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San Diego breweries win big at International Beer Festival

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated after Stone Brewing’s bronze medal for smoked beer was changed to “honorable mention” by the LAIBC.

REGION — Twenty-five San Diego breweries won 71 of the 287 awards given at the 2019 Los Angeles International Beer Competition (LAIBC) on April 13 and 14 at the Fairplex in Los Angeles.

That’s roughly a quarter of all awards going to San Diego breweries, including 26 of the 97 gold medals awarded.

San Diego County has 158 breweries, or about 16% of California’s approximately 980 breweries.

Eight North County breweries together won 24 awards.

San Diego breweries won at least one award in 54 of the 100 beer style categories in the competition.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were available in each category, but the judges decided that some categories did not have three medal-deserving beers according to competition style guidelines. Three categories added an Honorable Mention for a beer that was very close to medaling.

San Diego breweries brought home 55 LAIBC awards in 2018, 60 in 2017, and 43 in 2016. This year features the best collective performance to date at this competition hosted by the LA County Fair.

Especially notable results are San Diego clean-sweeps of all three medals in both the Rye Beer and the American-Style Stout categories, and six medals for Deft Brewing (3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze).

Three San Diego County Pizza Port locations combined for ten medals (5 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze); the Pizza Port location in San Clemente (just outside the boundaries of San Diego County) added two more silver medals.

Only two other breweries in the competition won 6 medals: Figueroa Mountain Brewing of Buellton, CA (3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), and Garage Brewing of Temecula, CA (1 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). Both Figueroa and Garage and considerably older and larger than Deft.

Breweries who make their home in San Diego Brewery Ignitor locations did very well. Papa Marces, their Carlsbad neighbor Rouleur, and their North Park cousin Eppig won 13 awards among them (3 gold, 2 silver, 7 bronze and 1 honorable mention).

San Diego’s winners are listed below by category number and category name:

American-Style Wheat Beer

Gold Medal: Eppig Brewing, Meister N. German Wheat Beer

Field Beer

Bronze Medal: Smoking Cannon Brewery, Paxton

Pumpkin Spice Beer

Silver Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, Pumpkin: The Musical

Chocolate or Cocoa Beer

Gold Medal: Belching Beaver Brewery, Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout

Specialty Beer

Gold Medal: Eppig Brewing, Count Maltula Cereal Imperial Milk Stout

Silver Medal: Indian Joe Brewing, Ham for the Holidays

Rye Beer

Gold Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad, Palapa

Silver Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, Ryesilience

Bronze Medal: Burning Beard, Roggen the Lightning

Honey Beer

Gold Medal: Booze Brothers Brewing Co., Honey Bloom

Session Beer

Gold Medal: Burgeon Beer Company, Clever Kiwi

Silver Medal: Pizza Port – San Diego, Guillaume

Session India Pale Ale

Gold Medal: Karl Strauss Brewing Company, Mosaic Session IPA

Bronze Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad, Ponto

Fresh Hop Beer

Silver Medal: Deft Brewing, Patio Hops & Geysers

Historical Beer

Gold Medal: Deft Brewing, DoubleDeft Secret

Silver Medal: South Park Brewing, Skol

American-Belgo-Style Ale

Gold Medal: Rouleur Brewing Company, PUNCHEUR Pale Ale

Silver Medal: Rock Bottom – La Jolla, Epic Joyride WIPA

Brett Beer

Bronze Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, The Funk For Red October

Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer

Gold Medal: 3 Punk Ales, Barley Legal

Silver Medal: AleSmith Brewing Company, Cinnamon Vanilla Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout

Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout

Silver Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad Village, 2018 Strong Ale

