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Boulder, CO • January 18, 2011—The Brewers Association announced today that Krones will be the exclusive Presenting Sponsor of the 2012 World Beer Cup. Barth-Haas Group will return as a Partner Sponsor alongside Ball, Sahm, Siemens and Verallia, which have also confirmed as Partner Sponsors. The competition—referred to as "the Olympics of Beer"—has been hosted biannually by the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association, since 1996.

Krones, Barth-Haas Group, Sahm and Siemens supported the World Beer Cup in 2010 as Partner Sponsors. The Brewers Association is pleased to welcome Ball and Verallia to their first World Beer Cup as a Partner Sponsors. Additional sponsors will be announced as they are confirmed in coming months.

"We are honored and delighted to welcome Krones as the Presenting Sponsor of the 2012 World Beer Cup," said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association. "And we are grateful for the ongoing support of Ball, Barth-Haas Group, Sahm, Siemens and Verallia at the Partner level. These companies' commitment to the recognition of excellence in international brewing is applauded."

The 2012 World Beer Cup promises to live up to its reputation as the most prestigious beer competition in the world. An international panel of 179 judges from 26 countries participated in the 2010 event—a 28 percent increase over 2008—and for good reason. The competition's awards philosophy is exacting. Judges do not automatically give awards to the top three entries in a given style category, but instead present a gold, silver and bronze award only when the category contains three excellent examples of the style.

The 2010 World Beer Cup was the largest commercial beer competition at the time, with 3,330 beers entered in 90 beer style categories, from 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S. states.

World Beer Cup Judging

To ensure the highest level of integrity and expertise in the judging process, World Beer Cup judges are required to have formal sensory training and experience on flavor panels or competitions. They are selected from an extensive list of internationally recognized brewers, consultants, industry suppliers and writers, with many judges drawing on experience in multiple World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival® competitions. The end result is an expert, international judging panel, with some 60 to 65 percent of judges coming from outside of the United States.  For the brewers, the judges provide invaluable feedback and critique-positive and negative-available after judging concludes.

Registration for the 2012 World Beer Cup is October 10, 2011 through January 12, 2012.

The judging takes place May 1-2, 2012 in San Diego, California, with the winners announced on May 5, 2012 at the gala awards ceremony and dinner at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. For more information, please visitWorldBeerCup.org or contact events@brewersassociation.org.