Inside the European Beer Star competition

This year’s European Beer Star competition features 2356 beers from 553 breweries, coming from a total of 47 participating countries. A tasting marathon took place at the Nuremburg Exhibition Centre on 14–15 September and the awards ceremony will be held at BrauBeviale from 28–30 November 2023.

For the purpose of the competition, the term ‘European’ refers to beers originating mainly from Europe — it is open to global competitors and not purely a European championship. A total of 74 beer styles are tasted in an anonymised procedure, including classics such as German-Style Pils, exotic varieties such as Herb and Spice Beer and even some non-alcoholic beers. This year, Polish Grodziskie has been added to the competition, a beer that had been long-forgotten but is now being brewed again by some breweries in Poland.

Kilian Kittl, European Beer Star Project Manager at organiser Private Brauereien Bayern e.V., said the jurors evaluate the beer according to sensory criteria: appearance, smell and taste. Each beer receives a score in the preliminary rounds that decides whether or not it advances to the next round. From the intermediate round to the final, the judges collectively decide which beers advance and award gold, silver and bronze medals in each of the 74 categories.

All samples are coded so neither the beers nor the breweries can be identified. The competition is open to everyone, with entries from large and well-known breweries and also from smaller, speciality breweries.

“All facets of the industry are represented. That is also the strength of this competition, that the breweries are all competing on a level playing field,” said Stefan Stang, General Manager of Private Brauereien Bayern e.V.

The beers are all carefully analysed by judges and their ratings are entered in the appropriate evaluation sheets. At each table, seven to nine tasters sample a ‘flight’, which is usually 8–10 beers per round.

“In the past, some breweries have been able to reaffirm their award win several times while we have also had absolute newcomers that caused surprises at the awards ceremony,” Kittl said.

The winners of the European Beer Star 2023 will be announced at BrauBeviale 2023, the trade fair for the production and marketing of beverages. The awards ceremony will take place in the BrauBeviale Forum on 29 November 2023 in Hall 1.

Image credit: iStock.com/Daria Nipot