​

Last you heard from us, we were wrapping up the equipment, beers, and not least calculating beer scorings from our sensory panel to see which of our Group’s brews had passed to the next round. (Almost) as we speak, our expert panel has reviewed your brews, getting one step closer to announcing this year’s final winners.

Watch this video, to see the semi-finals and to discover which beers made it to the finals of the first ever Beer of the Year competition. The finalists are also revealed at the end of this article, but why not spend a few minutes with our experts Angela and Marine, learning about how we work with quality and proceed in bringing new brews to life:

BotY Semi-Finals

The expert panel consists of beer lovers, experts and brew masters, chosen to judge the brews due to their advanced skills in beer evaluation, knowledge and interest in beer, and of course their fondness of our brews across the Group’s diverse portfolio. Thomas Paludan-Muller, Director of Liquid Implementation, says of his experience in the expert panel:

''Making the Beer of the Year competition in Carlsberg Group is a great initiative.

It gives all our markets a chance to celebrate our fantastic brews and the hard work done in our breweries. It puts focus on our heritage, on where we are coming from and the diversity we as Carlsberg have within the beer category.

To be selected as an expert panelist, tasting and judging beers in the competition, has been a big
honor and hopefully something I’ll do again the coming years''

Where are we now?

An overview of where we are in this process is seen below, giving detail as to how many brews are going into the expert review (30), and how many will be passed on for review by the final jury (15). You will next hear from us after the final jury, where we (im)patiently will be waiting for the results, and get ready to reveal them. ​

Here are this year’s finalists for the 2018 Beer of the Year Competition

CORE
Kronenbourg 1664 - France
Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4 Luppoli Lager - Italy
Xırdalan - Azerbaijan
Lav - Serbia
Shumensko - Bulgaria​

C&S
Duckstein Weizen (hopfenfruchtig) - Germany
Grimbergen Triple - France
E.C. Dahl Ramp Pale Ale - Norway
Okocim Porter - Poland
Karhu Ruis IPA – Finland

AFB
Brooklyn Special Effect – Sweden
Go Wheat – Lithuania
Nordic Ale – Denmark
Tourtel Twist – France
Feldschlösschen Alkoholfrei Weizenfrisch – Switzerland

Congratulations to these finalists – the top 3 winners of each category will be announced 2 July!​