One of the most renowned Beer Competitions in 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.
The competition was able to consolidate again after the coronavirus pandemic. In 2024, 2,360 beers were tasted at the competition. This puts the European Beer Star back at the pre-corona level and is a sign that the competition is well prepared for the future.
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 2024, the international participation in the European Beer Star tasting was greater than ever. 144 renowned experts from 29 nations came to judge the international brewing excellence.
Internationalization
Country distribution of the European Beer Star 2024
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!
In 2024, almost 32% of the entries again came from Germany. The positive trend in Italy and Austria continues Record entiy numbers are coming from China, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy.