Coronado Brewing Awarded Champion Mid-Size Brewery/Champion Brewmaster at World Beer Cup 2014

As the company gains more social media fans and its restaurant and tasting room are more packed than ever, Coronado Brewing also now has validation from the brewing governing body of 219 judges from all over the world.  The Southern California brewer also walked away with a Gold medal for their Islander IPA and a Silver for Old Scallywag. 

Presented with thousands of choices in the beer aisle and on beer taps, what this means to the average craft beer drinker is that any beer they choose from Coronado Brewing is brewed by the best in its class.  In fact, this year’s event was particularly competitive; the proportion of breweries winning one or more awards was only 18 percent, compared to 27 percent in 2012. There was a 75.6 percent increase in breweries competing this year versus 2012, which had 799 breweries that entered beers in the competition. A total of 253 breweries took home awards in 2014, a 16.6 percent increase over 2012.

"It is a huge honor to win one medal at World Beer Cup, so winning two and Champion Mid-size brewery is epic!” Said company president and Coronado native Rick Chapman. “It is a privilege to be recognized by the Brewers Association and to be in the company of previous multiple time winner Firestone Walker.” 

Chapman’s brother Ron, company co-founder and CEO added; “I am very proud of our team of brewers.  Winning two medals and Champion Mid-size Brewery and Brewmaster is well deserved for Shawn Dewitt, our director of brewery operations as well as Ryan Brooks, our head brewer.”

A mid-size brewery is classified as one that brews 15,000 to 6mm barrels per year, and Coronado Brewing is targeting to brew around 30,000 in its two facilities in 2014.  Winners for the Champion Brewery Awards are determined based on the results of the competitive beer judging held at the World Beer Cup. Breweries are awarded points based on medals won, and these points are tabulated to arrive at the results, with criteria including most points, most gold medals, and more.

The panel of 219 judges from 31 countries worked in teams to conduct blind tasting evaluations of the beers and determine the awards. “Brewers from around the globe participate in the World Beer Cup to win recognition for their creativity and brewing skills,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association. “For a brewer, a World Beer Cup gold award allows them to say that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world.”

Drawing the highest number of entries to date, the 2014 edition of the World Beer Cup saw 4,754 beers from 1,403 breweries representing 58 countries—a 21 percent increase in the number of entries from the 2012 World Beer Cup, which had 3,921 entries. 

Brewers from five continents earned awards from an elite international panel of judges at this tenth biennial competition, with brewers from 22 countries—ranging from Australia and Brazil to Taiwan and the United Kingdom—honored. Judges awarded 281 out of 282 total possible awards, reflecting the chance for one gold, one silver and one bronze award in each of 94 beer style categories.

Shawn DeWitt, co founder and director of brewery operations at Coronado Brewing had this to sum up; "Winning mid-size brewery of the year is validation for seventeen years of hard work and is great for all San Diego breweries."​
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