It looks like Southern California is the place to drink for craft beer lovers because many local breweries won gold medals at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival.
With a total of 8,836 beers entered by breweries across the country, three local breweries won several top prizes at the competition, which took place in Denver earlier this month..
“I didn’t think it was real. I was in shock for a second,” said James Sullivan, marketing director for Highland Park Brewery near Chinatown, which won the Brewery Group Brewery and Brewer of the Year award.
The competition is organized by The Brewers Association, a trade association that represents more than 5,000 U.S. breweries. The Association’s Great American Beer Festival is one of the most prestigious beer competitions in the world with brewers comparing it to the Grammy or Oscars of the beer world.
Besides the three top winners, several other area breweries also won gold medals in various categories.
“I think the coolest part is to see so many of our friends winning as well because there’s a lot of good beer out there,” Sullivan said.
Hitting Gold
Highland Park Brewery also tied for the most medals won at the competition with a total of four gold medals. It matched Apogee Brewing Company from Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo County, which earned one gold and three bronze medals.
“I was watching from home and when that first gold medal got announced I was super excited, and then later on they just kept coming and it was super awesome and super exciting,” Sullivan said.
Long Beach brewers came in on top as well with two breweries winning the two most popular categories.
Ambitious Ales brought home the gold in the Juicy/Hazy IPA category for its Professional Human Being beer. With the most entries at 349 beers, The Hazy IPA was the most popular category at the festival. The second most popular, with 292 entries, was the West Coast IPA category, which was won by Trademark Brewing with its Codebreaker beer….
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