The Craft Beer Association (CBA) will hold "The International Beer Cup 2023" (IBC2023) in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa, Japan on 28th of September - 1st of October, 2023.
Mission
The mission of the IBC is to create greater consumer awareness around the world about the quality and diversity by the various beers of the world.
Traditionally, most of beers in the competition have been registered by Japanese breweries. As we see expansion of Asia/Japanese craft beer market by quality and diversity, we started to open doors to beers and breweries outside Japan in recent years.
In 2022, 69 judges from 17 countries/regions have evaluated 1111 beers of eligible beer styles from 16 countries/regions. You can find the result below.
2022 Winners List (Gold/Silver/Bronze Medals)
2022 Winners List (Category Champions)
With this global competition, we creates greater consumer awareness about differences and qualities by qualified judges to panel with gold, silver, and bronze awards in 118 beer styles.
In this year, the IBC2023 will be expected more than 1300 beers. and will be judged by more than 70 judges from 25 countries/regions.
And IBC will be held in Kanazawa city which is the city on the western coast of central Japan (2.5 hours from Tokyo by train) and which is known for its traditional culture as our 2nd challenge to organize the IBC in regional cities to encourage local craft beer culture. (Our 1st challenge which was held in Matsumoto in 2019 was successful.) We believe that it helps spreading craft beer culture all over Japan.
The winners will be announced on Sunday, 1st of October in Kanazawa city. (The ceremony venue will be announced.)
The Craft Beer Association, which was founded in 1994 by Ryouji Oda, is an independent organization based in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, with 26 years of experience in organizing successful beer competitions, events and seminars.
Competition Schedule
[Schedule]
* Beer Registration
19th of June - 4th of September, 2023
*Registration fee payment deadline : 11th of September, 2023
* Beer Arrival
11th - 15th of September, 2023
at CBA warehouse, Tokyo
* Judging
28th - 30th of September, 2023
at TKP Kanazawa Conference Center, Kanazawa city, Ishikawa pref.
* Award Ceremony
1st of October, 2023
in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa pref.
(The ceremony venue will be announced.)
(Award Winners without color of medals
will be announced in the evening of
30th of September on this Web-site.)
Competition Organizer
"The International Beer Cup 2023" Exective Committee
The Craft Beer Association
Chairperson : Yusuke Yamamoto (CEO/Director General, The Craft Beer Association)
Competition Adviser : Isao Tamura
Competition Manager : Satoshi Murabayashi
Competition Manager : Tetsuya Kojima
Chief Judge : Masa Kaji
Chief Steward : Yuji Tsuji
Judging Method
1. A judge team is composed of 5 to 7 judges. The qualifications of judges of "The International Beer Cup" are one of following.
....a. Member of The Craft Beer Association who are certified as "Beer Judge".
....b. Brewer who is currently working for a brewery and have brewing experience for more than 3 years.(The brewer cannot judge the style which includes their beer.)
....c. International judge who have judging experience of WBC, IBA(formally BIIA), AIBA ,EBS or IBC.
....d. Person who is certified as having similer skill of above "a", "b" or "c" by The Craft Beer Association.
2. The judges judge the beers using a blind test with only a number of the samples. The name and brand of the beers are hidden for the judges.
3. The judges taste the samples individually, then the judges have a discussion.
4. The judges use the "Beer Style Guideline 2204" as a standard of the competition. The beers which does not conform to the guideline, or has a off flavor for the style are excluded.
5. The judges make decisions of the color of the medals for each style with evaluating the appearance, flavor and balance of the beers which passes the 1st step using the standard. Gold, Silver or Bronze medals of a style is generally given only for 1 beer. The case of "not applicable" is possible. The standards for the color of the medals are following.
..."Gold". The beer which completely follows the Beer Style Guideline and has the world no.1 class appearance, aroma and flavor.
..."Silver". The beer which highly follows the Beer Style Guideline and has the outstanding appearance, aroma and flavor.
..."Bronze". The beer which follows the Beer Style Guideline and has the excellent appearance, aroma and flavor.
6. The judges make decisions of the "Category Champions" from "Gold" winning beers for 12 categories which is composed of several styles with the comprehensive evaluation such as balance, drinkability, overall impression and additional components.
The category list will be announced soon.
7. Entrants of the IBC2023 will receive
...Certification Sheet and Medal (Gold / Silver / Bronze medal winners only)
...Certification Sheet (Category Champions only)
...Judging report with summary of the result for each entries.
...Comment sheets from each judges for each entries.
(generally from 5 or 6 judges, at least from 3 judges)
Judges
The judges list will be announced soon.
Beer Registration and Shipping
Registration is available online until 4th of September, 2023
Kanazawa City
Kanazawa has been the cradle of Japanese traditional culture and arts for the last 400 years. From the time the Maeda family lords of the Kaga domain gathered skilled craftsmen from all over Japan in the 17th century, Kanazawa became the epicenter of dozens of traditional crafts and arts. Kanazawa also became an important castle town for the Kaga Domain. Many of these neighborhoods are still intact today, and a stroll through them reveals a lot about Kanazawa’s samurai history and traditional culture and arts. Kanazawa is also known as the city of contemporary art and delicious ingredients from the abundant waters of the Japan Sea.
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Contact
If you have any question, please contact to
The Craftbeer Association the "IBC2023" team by email.
info@craftbeerassociation.jp
*Please do not use qq.com domain email address because qq.com will refuse most of emails from Japan.
