The Best Breweries of 2018

BREWERY AWARDS

Each year, we award the breweries that collectively produce the highest-rated beer of the year as evaluated in the Official Review. In 2018, breweries worldwide demonstrated impressive brewing expertise through a myriad of styles. With the rise of new and interesting Specialty IPAs, such as Brut IPAs and hazy examples, as well as a continued focus on fruit adjuncts, pastry stouts and sours, our breweries of the year represent the cutting edge of craft beer.

How We Award
We look at the top three highest-scoring beers (as rated by our judging panel) for each brewery in the calendar year.

We then consider how many of the three place into the 100 to 96: World Class category and the 95 to 91: Exceptional category. For example, a brewery with two world-class beers and one exceptional would rate higher than a brewery with a single higher-scoring world-class beer and two exceptional beers.

The brewery with the most world-class beers followed by the most exceptional beers is awarded the Brewery of the Year.

If two or more breweries have the same number of world-class and exceptional beers, then the brewery with the highest point total wins.

In the event of a tie, a fourth reviewed beer is counted as a tiebreaker.

If a fourth beer was not reviewed, we look at the highest score total among the brewery’s two top-scoring beers.

Read on and raise a glass to this year’s winners!