San Diego takes the lead in craft beer breweries

Not since Prohibition have there been this many craft beer breweries. It’s a small business revolution and I am lucky enough to live next to one, San Diego:

This year’s World Beer Cup lived up to its international name, with winners coming from all corners of the globe — including San Diego County, where breweries took 16 awards.

The annual convention boasted a record turnout (4,500 attendees) and the every-other-year World Beer Cup also witnessed an unprecedented 3,921 entries — 600 more than in 2010.

That may be one reason why San Diego’s breweries saw their total number of medals fall from 2010’s 21.

“We had a good showing,” insisted Marty Mendiola, brewmaster at Rock Bottom La Jolla and the San Diego Brewers Guild’s president. “But the quality of the beer is stepping up around the world.”

Yet local brewers had reasons to rejoice this year. Pizza Port Ocean Beach won three awards; Pizza Port Carlsbad, Lost Abbey, AleSmith and Green Flash all took two apiece; Alpine, Manzanita and Rock Bottom La Jolla one each.

Karl Strauss also captured two awards, including its second consecutive World Beer Cup gold for Red Trolley Ale

via – Local brewers take 16 medals in World Beer Cup

 

It’s exciting to see our tastes go beyond the massively commercial beers (Budweiser, Coors) to a more European-taste where beer making is an honored tradition and the quality is extremely high.

 

//Photo – Francesco Bartaloni, MacKinnon Photography

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