European Beer Consumers Union- EBCU

Beer Drinkers Call for Clarity in Beer styles

The European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) today launches a campaign across Europe for clarity and honesty in defining beer styles.

EBCU members have become increasingly concerned that brewers have been defining beer styles in different ways and fear that some styles are being over-simplified to the detriment of the consumer. EBCU has therefore decided to take action by establishing a list of approved beer judges drawn from national beer consumer organisations. This will ensure that the various beer competitions taking place in Europe truly reflect traditional beer styles. To support EBCU has developed descriptions of the more common beer styles so that consumers can judge for themselves without confusion.

Terry Lock, the Chair of EBCU, said, “We believe it is time that the beer competitions are seen as fair. For example a competition to find the best “Tripel” should truly reflect that beer style and not be judged to a set of criteria that suits a particular brewer. By having a number of independent consumer judges, and issuing guidelines on beer styles, we feel that we can protect the consumer from being misled. We also want to raise awareness of beer styles amongst ordinary drinkers, so we are launching an initial list of beer style descriptions today at CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival to reach out to over 60,000 drinkers, which has got to be a good start.

“Wine drinkers would not be tricked into believing that a Riesling was a Chablis, or a Burgundy a Rioja, so why should beer drinkers have the wool pulled over their eyes by clever marketing? What we are calling for is consistency and clarity for the beer drinker.”

The launch of the EBCU Beer Judge accreditation scheme and beer descriptors will take place at 1.00pm next to the Biere Sans Frontieres stand (stand no W3) at the Great British Beer Festival on Thursday 6th August.