2012 World Cup Award Winners of California

Every two years the best brewers are invited to come together and compete in the worlds most prestigious beer competition known as the World Beer Cup. With 54 countries entering almost a thousand more beers than 2010, this year's competition was bigger and badder than anything that we've seen before, and truly reflected the last two years' craft beer boom. Of the 95 categories judged, California won a medal in 43, and also won an overall award for champion brewery and brewmaster. Congratulations to our medalists, and here's to another two years of cranking out some of the worlds best beers.

California seriously cleaned up at the awards. The following are our champions:

Category 8: Coffee Beer, 56 Entries
Gold: Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Coffee Imperial Porter, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

Category 9: Specialty Beer, 38 Entries

Charlie Papazian

Gold: Hangar 24 Winter Warmer, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery, Redlands, CA
Bronze: Donner Party Porter, FiftyFifty Brewing Co., Truckee, CA

Category 10: Rye Beer, 29 Entries
Gold: Ruthless Rye IPA, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Silver: 3 Flowers IPA, Marin Brewing Co., Larkspur, CA

Category 12: Session Beer, 33 Entries
Silver: Kellerweis, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 13: Other Strong Beer, 35 Entries
Gold: Star Brew, Marin Brewing Co., Larkspur, CA

Category 14: Experimental Beer, 42 Entries
Gold: Petit Obscura, Telegraph Brewing Co., Santa Barbara, CA
Bronze: Where There’s Smoke..., Manzanita Brewing Co., Santee, CA

Category 15: Indigenous Beer, 26 Entries
Gold: Got Beer, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery - Tacoma, Huntington Beach, CA
Silver: Hqt, 21st-Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, CA

Category 17: American-Belgo-Style Ale, 48 Entries
Bronze: Le Freak, Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 18: American-Style Sour Ale, 14 Entries
Bronze: Supplication, Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA

Category 23: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, 42 Entries
Bronze: Melange #1, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA

Category 36: German-Style Märzen, 39 Entries
Silver: Rocktoberfest, Rock Bottom Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

Category 44: American-Style Premium Lager or Specialty Lager, 37 Entries
Silver: Evans Original, Cervecería Mexicana, Corona, CA

Category 45: American-Style Amber Lager, 40 Entries
Bronze: Cali Common, Lucky Hand Beer, Novato, CA

Category 47: Australasian-Style Pale Ale or International-Style Pale Ale, 22 Entries
Gold: 805 IPA, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA

Category 49: German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf-Style Altbier, 29 Entries
Bronze: Real McCoy Amber, Mammoth Brewing Co., Mammoth Lakes, CA

Category 50: German-Style Sour Ale, 11 Entries
Silver: Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA

Category 56: French- & Belgian-Style Saison, 44 Entries
Gold: Carnevale, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category 57: Belgian- and French-Style Ale, 22 Entries
Bronze: Gift of the Magi, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category 60: Belgian-Style Flanders Oud Bruin or Oud Red Ale, 16 Entries
Gold: Oude Tart, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA
Bronze: Oud Jeremiah, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery - Brea, Huntington Beach, CA

Category 61: Belgian-Style Dubbel, 39 Entries
Bronze: Ovila Dubbel, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 64: Belgian-Style Dark Strong Ale, 41 Entries
Silver: Two Tortugas Belgian Quad, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 65: Other Belgian-Style Ale, 41 Entries
Bronze: Rhinoceros, Telegraph Brewing Co., Santa Barbara, CA

Category 67: Classic English-Style Pale Ale, 33 Entries
Gold: Annadel Pale Ale, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category 72: English-Style Mild Ale, 27 Entries
Silver: Alyssa’s Attitude, Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA
Bronze: Nerf Herder, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 73: English-Style Brown Ale, 30 Entries
Gold: Longboard Brown Ale, Rock Bottom La Jolla, La Jolla, CA

Category 74: Brown Porter, 42 Entries
Gold: Double Nut Brown, Mammoth Brewing Co., Mammoth Lakes, CA
Bronze: Chocolate Porter, Bayhawk Ales, Irvine, CA

Category 75: Robust Porter, 68 Entries
Gold: Pier Rat Porter, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 76: Sweet Stout, 25 Entries
Bronze: Blackjack Stout, Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., Oroville, CA

