One Southern California brewery took home a top award and dozens more from Ventura to San Diego won gold, silver or bronze medals at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival.
It took place Sept. 21-23 in Denver with more than 2,033 breweries participating, according to a news release. Brews were judged in 99 beer categories across 175 beer styles and 250 judges evaluating 9,298 beers. Gold, silver and bronze medals went to 263 breweries.
Liquid Gravity Brewing Co. of San Luis Obispo won the Brewery of the Year award in the 2,001-5,000 barrels category.
And Southern California breweries swept one category, International-Style Pale Ale.
Here are the Southern California winners by category.
American Fruit Beer
- Gold: Street Cart from Golden Road Brewing – Los Angeles.
Fruit Wheat Beer
- Gold: Guava Cart from Golden Road Brewing — Huntington Harbour, Huntington Beach.
- Bronze: Tuava Guava from Laguna Beach Beer Co., Rancho Santa Margarita.
Chocolate Beer
- Bronze: Because You’re Mine from The Bruery, Placentia.
Coffee Stout or Porter
- Silver: Super Tonic from Docent Brewing, San Juan Capistrano.
Dessert Stout or Pastry Stout
- Silver: Mega Devil’s Teeth: Double Dutch S’mores Edition from Modern Times Beer, San Diego.
- Bronze: Chaos Grid: The Final Final Course from Modern Times Beer, San Diego.
Rye Beers
- Bronze: Rye Dawn from Breakwater Brewing Co., Oceanside.
Session Beer or Belgian-Style Table Beer
- Silver: Guillaume from Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego.
Strong Porter
- Gold: Barometer Drop from Ballast Point Brewing Co. — Little Italy, San Diego.
- Silver: Herd of Turtles from Bagby Beer Co., Oceanside.
Other Strong Beer
- Bronze: Random Acts of Greatness from HopSaint Brewing Co., Torrance.
Experimental India Pale Ale
- Gold: Tropical Terps IPA from Belching Beaver Brewery — Oceanside Brewhouse, Oceanside.
Experimental Beer
- Silver: Apple Pomace Puncheon from Angel City Brewery, Los Angeles.
Historical Beer
- Gold: IZOLA Kvass from East Village Brewing Co., San Diego.
Fruited American Sour Ale
- Gold: Huckleberry pHin Sour from Lost Winds Brewing Co., San Clemente.
- Bronze: Fistful of Gummies from Second Chance Beer Co., San Diego.
Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer
- Bronze: Spring Reverb from HiDef Brewing Co., Los Angeles.
Kellerbier or Zwickelbier
- Bronze: Light Hike from Topa Topa Brewing Co., Ventura.
American-Style Lager
- Gold: Sonrisa from Common Space Brewery, Hawthorne.
- Bronze: Saca La Bolsita from Villains Brewing Co., Anaheim.
International-Style Pilsener
- Bronze: Tora! from Fall Brewing Co., San Diego.
India Pale Lager or Cold India Pale Ale
- Gold: Sound Sail from MadeWest Brewing Co., Ventura.
German-Style Maerzen
- Bronze: Oktoberfest from Golden Road Brewing – Los Angeles.
German Dark Lager
- Gold: Goodnight Munich from Liquid Gravity Brewing Co., San Luis Obispo.
Bock
- Silver: Breakline Bock from Rip Current Brewing, San Marcos.
International-Style Pale Ale
- Gold: Hand of Josh from Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown, Los Angeles.
- Silver: Carlsbad Crush from Burgeon Beer Co., Carlsbad.
- Bronze: Extra Pale Ale from Firestone Walker Brewing Co. – The Propagator, Marina del Rey.
American-Style Pale Ale
- Silver: Chaos Erupts from Unsung Brewing, Tustin
- Bronze: Double Nickels from Docent Brewing, San Juan Capistrano.
American-Style Strong Pale Ale
- Bronze: Liquid Gravity IPA from Liquid Gravity Brewing Co., San Luis Obispo.
Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale
- Gold: PB Haze from TapRoom Beer Co., San Diego.
Imperial India Pale Ale
- Gold: Triple IPA from Claremont Craft Ales, Claremont.
- Silver: Drama King from Liquid Gravity Brewing Co., San Luis Obispo.
Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale
- Gold: DDH Pillow from Highland Park Brewery, Los Angeles.
- Silver: X-Raying Flowers from North Park Beer Co., San Diego.
Scottish-Style Ale
- Bronze: Glenlongbeach from Beachwood Brewing — Huntington Beach.
English-Style Brown Ale
- Bronze: Nut Brown from AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego.
American-Style Brown Ale
- Bronze: Trabuco from Docent Brewing, San Juan Capistrano.
American Black Ale or American Stout
- Silver: Hoppa Emeritus from Beachwood Brewing — Long Beach
- Bronze: Midnight Oil from Tustin Brewing Co., Tustin.
Belgian-Style Ale or French-Style Ale
- Silver: DOMESTIQUE Blonde Ale from Rouleur Brewing Co., Carlsbad.
Belgian-Style Sour Ale
- Bronze: Trois Années Cuvée from Angel City Brewery, Los Angeles.
Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale
- Gold: Quadrupel Donker from Evans Brewing Co., Corona.
Robust Porter
- Bronze: Tabula Rasa from Second Chance Beer Co., San Diego.
Oatmeal Stout
- Silver: Wall of Sound from Stereo Brewing Co., Placentia.
Imperial Stout
- Silver: Big Deluxe from Ritual Brewing Co., Redlands.
