The World Beer Cup competition held in Nashville, Tenn., saw 16 Bay Area breweries emerge victorious during the awards ceremony. (Brewers Association)
Sixteen Bay Area breweries prevailed at the recent World Beer Cup competition held in Nashville, Tenn., bringing home gold medals to a lineup that includes Danville Brewing, Alameda’s Faction Brewing and Emeryville’s Wondrous Brewing.
Run by the Brewers Association, the same group that hosts the annual Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup welcomes breweries around the world. Although entries were down a bit this year as many parts of the world are still recovering from the pandemic, 10,213 entries were selected by 272 judges (I had the privilege of joining them again) from around the world.
American-style IPAs accounted for the most popular category, closely followed by juicy or hazy IPA, and the German-style Pilsner category rounded out the top three, suggesting that craft pilsners are here to stay.
The list of gold medal winners included Wondrous Brewing, which opened in 2021, for its Janet’s Brown Ale, a tribute to longtime local homebrewing legend Mike “Tasty” McDole. Also winning gold: Tracy’s Morgan Territory for its Hoptomic Imperial IPA; Danville Brewing’s Lucky Four Leaf, a classic Irish-style stout; and San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co. for Yuzu KSA, a fruit beer.
Faction Brewing, the only Bay Area brewery to bring home two medals this year, took home a gold for its Pale 586 and a silver for Black Hoodie in the German-style schwarzbier category. Other silver medals went to Concord’s Epidemic Ales for its Limelight fruit ale, San Jose’s Clandestine Brewing for its Philly Special rye ale, Richmond’s Armistice Brewing for Fog Harvest in the juicy/hazy strong pale ale category and Monterey’s Alvarado Street Brewery for its Silver Double Cone imperial IPA.
Bay Area bronze medal winners include San Leandro’s 21st Amendment for El Sully, San Francisco’s Bartlett Brewing for Painted Devil, Santa Rosa’s HenHouse Brewing for Best Life, San Leandro’s Drake’s Brewing for Drake’s Irish Red Ale and Berkeley’s Fieldwork
for Night Maker.
Find the full list and further details at www.worldbeercup.org.