Category 78: Scotch Ale, 51 Entries
Silver: Way Heavy, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 80: Old Ale or Strong Ale, 51 Entries
Silver: AleSmith Decadence 2010 Old Ale, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 81: Barley Wine-Style Ale, 62 Entries
Bronze: AleSmith Old Numbskull, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 82: Irish-Style Red Ale, 31 Entries
Gold: Red Trolley Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 83: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout, 30 Entries
Gold: Blarney Sisters Dry Irish Stout, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category 84: Foreign-Style Stout, 37 Entries
Gold: Starry Night Stout, Island Brewing Co., Carpinteria, CA
Bronze: Voo Doo, Left Coast Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA

Category 85: Golden or Blonde Ale, 46 Entries
Gold: Foam Top, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach, CA
Bronze: Steelhead Extra Pale, Mad River Brewing Co., Blue Lake, CA

Category 86: American-Style Pale Ale, 84 Entries
Gold: Pale 31, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Mission Street Pale, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA

Category 89: Imperial India Pale Ale, 93 Entries
Gold: Poor Man’s IPA, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Palate Wrecker, Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 90: American-Style Amber/Red Ale, 68 Entries
Bronze: Mavericks Amber Ale, Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., Princeton-by-the-Sea, CA

Category 91: Imperial Red Ale, 38 Entries
Silver: Bigfoot, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 92: American-Style Brown Ale, 47 Entries
Bronze: Great American Brown, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 93: American-Style Black Ale, 49 Entries
Gold: Black Racer, Bear Republic Brewing Co., Cloverdale, CA
Silver: Tarantulas 2.0, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

Category 94: American-Style Stout, 34 Entries
Bronze: Achievement Beyond Life’s Experiences American Stout Brit Antrim Benefit Beer, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

World Beer Cup Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
  Mid-size Brewing Company
Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, CA
Matthew Brynildson

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#BBC11

Too much beer and too much song! What am I saying? You can never have too much beer!!!

The cool kids doing shots instead of pints!

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Fred Eckhardt at the BBC 2011

I was overcome with excitement when I found out Fred Eckhardt was a keynote speaker at this years Beer Bloggers Conference yesterday. Mr. Eckhardt is a true founder of a movement and the leader in the battle for flavor. I grew up with his books on my fathers shelf, my favorite being The Essentials of Beer Styles, so as you can imagine I was quite the fan girl. Less of a formal presentation and more of a sit down story time (with beer in hand of course) Fred told us colorful stories of the American craft beer revolution. From adding hops to beer and his thoughts on session versus new high ABV beers Fred spoke of the similarities of his writing roots to us bloggers as well as touching slightly upon print journalism compared to digital journalism. Self proclaimed as “lazy” he is a great inspiration to us all and I feel very lucky to have met such a fantastic living legend.

“The beer in my hand is my favorite beer!”

-Fred Eckhardt

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#BBC10 Official Video!

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Real Women Drink Good Beer

If you read my previous post on beer as the catalyst for human civilization it's easy to see how impossible it is to imagine a time or place in all of humanity's agricultural history when the art, science, and joy of brewing has not been intimately intertwined in the social roll of women no matter what culture you come from. In this social media, twitter-soaked world we find ourselves in, the societal conversation relating to the intersection of woman's discourse and the boom of the brewing arts is more vibrant, wide-spread, and volatile than ever. Indeed, it can persuasively be argued that a thoughtful examination of the paradigms surrounding woman and craft brewing could even serve as a model for discussing the evolution and positive transformation of woman's roles in western society in general . It is for exactly this reason that this topic deserves thorough consideration and analysis.

To begin with, no serious proponent of feminist (or craft beer for that matter) ideologies will contend that the advertising offered up by the macro breweries is useful in any way. It does not take much to convince anyone that these segments are in fact damaging to all parties. These ads invariably show women with an image that is simply unrealistically attainable for most women, holding a sub-standard beer for the sake of acceptance from a perfectly ordinary looking man of dubiously portrayed intelligence. In these spots the woman are drinking not because they enjoy the beer, (I mean, c'mon, it's Bud), but rather to ensure their acceptance into a lifestyle. This lifestyle advertising, while undeniably effective, is damaging to craft brew culture because it has very little to do with the quality of the beer, and then necessarily doubly damaging to women. The fact that the macro breweries resort to this style of objectification and lifestyle promotion in their advertising speaks volumes about the worthiness of their product and their target consumer. In fact, it is exactly this sort of mentality that brought the US automobile industry, once the manufacturing envy of the world, to its knees (I write more about this in my article on Beer Culture).

