The 5th Annual CA Craft Beer Summit began last Thursday (9/12) featuring California’s Craft Beer Industry pioneers. Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada), John Martin (Triple Rock Brewing and later Drake’s), Chris Cramer (Karl Strauss), and Tom McCormick (California Craft Brewers Association) took the stage to tell their stories about the birth of craft beer in California. Unfortunately Fritz Maytag (founder of Anchor Brewing) could not make the event. Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River) moderated the session.

Left to Right: Tom McCormick, John Martin, Ken Grossman, Chris Cramer and Vinnie Cilurzo at the CA Craft Beer Summit

California is the birthplace of the American craft brewing movement. And these pioneers led the successful start-up of some of California’s first and most successful craft breweries. Now, over 1000 craft breweries are licensed in the state of California.

Furthermore, these pioneers also lobbied to ensure that California state and local laws provided fair and supportive treatment of the craft beer industry. Even more, they helped start the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA).

Thirty years ago the California craft beer industry banded together to form the CCBA. Formed in 1989, the CCBA is the oldest state trade association representing craft breweries. The CCBA works to protect the growth, quality and variety of California’s craft brewing industry. Primarily, the CCBA monitors legislative activity at the state Capitol and provides a single and coherent political voice representing the interests of all of California’s craft breweries. As a result, the regulatory structure in California is more craft-friendly than any other state in the country.

“Small businesses are the life blood of communities across California,” said executive director of the CCBA, Tom McCormick. “Craft breweries are locally owned businesses which benefit their community with jobs, charitable giving, economic growth and provide a gathering place for their neighborhood. Our role at the CCBA is to protect and grow the craft brewing and small business community which has become so important to California’s cities and local communities.”

Want to learn more about the history of Craft beer in California? Click here.

CA Craft Beer Summit

The CCBA leads numerous activities that promote and protect the growth of the craft brewing industry in California. The CA Craft Beer Summit is one of those activities.

More than 6500 brewers, industry members and beer lovers attended this year’s CA Craft Beer Summit over all three days of the event in Long Beach, CA. Held at the Long Beach Convention Center, the summit provided 48 different educational seminars. The seminars spanned topics in brewing leadership, hospitality, economics, business, sustainability, safety, tasting and homebrewing.

Dr. Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, presents the status of the craft brewing industry.

Dr. Hoby Wedler, Sensory Innovation Director for Senspoint Design, led one of my favorite seminars – Sightless Sipping: a Truly Blind Beer Tasting. Senspoint Design specializes in creating unique brand experiences using all 5 senses that result in high-value marketing and consumer experience success. For this seminar, Dr. Wedler (who has been blind since birth) led a beer sensory evaluation exercise while the participants were blindfolded. The experience provided me with a renewed and expanded appreciation for evaluating craft beer flavors.

“Sightless Sipping: a Truly Blind Beer Tasting” provided me improved insight into craft beer flavor evaluation.

In addition, more than 190 exhibitors and sponsors featured their businesses and services at the Craft Beer Summit Expo Hall. The exhibitors included equipment manufacturers, malting companies, hop growers, brewer guilds, consultants and more. Three stages strategically located throughout the exhibit hall provided opportunities to participate in craft beer and food pairings, interact with some of the “rock stars” of the brewing industry, and learn the latest about key industry hot topics.

The Expo Hall featured interactive exhibits, displays and presentations.

California Craft Brewers Cup Awards Ceremony

The California Craft Brewers Cup, a first-year competition put on in partnership between the brewers guilds of California and the California Craft Brewers Association, announced the state’s best beers in an awards ceremony. The awards ceremony was part of the CA Craft Beer Summit.

The competition received 1,266 entries from 190 independent craft breweries across California. A panel of more than 80 qualified judges selected the top three beers in 58 style categories. Crooked Lane Brewing Company from Auburn, California, the most medaled brewery of the competition with a total of seven medals, was named Brewery of the Year. Best in Show was awarded to Rip Current Brewing from San Diego, California for its “Breakline Traditional Bock.” CLICK HERE for a complete list of medal winners.

“This competition was created with the goal to showcase the innovation and immense talent of our state’s craft breweries,” said Mike Moore, Competition Director of the California Craft Brewers Cup. “The beers entered in this year’s competition set the bar extremely high for future years, and we can’t wait to watch this competition continue to grow.”

Summit Beer Festival

On Saturday, the Summit Beer Festival (sold separately) concluded the CA Craft Beer Summit. Held at the Marina Green Park in Long Beach, the Summit Beer Festival provided a great chance for craft beer lovers to taste their way through California’s craft brewing scene. Over 170 California breweries, arranged by region, poured more than 600 different beers of every style and variety. More than 2,000 attendees enjoyed as many brews as possible. In addition, food trucks supplied a diverse set of culinary options. Other than the hot and humid weather, the festival capped a fantastic event for beer lovers in California.

Beer lovers converged in Long Beach to try an amazing variety of California craft beers.

Final Thoughts

Quite honestly, this had to be one of the best craft beer conferences I’ve ever experienced. The wealth of information and non-stop fun events makes the CA Craft Beer Summit a must attend event.