For the second straight year, the public beer-tasting extravaganza that is the Great American Beer Festival had to be shut down due to the pandemic. While droves of beer drinkers were unable to descend upon Denver’s California Convention Center, industry professionals gathered in the Mile High City to attend the Craft Brewers Conference. And just like last year, a bevy of certified beer judges made the trek to evaluate 9,680 entries submitted by 2,192 U.S. breweries in order to determine the winners of the competition portion of GABF. Organized and presented by industry group, the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest and most prestigious annual pro-brewing competition in the world.
The winners of the 2021 GABF were announced this afternoon via online resource, The Brewing Network. Medals were awarded in nearly 100 different beer-style categories. San Diego breweries have fared well at the GABF over the years with local beermaking operations garnering 13 medals last year, 18 in 2019, 16 in 2018, 14 in 2017 and 18 in 2016. This year, the county’s brewers amassed a total of 18 medals. Seven of those were gold, six were silver and five were bronze.
Belching Beaver Brewing and North Park Beer Co. were the two local operations to win multiple medals. Belching Beaver’s Vista Tavern and Grill won a gold and a silver, while NPBC took silver in the most highly contested category, Hazy or Juicy India Pale Ale, (the bronze was won by Barrio Logan’s Attitude Brewing) and a bronze in the Imperial India Pale Ale category. Wild Barrel Brewing took its second GABF gold in a row for its Vice Sans Fruit Berliner weisse. First-year winners included Craft Coast (bronze), Deft Brewing (silver), My Yard Live Beer Co. (bronze), Puesto Cerveceria (silver), TapRoom Beer Co. (silver), WestBrew (bronze) and the aforementioned Attitude.
Four medals (one silver, three bronze) were awarded to breweries headquartered in San Diego, but the beers that won the medals were brewed outside of the county. One of those beers, Closer by the Mile from Athletic Brewing, was announced as being brewed in Stratford, Connecticut, however, Brewery Manager Kevin Henschel confirms that the beer was produced at the company’s brewery in Miramar. This brings San Diego breweries’ total medal count to 19, tying the most GABF awards the region’s brewers have amassed in a single year since 2015.
The following is a full list of this year’s winning local beers…
GOLD
- American Sour Ale: Vice Sans Fruit, Wild Barrel Brewing (San Marcos)
- English India Pale Ale or New Zealand India Pale Ale: Palm Sway, Coronado Brewing (Bay Park)
- German-style Doppelbock or Eisbock: Unfrozen Caveman Lager, Belching Beaver Brewery – Tavern & Grill (Vista)
- Imperial Stout: Dark Seas, Mission Brewery (East Village)
- International Pale Ale or New Zealand Pale Ale: Bonkeur Mosaic Pale Ale, Rouleur Brewing (Carlsbad)
- Non-alcoholic Beer: Enough Said N/A Helles, Two Roots Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
- Specialty Beer: Maple Smoked Maibock, Kilowatt Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
SILVER
- Belgian-style Strong Specialty Ale: Jan Quadrupel Vincent 16, Belching Beaver Brewery – Tavern & Grill (Vista)
- Belgian-style Table Beer or Belgian-style Session Ale: Austere Abbot, Deft Brewing (Bay Park)
- ** Non-alcoholic Beer: Closer by the Mile, Athletic Brewing (Stratford, CT)
- Hazy or Juicy India Pale Ale: Art is Hard, North Park Beer Co. (North Park)
- International Dark Lager: Puesto Negra, Puesto Cerveceria (Mission Valley)
- Session Beer: Natural Bridge: Vienna Lager, Eppig Brewing (Vista)
- Smoked Beer: Ashes from the Grave, TapRoom Beer Co. (North Park)
BRONZE
- * Coffee Beer: Golden Stout, Karl Strauss Brewing (Anaheim, CA)
- English India Pale Ale or New Zealand India Pale Ale: Flight of the Kiwis, My Yard Live Beer Co. (San Marcos)
- English-style Brown Ale: Beería, Craft Coast (Oceanside)
- Hazy or Juicy India Pale Ale: Blissed, Attitude Brewing (Barrio Logan)
- Hoppy Lager: Haole Island, WestBrew (Vista)
- Imperial India Pale Ale: Army of the Kinda Dead-ish, North Park Beer Co. (North Park)
- * Non-alcoholic Beer: Downwinder Gose, Athletic Brewing (Stratford, CT)
- * Specialty Beer: Agavamente, SouthNorte (Huntington Beach, CA)
* Winning beer was produced at a brewhouse outside of San Diego County
** Winning beer was noted as being brewed in Stratford, CT, but Athletic Brewing confirms the beer was brewed at its brewery in Miramar