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Award Criteria & Judging

Awards Philosophy
Korea International Beer Award does not automatically award the top three entries in a particular category. When judges determine that a category contains three excellent examples of the style, they present gold, silver, and bronze awards for the first, second, and third place beers, respectively. If judges believe that no beer in the category meets the quality and accuracy criteria for the style, they may elect not to distribute any awards. Further, judges may grant an award in any one or more of the three award places without granting awards in all three places. For example, judges may recognize a beer as a silver or bronze award winner yet not grant a gold award.
Eligebility

All Korea International Beer Award entries must be commercially available, fermented malt beverages conforming to the trade understanding of “beer” (see "Beer Eligibility" section below) brewed by a permitted commercial brewery. “Commercially available” means available for sale at retail at the time of registration.

All entry beers and breweries must follows the eligibility rules below.

Brewery Eligibility
  • 1. Your brewery is fully licensed for the manufacture and commercial sale of beer in your home country.
  • 2. Your brewery is fully open and operating with all required permits.
  • 3. Your brewery currently has at least one beer that is commercially available for sale at retail at the time of application.
  • 4. Only breweries that meet the Brewery Eligibility requirements are eligible to enter beers in Korea International Beer Award.

* Breweries in planning, homebrewers, and other breweries not meeting these criteria are not eligible to enter.

Beer Eligibility
  • 1. All beers entered in Korea International Beer Award must be commercially available for sale.
  • 2. All beer entries must possess the characteristics generally attributed to and conforming to the consumer understanding of “beer.”
    • At least 10% of the fermentable carbohydrates must be derived from malted grains. Beverages made with malt substitutes, honey, fruit or fruit juices, or anything other than malted grains as the majority of fermentable sugars are not eligible to participate.
    • Competition beer entries must contain hops. Exceptions to this include gruit or other historical beer styles that traditionally use other herbs or spices.

Not eligible: Mead, cider, spirits, hard soda, hard water, and flavored malt beverages including kombucha and most shandies and radlers are not eligible to be entered in Korea International Beer Award.

Minimum Standard For Award

Korea International Beer Award does not automatically award the top three entries in a particular category. When judges determine that a category contains three excellent examples of the style, they present gold, silver, and bronze awards for the first, second, and third place beers, respectively. If judges believe that no beer in the category meets the quality and accuracy criteria for the style, they may elect not to distribute any awards. Further, judges may grant an award in any one or more of the three award places without granting awards in all three places. For example, judges may recognize a beer as a silver or bronze award winner yet not grant a gold award.

  • GOLD

    A world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma, and appearance.

  • SILVER

    An excellent beer that may vary slightly from style parameters while maintaining close adherence to the style and displaying excellent taste, aroma, and appearance.

  • BRONZE

    A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor defects in taste, aroma, or appearance.
Judge Selection
The judges for KIBA 2022 are selected through an in-depth evaluation of KIBA Organizing Committee. KIBA Organizing committee screens individuals from a list of internationally recognized brewers, industry professionals, competent judges from other international competitions. The list of invited judges is selected based on formal beer sensory training, ongoing beer sensory experience, industry and peer recognition, knowledge of beer styles and the brewing process, judging demeanor, and fluency in written and spoken English, the common language of Korea International Beer Award judging panels.
Judge Procedures

The KIBA judging session is held for two days, just before the Korea International Beer Expo and Conference.

Judges are assigned by the organizing committee to judge beers in their specific area of expertise and do not judge in every category. Judges will seldom taste more than 30 beers in any a judging session and judges never evaluate their own product or any product in which they have a concern (a consultant cannot judge the beer of client). Judging is blind, with no brand knowledge of any kind provided to judges. Beer entries are judged solely on their merits.

Judges perform several important roles at the Korea International Beer Award. Judges determine winning beer entries that meet the stringent award criteria described above. They are also expected to provide concise, accurate written feedback to entering breweries about their entries, describing positive product attributes as well as defects noted during the competition. This indirect communication to entering breweries adds value to their Korea International Beer Award entries and provides a glimpse into the judging process.
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