San Diego County breweries captured 18 medals, including five golds, last month at the Great American Beer Festival, Denver’s annual craft beer celebration.
“Our breweries showed incredibly well once again in the Mile High City,” Erik Fowler, executive director of the San Diego Brewers Guild, said in a prepared statement. “It seems like every year we justify our moniker as The Capital of Craft, and I couldn’t be happier for the medal winners and the entire San Diego craft beer scene.”
While San Diego County is renowned for its India Pale Ales, IPAs only ed for one of the local gold medals: Tropical Terps IPA from the Oceanside brewhouse of Belching Beaver, winning in the Experimental IPA category.
The other gold medals demonstrated the wide-ranging expertise of the county’s brewers. Winners included a strong porter, Ballast Point Little Italy’s Barometer Drop; an imperial stout, BNS Brewing and Distilling’s Gatling Gun; an historical beer style, IZOLA Kvass from East Village Brewing; and a “juicy or hazy strong pale ale,” PB Haze from TapRoom Beer.
Modern Times won two medals, a silver for Mega Devil’s Teeth: Double Dutch S’mores Edition, in the dessert or pastry stout category, and a bronze for Chaos Grid: The Final Final Course in the same category.
Second Chance Beer also scored twice, taking bronze medals for Fistful of Gummies, a fruited sour, and Tabula Rasa, a robust porter.
Others honored with silver medals:
Bagby Beer for Herd of Turtles, a Baltic porter; Burgeon Beer, Carlsbad Crush, an international-style pale ale; North Park Beer, X-Raying Flowers, juicy or hazy imperial IPA; Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Guillaume, a session or Belgian-style table beer; Rouleur Brewing, Domestique Blonde Ale, a Belgian-style or French-style pale ale; and Rip Current, Breakline Bock, a — this should be obvious — bock.
Others who captured bronze medals:
AleSmith Brewing for its Nut Brown Ale, an English-style brown ale; Breakwater Brewing, Rye Dawn, a rye beer; and Fall Brewing, Tora, in the international-style Pilsner category.
Annually hosted by the Colorado-based Brewers Association, the GABF is the nation’s largest and most prestigious beer competition. This year, the 41st edition, drew about 9,300 entries from more than 2,000 breweries.
The Next Round
Saturday: For its 10th anniversary, Ballast Point Little Italy will tap new beers from an All-Star lineup of its former brewers: Colby Chandler, Julia Cain, Nathan Stephens, Aaron Justus and Chris Hotz. From 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday, the party will also include rare beers from BP’s cellar. 2215 India St., San Diego. ballastpoint.com/location/littleitaly
Saturday and Sunday: These are the final two days of O’Brien’s Pub’s Wet Hop Beer Festival, which has been held annually since 2003. Taps will flow with more than 20 beers brewed with freshly harvested hops. 4646 Convoy St., San Diego. obrienspub.net
Wednesday: Stone co-founder Steve Wagner hosts a “Bayou Beer & Cigar Dinner,” 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. For $125, guests will receive four New Orleans-inspired dishes; beers paired to each course; three cigars; and a souvenir glass. Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido. stonebrewing.com/visit/bistros/escondido
Quick Sips: Long Island Vacation Edition
Beer: Bine Divine
From: Garvies Point Craft Brewery, Glen Cove, NY
ABV (Alcohol By Volume): 8.5 percent
Style: West Coast Style Double IPA
Drink or dump: Drink. For most of the eight years I’ve been making pilgimages to New York, Long Island breweries were weak cousins to the metropolis’ big bruisers — Other Half, Grimm’s, Brooklyn and others.
That’s changing. Case in point: Bine Divine. Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra and Columbus hops deliver a jolt of citrus bitterness and piney sap earthiness, which is balanced by the sweetness of the added alcohol.
Beer: Pencil Pilsner
From: Jones Beach Brewing Co., Farmingdale, N.Y.
ABV: 5.5 percent
Style: Pilsner
Drink or dump: Drink. This is an easy drinker with notes of faintly toasted bread topped with prickly herbal hops. A light body and middling carbonation add to the impression that this is a simple beer. That’s an illusion. Pilsners require great care and Jones Beach proves itself up to the task.
Beer: Afterlife
From: Ghost Brewing, Bay Shore, N.Y.
ABV: 5.8 percent
Style: Kentucky Common
Drink or dump: Dump. Ghost’s attempt to revive this obscure lager, a byproduct of Kentucky’s bourbon culture, deserves credit but no applause. Afterlife drinks like a mug full of liquefied chocolate-covered cherries. Yet another sweetener, corn, was added to the malt bill — that’s subtraction by addition.
Rowe is a freelance writer.
