A Deft Performance by San Diego Breweries at the 2019 LA International Beer Competition

1,500 beers were entered into the 2019 LA International Beer Competition. 250 breweries from Mexico, Canada and 32 US states competed.

Twenty-six San Diego breweries won 71 (25%) of the 286 awards. A San Diego brewery won at least one award in 53 of the 99 beer categories in the competition. SD breweries won 26 of the 96 gold medals given for beer (27%). Breweries from Mexico, Canada and 32 US states competed.

Deft Brewing had an amazing result, winning six medals: 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. Papa Marce’s won 2 silver and 4 bronze. The only other breweries to win six medals were Figueroa Brewing of Buellton, CA (3, 2, 1) and Garage Brewing of Temecula, CA (1, 3, 2).

Hosted by the LA County Fair, this annual competition is one of the largest in southern California. The similarly-sized San Diego International Beer Competition was judged in mid-April. Look for an announcement of results soon, by May 1. The SD International Beer Festival, to be held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, June 14-16, 2019, is a fun one to attend: Here’s my write-up on the 2018 SDIBF.

You can see the full results at labeercomp.com.

Here’s my column on San Diego’s results at the 2019 LAIBC from Coast News. I was happy that ABC News found that information useful when they published this, though it is disappointing that they didn’t bother to credit Coast News. Here’s more on the 2019 LAIBC from West Coaster, too.

You’ll notice that some of the numbers in the post you are reading are different from those in my original column: LAIBC has edited the results since I first wrote about it. Data here is current as of the date of publication. Especially disappointing for Stone is that one of their silver medals was changed to an Honorable Mention (because of a “clerical error” according to the LAIBC PR contact).