Seven San Diego Breweries win Gold at 2025 Brewers Cup of California

SAN DIEGO, CA  – Seven San Diego County craft breweries won Gold Medals on Friday at the 2025 Brewers Cup of California, the fifth annual statewide brewing competition put on by The Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, in partnership with San Diego Brewers Guild and other brewers guilds.   

Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon), Fall Brewing Company (Miramar), Hodad’s Brewing Company (Serra Mesa), Pizza Port Brewing Company (Carlsbad), Pure Project (Vista brewery), Taproom Beer Co. (North Park), and Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. (San Marcos) each won one Gold Medal.

Burning Beard won for “In Praise of Bacchus” in the Sour/Brett/Other Yeast category, Fall Brewing won for “Sweet Resistance” in the New Zealand-Style IPA category, Hodad’s won for “Throwback” in the American-Style Brown Ale, and Pizza Port won for “Irish Hello” in the Irish-Style Red Ale category, Pure Project won for its “Double Dust” in the Imperial Hazy IPA category, TapRoom won for “True Dark” in the Specialty Stout category, and Tarantula Hill won for its “Feel the Flow” in the International-style Pilsener category.

San Diego craft breweries took home 18 medals overall, including six silver and five Bronze. There were two Honorable Mention accolades given out as well. The other local winners:

Silver

Brewery                                                  Beer                                                      Category

BLACK PLAGUE Brewing (Oceanside)                        Medusa                                                Specialty Stout

Kairoa Brewing Company (University Heights)      Boots and Stubbies                          Schwarzbier

Protector Brewery (Miramar)                                      Rancho West                                      Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage    

TapRoom (North Park)                                                   The Chocolate Klub                         Chocolate Beer

Tarantula Hill                                         Liquid Candy                                      Hazy Pale Ale

Tarantula Hill                                         Cali Day                                International Pale Ale

Bronze

Brewery                                                  Beer                                                      Category

Ketch Brewing (Kearny Mesa)                                     Dr. Billheimers Magic Pilsner       Kellerbier

Mike Hess Brewing (North Park)                                 Lone Pine IPA                     Experimental IPA

Mike Hess Brewing (North Park)                                 EZ Drankin                           Honey Beer

Pizza Port Brewing (Carlsbad)                                     Pine Park Porter                                Porter

TapRoom (North Park)                                                   North Park Haze                                Hazy IPA

Honorable Mention

Brewery                                                  Beer                                                      Category

Puesto Cerveceria (Mission Valley)                           Puesto IPA                                          American-Style Pale Ale

San Diego Brewing Company (Grantville)               San Diego Hazy IPA                          Hazy IPA

TapRoom and Tarantula Hill led all San Diego breweries with three medals apiece. Pizza Port’s San Clemente brewery won a Bronze Medal for “Dusk Til Dawn” in the Coffee-Flavored Beer category, giving the San Diego-based company a competition total of three.

“From Carlsbad to El Cajon, craft breweries across San Diego County showed well once again in our state capital,” said Brewers Guild Executive Director Erik Fowler. “Even with some overall industry struggles the last few years, the quality of San Diego craft beer has never wavered. I am proud of our local breweries that continue to add to their trophy cases.”

This year’s Brewers Cup of California received 1,360 entries from 203 independent craft breweries. Winning beers were determined by a panel of expert judges, who determined the winning beers in 64 categories. A list of all winners can be found at https://brewerscupofca.com/2025-winners.

In 2024, there were six local Gold Medal winners: BLACK PLAGUE, Burgeon Beer Company, Kilowatt Brewing, Pizza Port, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Julian Beer Company.

San Diego is known as The Capital of Craft™, a moniker that was trademarked in 2015. San Diego Brewers Guild is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization of allied brewery members, tradespeople, and other providers supporting the production and distribution of craft beer.

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