Five San Diego breweries, One Tijuana Brewery Win Medals at 2025 World Beer Cup

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – No gold medals were won, but five San Diego County craft breweries and one Tijuana brewery earned silver and bronze on Thursday, May 1 at the 2025 World Beer Cup, the largest international beer competition often referred to as The Olympics of Beer Competitions. Eight medals overall were awarded to breweries in the region.

The top winner was Carlsbad-based Pizza Port Brewing Company, which won three medals at the award ceremony held in Indianapolis. Pizza Port’s Imperial Beach brewery won silver for “Schwarzbier” in the German-Style Schwarzbier category, its Solana Beach brewery won silver for “Oscar Wanted a Brown Ale” in the English-Style Brown Ale category, and its Ocean Beach brewery took home bronze for “Junk In Da Trunkel Dunkel” in the South German-Style Dunkel Weizen category.

Tijuana’s Insurgente won a bronze medal for its “Dragula” in the Oatmeal Stout category. The brewery was featured on a panel at the San Diego Brewers Guild’s Craft Beer Con last August as part of the “Bridging Borders: Connecting Baja Brewers with San Diego” session. Insurgente became only the second Tijuana brewery to win a medal at the World Beer Cup, joining Cerveceria Rámuri, which won a bronze medal in 2018 and 2022.

“The overall results aren’t what we’re used to, but that doesn’t take away from the extraordinary beers that did win medals this year,” said San Diego Brewers Guild Executive Director Erik Fowler. “Some categories had more than 100 entries, and a few even had more than 200. The World Beer Cup is highly competitive year in and year out, and San Diego will keep bringing its best year in and year out.”

San Diego breweries won 14 medals at the 2024 World Beer Cup, including four golds.

The 2025 medal ceremony took place as part of the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America, and it featured 8,375 beers from 1,761 breweries spanning 49 countries. The Brewers Association, which is a not-for-profit trade association that promotes and protects American craft brewers, hosts the event.

The list of all winning San Diego-area beers:

SILVER (3)

Craft Coast Brewery & Tacos San Marcos -- XPA -- Australia-Style Pale Ale

Pizza Port Brewing Co. Imperial Beach -- Schwarzbier -- German-Style Schwarzbier

Pizza Port Brewing Co. Solana Beach -- Oscar Wanted a Brown Ale -- English-Style Brown Ale

BRONZE (5)

Coronado Brewing Company -- Guava Hard Cider -- Fruited Cider

Insurgente (Tijuana) -- Dragula -- Oatmeal Stout

North Park Beer Company -- House of Fu! -- Imperial IPA

Pizza Port Brewing Co. Ocean Beach -- Junk In Da Trunkel Dunkel -- South German-Style Dunkel Weizen

Taproom Beer Company (North Park) -- Modern Love -- New Zealand-style IPA

Pizza Port’s “Junk In Da Trunkel Dunkel” also won a gold medal at the 2024 World Beer Cup, while Craft Coast Beer & Tacos’ “XPA” won bronze at the 2024 competition.

A list of all 2025 winners can be found on the World Beer Cup website. The list includes Pizza Port’s San Clemente brewery, which won a silver for its “Dusk Til Dawn” in the Coffee Stout or Porter category.

The World Beer Cup was developed by the Brewers Association in 1996 to celebrate the art and science of brewing. The Competition Manager selects judges from a list of internationally recognized brewers, consultants, industry suppliers, and writers. Judging is blind, with no brand knowledge of any kind provided to judges. Beer entries are judged solely on their merits.

San Diego is known as The Capital of Craft™, a moniker that was trademarked in 2015. San Diego Brewers Guild is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization of allied brewery members, tradespeople, and other providers supporting the production and distribution of craft beer.