RateBeer Best 2013 -- AWARD RESULTS

(Santa Rosa, CA) First and foremost, 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 listening to many in my role here and there are no more passionate, skilled, brave and hard working people on the planet. The great success of craft beer around the world proves 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.

Over 4.5 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. 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 ONE HUNDRED EIGHT master beer tasters having over 5,000 documented beer reviews. Jan Bolvig of VestJylland, Denmark is the world beer reviews leader with 27,828 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 180,000 beers from over 13,000 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 71 times the number of beers -- that's the same ratio as the number of fans in a packed Texas Tech football stadium to the entire population of Los Angeles. We judged more than 8500 beers by just our freshman class of 2012 brewers alone. That's more than ten 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.



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



Best Beer Retailers - By Country THU JAN 24, 2013

Best Beer, Brewers, New Brewers - By Subregion FRI JAN 25, 2013

Best Beer Retailers - By Subregion SAT JAN 26, 2013

THE TOP NEW BREWERS IN THE WORLD SUN JAN 27, 2013
From the list of all new brewers - a whopping 1914 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 2013 Gold Medal winners/

THE BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD - OVERALL MON JAN 28, 2013
The highest rated 50 beers in the world as rated by our worldwide group of seasoned tasters. All beers listed are RateBeer Best 2013 Gold Medal winners.

THE BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD BY STYLE CATEGORY TUE JAN 29, 2013
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.)

TOP RELEASES OF THE 2012 YEAR WED JAN 30, 2013
Beers released from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. These are the year's best new beers.

Best Beers, Brewers, New Brewers - By Country THU JAN 31, 2013

THE BEST BREWERS IN THE WORLD FRI FEB 1, 2013
All brewers listed are RateBeer Best 2013 Gold Medal winners. (The total number of brewers in our contest is over 13,000. 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.)