2019 San Diego International Beer Competition… by the numbers

The 2019 San Diego International Beer Festival takes place this weekend, June 14-16, during the Del Mar Fair. Part of the festival is the San Diego International Beer Competition. This is a unique professional competition in that festival buys the winning beers and serves them at the festival.

While the Best of Show beers have not been announced yet, the 2019 Champion Brewery is Angel City Brewery of Los Angeles with five medals and the 2019 Champion Meadery|Cidery is Twisted Horn Mead and Cider with four medals. Though organizers have not released the total entry numbers yet, there 179 medals were awarded across 60 categories to 119 breweries. Similar to the California Beer Competition, one category (American Wheat Ale) did not award a Bronze medal.

The 2019 San Diego International Beer Festival Style Guideline includes a variety of mead (traditional, fruit, spiced and specialty) and cider/perry (standard, New England and fruit, and specialty). Each of the categories has subcategories. This is different than the California competition which is limited to beer only (except for the fruited beer, honey beer, and alternative grain/sugar beer). These style guidelines differ slightly from the Brewers Association 2019 Beer Style Guidelines and the Beer Judge Certification Program 2015 Style Guidelines.

While the competition is labeled as international, only two non-US brewers won awards. Hopped Cider from Hand and Apple Hard Cider Company of South Korea won Gold for Specialty Cider and Perry while Delirium Tremens from Brouwerij Huyghe of Belgium won Gold for Belgian-Style Strong Ale.

Given its location, California dominated the awards. The Oregon wins are split between three producers: 10 Barrel East (3 medals), 10 Barrel West (3 medals), and 2 Towns Ciderhouse (2 medals). 10 Barrel of San Diego also won a medal, so the AB InBev-owned brewer won seven medals across three locations, which would have awarded them Champion Brewer over the Boston Beer Co.-owned Angel City Brewery if registered differently. Other examples of accurate brewery registering include the four locations of Pizza Port winning six medals, four locations of Flix Brewhouse also winning six medals, and, once again, Beachwood BBQ & Brewery and Beachwood Brewery together winning six medals, similar to the situation at the California Beer Competition.

Being a San Diego competition the winningest counties are not surprising. San Diego and its neighboring counties are on top. Of the 176 total medals, 41 San Diego County brewers brought home 60 medals (34% of the total), 20 Los Angeles County brewers 33 medals (19% of the total), and 9 Orange County brewers 16 medals (9% of the total). 

As mentioned earlier, Angel City Brewery (LA County) won five medals (one gold and four silver) to be named Champion Brewer. However, Societe Brewing Company (SD County) and Beachwood Brewing (Orange County) also one five medals each: two gold, one silver, and two bronze. While silver weighs more than bronze in competitions, I am curious to see the number of entries for the different categories to see how “competitive” each actually was. One interesting category is the Brett and Other Sour Beer where Angel City took the gold with Funky Seoul Medina (great name!) and Societe took the silver and bronze with The Highwayman and The Swindler, respectively. Blind beer judging is no easy feat.

I look forward to more information from the organizers. Who will win the Best of Show? How many entries were there and how many participants? Was there a greater international presence that did not materialize on the winners’ podium? Which beers will get tapped out first at the festival? We shall see.

Congratulations to all the winners! Cheers to good beer.