RateBeer Best Awards

for the year 2013 - award results

January 27, 2014

(Santa Rosa, CA) Millions and millions of times, RateBeer beer reviewers worldwide have raised a glass to review a new beer. We have tallied those scores and now present them as our RateBeer Best competition results.

But before we get to those, I'd like to raise a glass to the people who make the beer we drink. These men and women are the artists, engineers, visionaries, chefs, CEOs and of course janitors and many other roles combined that are today's craft brewer. I've had the pleasure of sharing projects and a beer with many around the craft beer industry and there are no more passionate, skilled, brave and hard working people on the planet. The great success of craft beer around the world is further testament to this.

It's my great pleasure to honor them, and all those in the craft beer industry, with the results of this year's RateBeer Best.

Joe Tucker
RateBeer Executive Director

For our summaries, a particular emphasis was placed on tastings made in the last twelve months. Additionally, brewpubs, bottle shops, restaurants and bars from around the world were awarded prizes. Cheers to all the winners and to everyone who keeps the world of craft beer growing as a fun, cooperative community devoted to artfulness and excellence.

EXPERIENCED REVIEWERS
RateBeer is now home to the most experienced beer critics in the world with TWO HUNDRED SEVENTEEN master beer tasters having over 4,000 documented beer reviews. Ratebeer's Jan Bolvig of VestJylland, Denmark is the beer reviews world record holder with over 32,000 beer reviews to his credit. RateBeer is also home to countless certified cicerones, GABF, GBBF and BJCP judges.

TRULY WORLDWIDE
Despite the majority of reviewers and beers being American, the community is enriched by many of RateBeer's top 10 raters being from outside the United States with the top beers hailing from many different countries spanning the globe. The depth and breadth of RateBeer's beer database is truly unsurpassed and the competition the most comprehensive.

LARGE. VERY EXTREMELY LARGE.
RateBeer Best was again the largest beer competition in the world ever -- more than 240,000 beers from over 16,000 brewers worldwide were tallied. By comparison to the gigantic and amazing multi-day spectacle that is the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado, RateBeer Best judged more than 75 times the number of beers -- that's the same ratio as the number of fans in a college football stadium to the entire population of Los Angeles. We judged more than 10,000 beers by just our freshman class of 2013 brewers alone. That's more than eleven times the number of all beers by all brewers at the Great British Beer Festival.

REAL SAMPLES
Unlike other beer contests, the emphasis was largely placed on tasting commercial samples -- not special batches prepared for festivals. Additionally, most beers were not tasted in large flights, allowing a more reliable and accurate account of the beer.

NOT JUST ABOUT BIG BEER
While beer enthusiasts tend to enjoy more flavorful and stronger beers, they also taste and appreciate beer across the spectrum of all beers that are brewed. RateBeer Best recognizes this variety by offering many awards in a broad range of our own style categories.

Press contact: Joe Tucker, Executive Director, RateBeer, LLC. +1 (302) 476-2337.

Currently Available Lists
All lists of winners below released at midnight Pacific Time (GMT - 8) on the dates indicated.