2016 World Beer Cup - Why should you care?

Beer – The bi-annual 2016 World Beer Cup was hosted by the Brewers Association (BA) in Philadelphia (USA) on 6 May.   More than 6000 beers were entered by 1907 breweries from 55 countries and judged by an international panel of 253 judges.   The organisors have branded the competition as the “Olympics of Beer”.   

Some of the categories may have sounded strange to a newcomer to “craft beer”.  However, to a growing number of beer lovers around the world get excited when hearing about categories such as pumpkin, chocolate, chilli, coffee and smoke.   288 beers received a gold, silver or bronze award.   No South African beer was entered.  For more information, have a look at the Fact Sheet of the competition.

The founder of the BA, Charlie Papazian, commented that “Brewing has no boundaries or borders”.   This may be true, but the value of such competitions to the beer lover around the world is in doubt, by organisations such as the European Beer Consumers Union.  Why? Click here - To read about an alternative view on beer competitions in your follow-up article on this controversial topic. 

(Article by The Licence Co - sourced from http://www.worldbeercup.org/)