the American-style Amber/Red Ale category – was Summon Ifrit from BattleMage Brewing, while Kilowatt Brewing’s OB Bubble Dubbel medaled for the second time in the past three runs of this competition.
Other local winners included Abnormal Beer Co., Athletic Brewing, Culture Brewing, Fall Brewing, Julian Beer Co. and Karl Strauss Brewing. Orange-based Green Cheek Beer Co., which recently took over Oceanside’s Bagby Beer Co., also earned four awards (a gold, silver and two bronzes).
San Diego County breweries have long fared well at the World Beer Cup. Over the past decade, local beermakers have garnered 76 total awards. In addition to this year’s count, San Diego operations brought home 12 awards in 2023, 17 in 2022, 7 in 2018, 14 in 2016 and 11 in 2014. No competition was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next World Beer Cup will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana in April 2025.
The following is a full list of the local beers that won awards at this year’s WBC…
GOLD (4)
Hoppy Lager: Ice-Fu!, North Park Beer Co. (North Park)
International Lager: Nado, Coronado Brewing (Coronado)
South German-style Dunkel Weizen: Junk in da Trunkel Dunkel, Pizza Port Brewing (Ocean Beach)
Wood- & Barrel-Aged Beer: 24th Annual Strong Ale Festival Blend, Pizza Port Brewing (Carlsbad)
SILVER (6)
American-style Amber/Red Ale: Summon Ifrit, BattleMage Brewing (Vista)
American-style India Pale Ale: Hop-Fu!, North Park Beer Co. (North Park)
Coffee Beer: Golden Stout, Karl Strauss Brewing (Pacific Beach)
Honey Beer: Kostka-busser, Culture Brewing (Solana Beach)
International Pilsner: Chillzner, Craft Coast Beer & Tacos (Oceanside)
Non-Alcohol Beer: Soul Sour, Athletic Brewing (Miramar)
BRONZE (5)
Australian-style Pale Ale: XPA, Craft Coast Beer & Tacos (Oceanside)
Belgian-style Dubbel: OB Bubble Dubbel, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
Belgian-style Quadrupel: Dolphin of the Desert, Julian Beer Co. (Julian)
International Lager: Tora!, Fall Brewing (Miramar)
West Coast-style India Pale Ale: Eddie’s Redux, Abnormal Beer Co. (Rancho Bernardo)
A full list of winners from the 2024 World Beer Cup is available online.