Well that sure was one hell of a year, huh? With 2017 already fading into memory it felt appropriate to look back at all the great things that went down here at KARL. Take a walk with us through some of our favorite highlights from a year we (and everyone else on earth) will never forget.

Beers on Beers & Bling to Spare

We brewed 144 different individual beers between our main brewery in Pacific Beach and satellite breweries housed within our brewpubs. Everything from English-Style Summer Ales to Beligan Dubbels were poured across California in the name of spreading love for the many flavors of craft we hold dear.

With that many beers on tap, it was no surprise we surpassed 100 beer competition medals this year; our brewery’s total medal count is now at 105.

Our 6 major medals awarded in 2017:

Gold for Orange Blossom Common at Great American Beer Festival

Gold for Big Barrel IIPA at the California State Fair

Gold for Singularity Black IPA at the LA International Beer Competition

Bronze for Mosaic Session IPA at the LA International Beer Competition

Gold for Mosaic Session IPA at the SD International Beer Competition

Silver for Windansea Wheat at the SD International Beer Competition

And hey, we also were voted “Best Brewery in SD” in CityBeat’s 2017 Best of SD Reader’s Poll. How bout’ them apples?

Collaborating For Independence

We wanted to do something different for San Diego Beer Week this year. Something that had never been done before in this town. Thus, Collabapalooza was born. Our hope was to rally independent breweries from around San Diego to come together to brew one-off beers together to debut at a single festival during the biggest beer week in California. Needless to say, the brewing community delivered and we had a killer time.

In addition to the good times that were had we were able to raise $5,000 for the San Diego Brewers Guild and $500 for the North Park Main Street Association.

Giving Back to our Community

There were no shortage of inspiration for our KARL family to come together and rally to give back to folks all across California this year.

We participated in the Sonoma Pride fundraising effort lead by Russian River raising over $3,000 to support victims of the tragic fires in Sonoma County

We sponsored the San Diego Music Awards, continuing our support of local music in our hometown

Our ongoing Pathway Ale collaboration series with Amplified Ale Works has raised $11,000 so far to support local nonprofit organization BeautifulPB and their “PB Pathways” project

We orchestrated a fundraiser to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, and after a 3 week period, Karl Strauss made a donation to the San Diego chapter of Feeding America. Thanks to the overwhelming support by the local community, Feeding San Diego raised over $12,500 to support Feeding America’s relief efforts in Texas during their fundraising campaign.

From our co-founders Chris & Matt and everyone here at Karl Strauss, thanks for hanging with us over the last 28 years. We can’t wait to share all big things we have in store for you in 2018!