RateBeer Best 2012 -- AWARD RESULTS

(Santa Rosa, CA) Craft beer is at a wonderful stage. No longer are we competing for respect as a second class beverage. We've won respect. And the craft beer industry is enjoying great success. The number of craft brewers is still increasing markedly. Last year alone RateBeer new brewers increased a whopping 16%. And RateBeer is still growing rapidly, primarily in large US metro areas like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and abroad in Australia, Sweden, Italy and Brazil.

This great success took intelligence, passion, technical skill, hard work and creativity. It's my great pleasure to honor those responsible for what the craft beer industry as a whole has earned and accomplished. And with RateBeer Best 2012, I want to especially recognize those who are doing all it takes to put forth the very best beer in our glasses.

For a moment, we'll shed some humility to truly highlight how important these awards are and how very large this competition really is.

Over 3.5 million 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 competition results.

RateBeer Best was again the largest beer competition in the world -- more than 140,000 beers from over 12,000 brewers worldwide were tallied. 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 excellence.

EXPERIENCED REVIEWERS
RateBeer is now home to the most experienced beer critics in the world with SEVENTY-NINE master beer tasters having over 5,000 documented beer reviews. Jan Bolvig of VestJylland, Denmark is the world beer reviews leader with 23,332 beer reviews to his credit. RateBeer is also home to countless certified cicerones 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. The depth and breadth of RateBeer's beer database is truly unsurpassed and the competition the most comprehensive.

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.

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



THE BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD BY STYLE CATEGORY
All beers listed are gold medal winners. (Note: In some instances the displayed scores are equal for beers of different places. This is not an error. Our calculations simply render much greater detail than we can display.)

THE BEST BREWERS IN THE WORLD
All brewers listed are RateBeer Best 2012 Gold Medal winners. (The total number of brewers in our contest is over 12000. The 100 listed represents less than the top 1% of all brewers -- the creme de la creme of world brewing. For comparison, more than double the percentage of the population qualifies as genius.)

THE 2012 TOP NEW BREWERS IN THE WORLD
From the list of all new brewers - a whopping 1473 this year, these elite few have risen to the top. We anticipate these are the brewers to watch in the coming years. All are RateBeer Best 2012 Gold Medal winners/

THE BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD - OVERALL
The best 100 beers in the world as rated by tens of thousands of our worldwide tasters. All beers listed are RateBeer Best 2012 Gold Medal winners.

BEST BEERS BY COUNTRY
Ratings are by RateBeer representatives living around the world and tasting the beers available in each country except British Isles. Only countries with statistically adequate membership representation are listed below. All listed are RateBeer Best 2012 Gold Medal winners.

Australia and New Zealand- Best beers
Belgium - Best beers
Canada - Best beers
Denmark - Best beers
Germany - Best beers
Italy - Best beers
The Netherlands - Best beers
Sweden - Best beers
British Isles - Best beers
United States - Best beers