Lone Tree Brewing Wins First World Beer Cup Medal for Mexican Lager

Lone Tree Brewing Company finally broke through at the World Beer Cup with the beer that already carried much of its identity. Mexican Lager earned bronze in the Mexican-Style Pale Lager category on April 29 in Philadelphia, giving Lone Tree its first World Beer Cup medal and placing it among 114 entries in one of the competition’s most crowded fields.

That matters because Mexican lager is not the kind of beer that can hide behind hops, roast, or fruit. In a blind-tasting competition with 255 judges from 50 countries assessing 8,166 entries from 1,644 breweries and cideries across 50 nations, the style rewards precision. Clean fermentation, crisp balance, restrained bitterness, and a finish that stays snappy instead of thin are the details that separate a medalist from the pack. The World Beer Cup recognized beers and ciders in 118 categories, and Lone Tree’s bronze showed that this lager can hold up under the strictest scrutiny.

Lone Tree said the beer has built a strong following over time, helped by a medal run that already included a silver at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival, a gold in 2017, and a gold at the Colorado Brewers Cup in the International Pale Lager category. The brewery has described Mexican Lager as its largest flagship and a “beer’s beer,” a fitting label for a brand built on subtlety rather than flash. Its 2017 GABF gold was also notable because Lone Tree said it was the first time an independently owned brewery won gold in that category.

Director of Operations Jerry Siote said the team was thrilled to finally earn a World Beer Cup medal and pointed to consistency, quality ingredients, and a proven process as the backbone of the brewhouse. That formula is exactly what makes a beer like this so difficult to get right. A loud beer can mask rough edges. A lager cannot.

The medal also lands with extra weight in the brewery’s home market. Lone Tree opened in 2011 as the first brewery in Lone Tree, Colorado, near Park Meadows Mall, and added a Parker location in 2024. For a brewery that has grown from a South Metro pioneer into a two-taproom operation, the bronze was more than another trophy. It was a reminder that in craft beer, quiet execution can still win big.