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Between beer festivals and beer competitions, summer is high season in the beer world. The California State Fair commercial beer competition, held in July, has become one of the largest competitions in the country, second only to the Great American Beer Festival. And this weekend’s fourth annual California Beer Summit in Sacramento, a gathering of state brewers, culminates in the West Coast’s largest beer festival.
If some of the breweries we’ll be talking about today — Urban Roots, for example — are unfamiliar to you, it’s hardly surprising. Fifty years ago, there were fewer than 100 breweries in this country. Today, there are more than 6,000. California added nearly 200 in the last year alone, bringing its total to more than 950 breweries, and we’re on track to surpass the thousand mark by year’s end.
The Bay Area was well represented at the State Fair podium, where after three days of judging — I was on the judging panel once again — first place medals went to a variety of breweries, including Santa Cruz’s Seabright Brewery for its SameTing cream ale and Sunnyvale’s Faultline Brewing Co. for Petrov’s Porter, a Baltic-style porter. Los Gatos’ Loma Brewing Company — last year’s brewery of the year — took home gold for No Oranges Allowed, a great American-style wheat beer. And San Francisco’s Ferment.Drink.Repeat won two first place awards for Helles Afraid We’ll Take Over and Cuddling By the Fire, a smoked porter.
Other first place honors went to Monterey’s Peter B’s Brewpub for its Molly By Golly’s dry stout, San Jose’s Geartooth Alewerks for its Father Cog imperial stout, Soquel’s Discretion Brewing for Barrel Aged Scenic Stout and Half Moon Bay’s Hop Dogma Brewing for its Pyro’s Prost chile beer. San Leandro’s Drake’s Brewing won first — and also nabbed third place for best of show — for its barrel-aged Santa’s Brass Barleywine. Walnut Creek’s Calicraft took first for Barrel Project: Hibiscus-Chamomile Sour in the experimental beer category. And Fairfield’s Heretic Brewing brought home a gold for The Bitter Truth.
Also worth noting: Sacramento’s new Urban Roots Brewing, from former Sierra Nevada, Bison Brewing and Sacramento Brewing Co. brewer Peter Hoey, won two golds — for Like Riding A Bike IPA and Tomorrow’s Verse saison — and one silver before Hoey’s brewery had even opened to the public.
The best of show beer, chosen from among the 62 first-place winners in each category, was Kalliope, a Berliner-style weisse brewed by Goleta’s Captain Fatty’s Brewery, near Santa Barbara. Brewery of the year — and eight gold medals — went to El Dorado Hills’ Mraz Brewing Co.
Find the full list of State Fair medals at castatefair.org/2018commercialbeerresults.
In addition to the pro brewer competition, the fair also runs a homebrew division with 39 categories of beer and mead. Best of show went to Brett Higham for his Germans Need Love Too pils. He’s a member of Concord’s Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts (DOZE) homebrew club, which was named the homebrew club of the year.
