Entries for the 2020 London Beer Competition Now Open!

We love a good beer competition, and The London Beer Competition (LBC) is a beer competition with a bit of a difference. Back for a third time after the huge success of its second year, beers entered at LBC are judged and rewarded for obviously their quality and taste, but also value for money and packaging design to reflect how most of us pick and choose a beer we’ve never tried before.

Ros Shiel, Secretary of the British Guild of Beer Writers and 2019 London Beer Competition judge said, “I think that competitions have probably become more important as the market has grown because as a consumer, if you’re confronted with a very busy beer aisle or a bar with dozens of pub clips, how can you, unless you know the market, unless you know what brands are already like ... how can you make a choice? So actually, having a beer with a medal win on the label or on the pub clip gives you some kind of reassurance that a mark of quality, that other people, that experts have tasted this beer and found it to be an award-winning beer. And I think for an initiated beer drinker that can be pretty reassuring.”

It’s a pretty nifty idea! With the huge expansion of the beer scene, breweries need to stand out more and more on the shelves of pubs and shops, and the quality should be reflected in the price. And the London Beer Competition is all about picking out and rewarding those breweries and their products that we actually want to buy; rather than just judging a beer on its taste, they’re judging which breweries give the whole package and are able to show off their hard brewing work with their commercial smarts because this is what the best breweries do every day.

And it’s not the best beer for the lowest price that wins! The judges are a mix of people from all sides of the industry – writing, brewing, trading, beer sommeliers, marketing and educators. And medal-winners are chosen for a variety of reasons; whether they offer the best value for their price, the best quality for their price, they stand out on shelves against competitors, or tell a story in the most relevant way.

So give it go or keep an eye out for the winners! Entries will close on 6 March 2020! Judging will be held on 23 March and we’ll find out who are winners are on 30 April.More info is available at https://londonbeercompetition.com/en/