Turlock residents and visitors alike know that Dust Bowl Brewing Co. is one of the best hangout spots in town, but a recent honor puts the brewery and taproom on the global stage as one of the coolest taprooms in the world.

Dust Bowl was recently recognized as part of the 2021 Craft Beer Marketing Awards, winning a Gold Crushie for Coolest Taproom in this year’s worldwide competition. Dust Bowl was one of 196 award winners — a list including brewers, designers and marketing agencies — which came from five regions across the globe.

“We’re proud to be recognized for our taproom design with a ‘Crushie’ from the CBMAs. We’ve always taken a lot of pride in the ambience and experience we aim to create for beer fans at each of our taprooms,” Dust Bowl owner and founder Brett Tate said. “Visiting a brewery’s taproom should always be experiential, where the beer, food, service, aesthetic and furnishings all work together to build your brand and leave consumers seeking your product outside of the taproom. It’s a design standard that you’ll see us replicate at our future locations.” 

Dust Bowl was honored with a Gold Crushie for Coolest Taproom along with breweries from Maryland, Washington, British Columbia, Georgia and Oregon. The category celebrates the overall inviting aesthetic of a taproom, as well as aspects like customized pieces, innovative features and more. Now in its second year, the competition is the first of its kind and consists of 33 categories evaluated by a panel of over 300 industry professional judges who cover all aspects of brew marketing — from labels to logos and tap handles to taprooms.

Winners receive the CBMAs’ Crushie, which is designed by the same Manhattan-based awards firm that created the Emmy Award and MTV “Moonman” Trophy. The Crushie award is sculptured to depict a heavily tattooed arm crushing a beer can as a representation of how breweries are “crushing it” with their unique and creative beer marketing and branding. In 2020, Dust Bowl won two Gold Crushies for Best Website Design and Best Brewery Rebrand. 

Beer aficionados can expect more great things from Dust Bowl in the years to come, as the brewery recently opened its first satellite taproom in Monterey with plans for another taproom in Elk Grove taking shape.

Dust Bowl recently moved into Regional Brewery status in 2020 with a record 16,500 barrels of beer produced for the year and now ranks among the top 2.4% of craft breweries in California, the most competitive state with 958 craft breweries. To view the full list of CMBA winners, visit https://craftbeermarketingawards.com/.