One of the most renowned beer competitions of the world
Since 2004, the European Beer Star awards as beer competition the world's best beers. Breweries and judges from Europe and the whole world come together once a year in order to hold the world championship of beer. Let our judges and participants inspire you on the following page.
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Impressions and statements about the beer world championship
Competition mode
The following picture illustrates the competition mode of the European Beer Star with an examplary category with 32 entries.
Development of the beer competition
Submitted beers
Since its inception in 2004, the entry numbers of the beer competition European Beer Star increased constantly.
Year after year, the number of beers entered has increased. The all-time high was reached in 2019 with 2,483 beers. The Corona pandemic put a small damper on this development, but even in this difficult year for breweries, the EBS organizers were pleased with 2,036 beers entered.
In 2021, the European Beer Star picked up speed again. With 2,395 beers submitted, the number was only slightly below the previous record level from 2019.
In 2022, the European Beer Star was able to hold its ground in a difficult economic environment with 2,168 beers. The European Beer Star thus remains a permanent fixture in the international brewing family - the Global Family.
Expert jury
An increasing number of beers to be evaluated means that the panel of experts also has to become larger. While there were 23 judges in the founding year, the tasting jury grew to 145 beer experts in the record year 2019.
The exceptional year 2020 was different: The organizers ensured that the European Beer Star could be held even in times of a pandemic with a comprehensive safety and hygiene concept. Due to worldwide travel restrictions, the beers submitted were judged by only 74 jury members. For the European Beer Star 2021, the expert jury again counted 128 international judges.
In 2022, the international participation in the European Beer Star tasting was greater than ever. 137 renowned experts from 32 nations came to judge the international brewing excellence.
Internationalization
Country distribution of the European Beer Star 2022
The European Beer Star has become increasingly international in its history. While the submitted beers in the first year came from 13 European countries and the USA, the first entries from Africa, Asia and Central America followed as early as 2005. In 2007, beers from Australia and South America entered the competition.
In 2021, most of the entries - just over a third - came from Germany. The organizers received record entries from Italy, Austria, China, France and Japan. All in all, almost two-thirds of the beers entered came from abroad - a clear sign of how highly regarded the European Beer Star is in the international brewing industry!
Again in 2022, slightly more than a third of the registrations came from Germany. The positive development in Italy and Austria continues with record registration numbers.