Smoke Beer

Gold Medal: South Park Brewing, Bread & Smoke

Honorable Mention: Stone Brewing Co. – Liberty Station, Rogalian

International-Style Pilsner

Bronze Medal: Eppig Brewing, Eppig Special Lager

American-Style Lager or Ice Lager or Malt Lager

Bronze Medal: Thorn Brewing Company, Barrio Lager

American-Style Cream Ale

Bronze Medal: Ballast Point, Ballast Point Lager

Bohemian-Style Pilsner

Silver Medal: Thorn Brewing, Golden Hills Pils

Munich-Style Helles

Gold Medal: 2kids Brewing Company, Five Finger Discount

Bronze Medal: Green Flash Brewing, Baja Bound

Vienna-Style Lager

Gold Medal: Rip Current Brewing Company, Corriente Negra Mexican Lager

German-Style Maerzen

Bronze Medal: Thorn Brewing Company, Marty Zen

Bock

Gold Medal: Rip Current Brewing Company, Breakline Bock

Golden or Blonde Ale

Bronze Medal: Deft Brewing, Bay Park Blonde

German-Style Kolsch

Silver Medal: Mike Hess Brewing, Claritas

English-Style Summer Ale

Gold Medal: Deft Brewing, DeftHopt Golden

Silver Medal: Rock Bottom – La Jolla, San Diego Sunset Blonde

English-Style India Pale Ale

Silver Medal: South Park Brewing, In the Meantime

International-Style Pale Ale

Bronze Medal: Burgeon Beer Company, Canopy Tour

American-Style Strong Pale Ale

Gold Medal: Burgeon Beer Company, Treevana

Bronze Medal: Thorn Brewing Company, Relay IPA

American-Style India Pale Ale

Bronze Medal: Burning Beard, Dankness Visible

Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale

Honorable Mention: Rouleur Brewing Company, DOPEUR Juicy IPA

Double Hoppy Red Ale

Gold Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad, Sharkbite Red

English-Style Mild Ale

Gold Medal: Pizza Port – San Diego, Skidmark

Ordinary or Special Bitter

Gold Medal: South Park Brewing, Robert Smith’s Smooth

Extra Special Bitter

Silver Medal: 2kids Brewing Company, Poppycock ESB

Scottish-Style Ale

Bronze Medal: Eppig Brewing, Granite City Scottish Export

English-Style Brown Ale

Silver Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad Village, shagadellic brown

German-Style Sour Ale

Gold Medal: Mike Hess Brewing, Peach My Other Vice

Bronze Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, Zest Of Friends

German-Style Altbier

Gold Medal: Stone Brewing Co. – Liberty Station, Space Bar Friends

South German-Style Hefewizen

Gold Medal: Pizza Port – San Diego, Flying Hawaiian

Silver Medal: Karl Strauss Brewing Company, Windansea Wheat

German-Style Wheat Ale

Silver Medal: Pizza Port – San Diego, Junk In Da Trunkel Dunkel

Belgian-Style Blonde Ale or Pale Ale

Gold Medal: Pizza Port – Carlsbad Village, Twerp

Classic French and Belgian-Style

Silver Medal: 2kids Brewing Company, Rocket Powered Geese

Specialty Saison

Bronze Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, Is It Bretty Yet?

Belgian and French-Style Ale

Bronze Medal: Chula Vista Brewery, Sin Paredes

Belgian-Style Tripel

Bronze Medal: Burning Beard, Panic at the Nunnery

Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale

Silver Medal: Thorn Brewing, Fornication

Bronze Medal: Rouleur Brewing Company, SOLOIST Golden Strong Ale

Brown Porter

Gold Medal: Deft Brewing, Dawn of the Deft

Export Stout

Silver Medal: Stone Brewing Co. – Liberty Station, Brut(ish) Imperial Stout

American-Style Stout

Gold Medal: Stone Brewing Co. – Liberty Station, Cimmerian Portal

Silver Medal: Smoking Cannon Brewery, Coehorn

Bronze Medal: Papa Marces Cerveceria, Astout Observation

Oatmeal Stout

Silver Medal: Deft Brewing, Day of the Deft

Imperial Stout

Gold Medal: Rip Current Brewing Company, Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout

Old Ale or Strong Ale

Silver Medal: AleSmith Brewing Company, AleSmith Private Stock Ale

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