Many beer festivals preach to the choir, but one that attracts suds novices, macro drinkers and full-fledged beer geeks alike is the San Diego International Beer Festival. The Festival took place over four sessions June 24 to 26. Held in the Chevrolet Del Mar Arena during the San Diego County Fair, the event is now in its fifth year. This year, the Festival attracted big crowds comprised of just about every demographic imaginable (much to the lament of Interstate 5 commuters).
The 2011 festival featured a special “Brewer’s Lounge” element during Saturday’s afternoon session where eventgoers had the opportunity to bump elbows with brewers from some of the 150-plus brewing companies that showed up to the festival. Even if imbibers didn’t have the chance to meet industry artisans, they had the chance to get familiar with their wares. Over 350 beers were available and, in Great American Beer Festival style, there was no limit to the amount of one ounce sampling a session ticket entitled attendees to.
In addition to unlimited tastes of hundreds of beers, present were brewers such as AleSmith’s Peter Zien and non-brewer beer industry entrepreneurs like Misty Birchall from PubCakes. Vendors treated crowds to free seminars on a number of topics from beer tasting to their product lines.
In the end, it was all about the beer. Specifically, who had the best beer. In the Festival’s official competition, a number of local breweries medaled. The following is a full list of those that came in within the top three spots in individual categories:
Unique Ingredient Beer: Stone/Dogfish Head/Victory Saison du BUFF (1st Place), Ballast Point Victory at Sea (3rd Place)
Specialty Beer: The Lost Abbey Veritas 008 (1st Place)
Rye Beer: Alpine Nelson IPA (2nd Place)
European Lager: Pizza Port Carlsbad Murphy’s Lawger (2nd Place)
Golden or Blonde Beer: TailGate Beer Blacktop Blonde (1st Place)
English Style Pale Ale: Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale (3rd Place)
American Style India Pale Ale: Pizza Port Carlsbad Welcome Back Wipeout (2nd Place), Alpine Duet (3rd Place)
Imperial India Pale Ale: Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA (1st Place)
American Style Amber/Red Ale: Green Flash Hop Head Red (1st Place), Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale (3rd Place)
Imperial Red Ale: Port Brewing Shark Attack (1st Place)
Scottish Style Ale: Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing McGarvey’s Scottish Ale (3rd Place)
Irish Style Red Ale: Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale (1st Place)
English Style Brown Ale: Pizza Port Ocean Beach Skidmark Brown Ale (1st Place), Rock Bottom San Diego Brown Ale (2nd Place), Pizza Port Carlsbad Good Grief Brown (3rd Place)
American Style Brown Ale: Port Brewing Hot Rocks Lager (2nd Place)
German Style Ale: Mission Blonde (2nd Place)
German Style Weiss: Pizza Port Solana Beach Hot Spots Hefeweizen (2nd Place)
French & Belgian Style Ale: Green Flash Summer Saison (2nd Place)
Sour Ale: The Lost Abbey Red Poppy (1st Place), The Lost Abbey Amazing Grace (3rd Place)
Belgian Style Pale Strong Ale: The Lost Abbey Inferno Ale (3rd Place)
Porter: Rock Bottom La Jolla Moonlight Porter (2nd Place)
Bold Stout: Pizza Port Ocean Beach A.B.L.E. American Stout (1st Place)
British Style Strong Ale: AleSmith Decadence 2010 English Old Ale (1st Place)
Barley Wine: AleSmith Old Numbskull (2nd Place)