Five breweries, representing San Diego County from Oceanside to Imperial Beach, won gold medals at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
The local gold medalists are:
- San Marcos’ Craft Coast Beer & Tacos for its Chillzner in the “International-Style Pilsner” category
- Solana Beach’s Culture Brewing Co. for its 3 Citrus Gose in the “Contemporary Gose” category
- Oceanside’s Green Cheek Beer Co. for its Jeff’s Baltic Porter in the “Strong Porter” category
- Imperial Beach’s Pizza Port for its Indie Roo in the “Imperial Stout” category
- Mission Valley’s Puesto Cerveceria for its Puesto Negra in the “International Dark Lager” category.
Gold medals are awarded for a “world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance,” according to the festival.
This marks the second year in a row that five different San Diego breweries took home gold. Overall, San Diego breweries captured 12 medals, including four silver and three bronze.
“What I particularly love is how the five local gold medal winners from this year were all different than the five from 2023. The quality of craft beer is certainly spread throughout the county,” said San Diego Brewers Guild Executive Director Erik Fowler.
Pizza Port and Athletic Brewing Co. are the only San Diego brewers to win multiple medals.
Pizza Port, in addition to its two golds (one was for its San Clemente location), also took home a bronze for its Ocean Beach brewery. Athletic Brewing Co. won a pair of silvers.
The other local medalists:
Silver – Athletic Brewing Co., Free Wave Hazy IPA (Pale Non-Alcohol Beer) and Tropical Sour (Specialty Non-Alcohol Beer); Pure Project, Vista, Mount Eden (Specialty Saison); Rouleur Brewing Company, Carlsbad, Domestique Blonde Ale (Belgian-Style Ale or French Style Ale category)
Bronze – Kilowatt Brewing, Clairemont Mesa, Peanut Butter & Jelly Tiempo (Dessert Stout or Pastry Stout); Pizza Port, Ocean Beach, Guillaume (Session Beer or Belgian-Style Table Beer); Stone Brewing, Liberty Station, Stone Lifeblurred (Other Strong Beer)
Medals at the nation’s largest professional brewing competition, commonly referred to as “the Oscars” of the craft beer industry, were handed out Saturday.
The competition, which is presented by the Brewers Association, included more than 9,000 entries within 102 different categories. An average of 85 beers were entered in each category. Medals were awarded by 285 certified judges and experienced members of the brewing industry.