However, this post is not intended as another bashing of macro breweries' business practices—that stick house analysis is far to simplistic. I'm pointing it out only because it serves as such a prevalent and obvious example of what simply must be avoided when discussing how craft brewing is to be presented to not just the public, but specifically women. To state the obvious, women should be into beer because they like it. So far, nothing too controversial,right? But the problems arise when the women embedded in this movement, begin to define woman's discourse as it relates to the craft brew movement. Don't get me wrong, a plurality of viewpoints is really an excellent indicator of the health and viability of the topic. What personally concerns me, is ensuring that even amidst the barrage of ideas presented by the hundreds of woman involved in beer blogging, that viewpoints that threaten to reinforce unhelpful aspects of traditional paternalistic values do not go unchecked!

During my recent attendance at BBC10, I listened in while a panel of women discussed ways of attracting more women to craft brew culture—a worthy cause for sure. I do believe this topic is important and honestly, any who think that devising a means of enticing women to become a part of this culture should not be separate from efforts to involve the general public, are ignoring gender relations in our world today. Actually, it is only through acknowledging the difference between men and woman that we can begin to constructively frame the issues at hand. For instance, it was suggested that perhaps including more recipes on craft beer web sights would encourage more woman to explore the wonders of craft beer. My problem with this is not with the recipes, but rather the strong implication that a woman's place is in the kitchen, cooking for her husband. A gain, there is nothing wrong with cooking for anyone, the issue is the absurd notion that THIS is why you are looking at a craft beer web page in the first place. The thrust should be, “here is why you will love the beer,” not “here is how to get your husband to like you again.” During the panel's discussing, this theme was repeated again and again. It was always about making craft beer more compatible with traditional female roles, rather than about bring the bliss of craft brewing to an underrepresented segment of the population for it own sake. If you chose to be involved in an opt-out-feminist-movement, where women embrace traditional paternalistic ideals, do it, but don't make the mistake of thinking that those views will make this non-conforming craft beer culture more appealing to female initiates, nor should you risk misrepresenting an entire community of women involved in the craft beer world. If you want to wear a pink, wear pink! But do it because you like pink, not because you want the boys to like you.

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Oskar Blues Brewery and Beer Swapping

The wonderful people at Oskar Blue Brewery opened the doors of their brew pub, The Tasty Weasel, to the herd of weasels (or cats) that is the BBC blogger crowd. Hungry bloggers poured in to find Dale's Pale Ale and Old Chub taps at the back to pour at your leisure and a meal fit for several members of the royal family (The Boudin Balls were the best, and no, for those of you out there that were asking me if I was going to get rocky mountain oysters, I did not). Pulled pork, chicken wings, home-make bleu cheese dressing, gumbo....needless to say I thoroughly hurt myself.

After dinner and a fun game of Foosball with The Beer Wench, we were given a tour of the brewery to see all the wonderful gadgets that they were playing with, including a new kegging machine that they had just purchased from Sierra Nevada! They explained the importance of canning and how they truly avoid oxidization with “co2 knives” to cut the head off the beer and place the caps on and seal them oxygen free. We also got a glimpse of things to come packed away in oak barrels but they insisted that I was hallucinating, they weren't the barrels I was looking for apparently...

We left Oskar Blues with heavy hearts however this quickly changed to euphoria because we had a bottle share to get to back at the conference site. There was so much beer that I had never tasted before, so naturally I had no other choice but to tackle the task of making sure at least a drop hit my pallet. I feel that this part of the night is best explained visually so I have made a montage of the evening as I remember it. Enjoy!

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#bbc10 Morning of the First Day

I took off this morning to go to the Beer Bloggers Conference at about 5am this morning. My flight was ok but I couldn't help thinking the entire time, “What was I doing? Why am I going to this? How am I going to honor the wonderful people that have believed in me at this potentially awesome trip?”

Peering out my little airplane window down at the rockies, I sat there self reflecting and decided that I was going to be a sponge this weekend. I was just going to keep an open mind...

I landed in Denver and to my dismay my checked baggage had been taped up with the word “Inspected” all over it. Thankfully nothing had been abused or worse consumed. I met up with Jeff from HeBrew Brewing Club at the airport and we drove through probably the most beautiful plains that I have ever seen straight to a wall of mountains and snow.

Boulder is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, I honestly don't want to leave!

The first day of the conference covered many important technical things including ways of stylizing your blog brought to us by Draft Magazine, and Native Search information to make your blog more discoverable, and beer pairings!

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