Seven San Diego County craft breweries recently won gold medals at the 2025 Brewers Cup of California, the fifth annual statewide brewing competition put on by The Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, in partnership with San Diego Brewers Guild and other brewers guilds.

Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon), Fall Brewing Co. (Miramar), Hodad’s Brewing Co. (Serra Mesa), Pizza Port Brewing Co. (Carlsbad), Pure Project (Vista brewery), Taproom Beer Co. (North Park),  and Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. (San Marcos) each won one gold medal. This beat last year’s record of six San Diego breweries winning gold.

Burning Beard won for “In Praise of Bacchus” in the Sour/Brett/Other Yeast category, Fall Brewing won for “Sweet Resistance” in the New Zealand-Style IPA category, Hodad’s won for “Throwback” in the American-Style Brown Ale, and Pizza Port won for “Irish Hello” in the Irish-Style Red Ale category, Pure Project won for its “Double Dust” in the Imperial Hazy IPA category, and TapRoom won for “True Dark” in the Specialty Stout category, and Tarantula Hill won for its “Feel the Flow” in the International-style Pilsener category..

San Diego craft breweries took home 16 medals overall, including four silver and five bronze. There were two honorable mention accolades given out as well.

TapRoom led all San Diego breweries with three medals overall. Pizza Port’s San Clemente brewery won a bronze for “Dusk Til Dawn” in the Coffee-Flavored Beer category, giving the San Diego-based company a competition total of three.

“From Carlsbad to El Cajon, craft breweries across San Diego County showed well once again in our state capital,” said Brewers Guild executive director Erik Fowler. “Even with some overall industry struggles the last few years, the quality of San Diego craft beer has never wavered. I am proud of our local breweries that continue to add to their trophy cases.”

This year’s Brewers Cup of California received 1,360 entries from 203 independent craft breweries. Winning beers were determined by a panel of expert judges, who determined the winning beers in 64 categories. A list of all winners can be found at brewerscupofca.com/2025-winners.

In 2024, the local gold medal winners were Black Plague, Burgeon Beer Co., Kilowatt Brewing, Pizza Port, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Julian Beer Co.