Nine hundred entries from 38 countries were blind tasted by a panel of 60 judges in London and 64 gold medals, 196 silvers and 282 bronze medals were awarded.
The judges included retailers, importers, brewers and writers and eight trophies will be announced in September for the following categories: Best Lager below 5%, Best Lager above 5%, Best Ale below 5%, Best Ale above 5% Best Stout or Porter, Best Fruit Beer, Best Speciality Beer and Best Wheat Beer. The Supreme Champion will then be chosen from these eight trophy winners.
“Now in its 23rd year, the IBC has long championed the idea that a beer should win prizes simply on how good it is, rather than how closely it adheres to some pedantic definition of style,” said International Beer Challenge chairman Jeff Evans.
“We believe that when customers enter an off-licence, while they may have an idea of the broad type of beer they want to buy, they are not fixated by technical profiles and simply want to know what is going to taste good when they open the bottle or can.
“This is the principle that we again rolled into play at this year’s IBC judging. The net result this year was that our judges discovered nearly 300 bronze medallists and nearly 200 silver medallists – all of whom have much to celebrate as a result.
“Most importantly, however, they also decided on more than 60 gold medallists from a wide range of countries, from Belgium to Brazil, Colombia to Cambodia, Myanmar to Mexico.”
