DEL MAR — A new beer from Council Brewing Magic Factory, called Lickable Staves, was announced as Best of Show in the 11th annual San Diego International Beer Competition.
SDIBF is part of the 2017 San Diego County Fair. Council Brewing Magic Factory, based in San Diego, describes its winner as an American Sour Red Ale, aged in red wine barrels with Balaton cherries. The ale has intense flavors of tart cherry pie, baking spices, red wine and soft oak tannins.
In addition, AleSmith Brewing of San Diego was named as the Champion Brewery, and Redstone Meadery of Boulder, Colorado, took honors as Champion Meadery.
The festival ran June 16 through June 18, highlighting breweries from the competition at the Del Mar Arena. This year’s winners were selected from 1,564 entries, which came from 20 countries and 23 states. Judging was held in April, where gold, silver and bronze awards were bestowed upon 168 brews from around the world at the San Diego International Beer Competition, held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Last year, more than 10,000 beer lovers attended the festival for five tasting sessions, and sampled from hundreds of varieties of ale, cider, porter, stout, mead and more. Hundreds of different beers were served at the festival.
The San Diego International Beer Competition & Festival is produced by the 22nd District Agricultural Association in conjunction with the San Diego County Fair. The international competition is open to any licensed brewery, brewpub or meadery. For more information, visit sandiegobeerfestival.com.
