European success at RateBeer awards

The strength and innovation of European breweries shone through in the annual Top 100 Brewers awards by review website RateBeer. British brewer Cloudwater had particular cause to celebrate, placing second overall in the awards system that is based on a summary score of reviews from people using the website from around the globe.

Cloudwater’s managing director and co-founder, Paul Jones, was obviously delighted and in a blog on the brewery’s website explained how the company had evaluated its range in 2017. “Even just a fortnight ago I felt like we were lined up to drop out of the top 10 breweries in the world in the annual RateBeer Best awards,” he said. “That we've climbed from 5th last year to 2nd this year is a complete surprise! We started the year by evaluating, from memory, all the beers we brewed last year. ‘Damn, this is hard.’ said one of our management team. ‘Pretty sure I’d have scored these all differently at the time’ worried another. It was a great exercise in analysing which beers stood out for their bold, positive impact, and which were beers we now looked back upon in shame. “What really struck me was just how many of the beers we hold in high esteem ourselves were also the beers RateBeer users seemed to enjoy the most. "Our most heartfelt congratulations to our friends and peers around the world, with a special shout out to our friends and peers here in the UK that landed a place in the top 100.” Sweden’s Omnipollo also faired well grabbing sixth place, while Danish brand Mikkeller came in ninth.

Overall, 10 British breweries made the top 100 – Beavertown, BrewDog, Buxton, Cloudwater, Fuller’s, Magic Rock, Northern Monk, Siren, Tempest, The Kernel. There were also 22 European breweries that made the list, mostly hailing from Scandinavia and the Benelux. The RateBeer Best Brewers in the World 2017 Top Ten