European Beer Star celebrates its 20th anniversary

For 20 years now, the European Beer Star has been on the quest to find the best beers in the world. The registration phase for this year’s edition of the renowned beer competition starts on April 3. The tasting of the submitted beers by a jury of around 130 experts will take place this year for the first time in Nuremberg on September 14 and 15.

The European Beer Star celebrates 20 years of existence! For its 20th edition, the renowned beer competition is coming up with a central novelty: for the first time, the expert tasting of the European Beer Star will take place in Nuremberg. In the future, everything from the acceptance of the beers to the tasting will take place at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center. Of course, the same quality standards will be applied as before: fast acceptance and sorting of the beers sent in, cool storage until tasting, and smooth preparation of the samples on the two tasting days.

On September 14 and 15, the beers submitted will be judged from a sensory point of view by a jury of around 130 international beer experts: the quality of the beers’ appearance, aroma and taste are key assessment criteria. In each of the 74 categories of the European Beer Star 2023, only the three best beers will receive the coveted awards in gold, silver and bronze. The winning beers will then be honored at the award ceremony on November 29 in the usual setting of BrauBeviale in Nuremberg.

User account for each brewery at registration

The registration phase for the European Beer Star 2023 starts on April 3. Interested breweries have time until July 12 to register themselves and their beers for the competition. Together with the start of registration, the application process for participation in the European Beer Star has been revised. In the future, a user account will be created for each participating brewery. This means that even after registration for the European Beer Star has been completed, contact persons can still be changed and contact data updated (e.g. in the event of a change in staff).

In addition, an individual QR code is generated for each beer registered. This must be visibly applied to the outside of the packaging when the beers are shipped and is scanned when they arrive at the warehouse. Participants in the European Beer Star can thus easily check in their user account whether their samples have arrived at the competition.

Further development of categories and evaluation

Work has also been done on the European Beer Star category list. For the first time, the “Grodziskie” beer style will be tasted – a rediscovered style that is enjoying increasing popularity not only in its native Poland. The special characteristics of these beers lie in the smoked wheat-malt used and the relatively low alcohol content of between 2.5 and 3 %ABV.

In addition, India Pale Ales are being further diversified. Separate categories for Session IPA and Hazy IPA with clear stylistic specifications have been introduced.

Like last year, an individual flavour profile will be created for each beer entered in the European Beer Star and sent to the participants as feedback together with the flavour profile of the winning beer. In this way, the organizers of the European Beer Star are offering the participating breweries an additional opportunity to compare and rank their beers with the winning beers in each category, in addition to the familiar evaluation criteria. Pure benchmarking!

Future Award goes into second round

After the successful premiere last year, the European Beer Star Future Award is going into the second round this year. The aim of this award is to honor breweries according to their exemplary commitment in the areas of ecology, economy, social affairs, and culture. However, sustainable corporate management is not the only decisive factor for winning the Future Award. The respective communication of the sustainable commitment and outstanding beer quality also play an important role.

Any brewery that enters at least one beer in one of the 74 categories for the European Beer Star 2023 can take part in the Future Award.

Detailed information on the competition and registration, as well as the category descriptions of the European Beer Star 2023, can be found as of April 3 at www.european-beer-star.com.

About the European Beer Star:

The European Beer Star has been organized by the Association Private Brauereien since 2004 and has long since become one of the most important beer competitions in the world. The European Beer Star honors beers that are unadulterated, full of character and of high quality. Most of the beer styles considered are those that have their origins in Europe. All breweries worldwide are eligible to participate: local, regional, supraregional, and internationally active breweries, not only from Europe, but from all countries on all continents.

Source: Private Brauereien Bayern e.V.