Las Vegas. The city of brighter-than-bright lights, bigger-than-big hotels, encouraging higher-than-high hopes. This last category also describes the 2024 World Beer Cup competition, convened there last week by the Brewers Association. The Craft Brewers Conference and Expo – three days of workshops, presentations, meetings and brewers shopping for supplies and equipment – culminated in the WBC Awards Ceremony.
Breweries in our immediate Bay Area garnered seven elusive medals from 110 categories entered by 2,060 breweries from 50 countries.
Faction Brewing in Alameda, helmed by legendary local brewer Rodger Davis, won Gold for the second year in a row for its Pale 586 in the International Pale Ale category. Co-founder Claudia Pamparana shared the victory with her triumphant husband.
21st Amendment Brewmaster Shaun O’Sullivan continued his mastery of the Cream Ale category, winning Gold for Amendment Lager. Sitting behind us at the awards ceremony, O’Sullivan was hopeful when the category came up. Bronze…no. Silver…no. The announcement of the Gold brought him leaping from his seat, laughing and smiling all the way to the stage.
Also bringing home Gold was Old Caz Beer of Rohnert Park. Those who have visited this small brewery know it consistently produces nice beer in a facility artfully assembled from used and scavenged parts. Chimosa was judged best in the world in the American-Style Amber lager category.
Bernal Heights-based BareBottle Brewing once again collected a medal for one of the SF brewery’s continuing line of hazies. This year it was a Silver for Small Wonder Dust in the Juicy Or Hazy Pale Ale category. Head brewer Kelsey Holstein, members of the brew crew and owner Lester Koja piled onto the stage to accept the honor.
The most under-the radar highly-decorated brewery in San Francisco, Bartlett Hall, continued its impressive run of major competition medals with a Bronze for its entry in the Belgian-Style Strong Blond Ale category, Painted Devil. This was the second year in a row that brewer Nick Mamere won at the World Beer Cup with this beer. Impressively, he also garnered wins in the past two Great American Beer Festival competitions with two other beers.
Two more East Bay breweries joined in the medal harvest. Oakland’s Ghost Town advanced its reputation for mastery of hoppy ales by winning Bronze in the Imperial IPA category for the oft-awarded Nose Goblin.
Fieldwork Brewing, known for its wide diversity of ales and lagers along with its multiple taproom locations, won Bronze for Adrianne in the Belgian-Style Tripel category.
Beyond the Bay Area
Medals were sprinkled around Northern California, led by perennial competition-winner Alvarado Street Brewery in Salinas and its Monterey brewpub raking in three medals. Howzit Punch won Silver in the American-Style Sour Ale category, Single Cone provided a Bronze in the highly competitive American-Style IPA category (with a total of 213 entries) and the iconic Mai Tai P.A. came up Bronze in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale Category.
Shred Beer Company‘s Zack Frasher and Amy Heller took to stage to receive the Gold for the Rocklin brewery’s Session IPA, Micro Blaster.
And up over Donner Pass in the town of Truckee, FiftyFifty Brewing won a Bronze medal for Totality in the British-Style Imperial Stout category. Totality has long served as the base beer for its barrel-aged Eclipse series. (For the dedicated lover of transit and beer, both Rocklin and Truckee are served by Amtrak on the historic route of the transcontinental railroad. You could pick up the train near the Richmond BART Station. Allow lots of time for that excursion.)
Other California Connections
With an international list of winners, some of the winning beers can only be imagined in California. The upcoming Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival will feature 15 winners pouring. Along with Alvarado Street, Faction and Ghost Town, mentioned above, plus a winning Sierra Nevada entry out of their North Carolina facility, WBC24 winners on the festival list include Breakside, Garage Project, Green Cheek, Highland Park, North Park, pFriem, Pinthouse, Three Floyds, Tiny House, Topa Topa, Von Ebert, and Wild Fields.
For those attending the upcoming sold-out event, while these specific winning beers may not be on the menu, you may be able to meet the brewers that make it happen.
Explore Beer By BART: Use our acclaimed destination list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places and their related transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.
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