Raise the Bar
The best new breweries competition.
We Are Beer
Our festivals began as a showcase for some of the world’s most exciting breweries, all brought together in one place for beer lovers to enjoy. Since the first event in London in 2013, the family has grown to include Bristol Craft Beer Festival, and our newest festival Manchester Craft Beer Festival. Each festival brings its own unique line-up of beers, music and food to thousands of people over one weekend. This year, we expect to see 40,000 drinkers, trade buyers and industry pros through the doors of our three festivals.
Since the very beginning, we’ve worked with emerging breweries to spread the word about their amazing beers. From Beavertown to Verdant, we’ve worked hard to be a platform for talented brewers all over the world, and today, many established craft breweries approach us to help them launch their products into new markets through our festivals.
Since it’s conception 2018 Raise The Bar has been a platform to help launch Burnt Mill, Turning Point, Pastore, Beak, Drop Project and many other fantastic young brewers.
Raise The Bar is back, and we want you.
HOW IT WORKS
Raise the Bar is a national competition looking for the best new breweries in the UK and beyond. You send us your beer samples, our panel of expert judges will taste them, and we choose four winners. These four winners will go on to pour alongside the industry’s best at, Bristol, Manchester and London Craft Beer Festivals. This year we're adding a new element - through public voting and ending with a big party at Saint Monday we'll be crowning a 2024 absolute winner - the best new brewery in the country! We’re sure you’ll agree, this is a great opportunity.
But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what previous Raise the Bar winners had to say about their experiences…
Turning Point
We're always super proud to showcase our beers, but to get the call that we'd won was something else entirely! We were following the Instagram posts of the judges quite closely so knew there was some tough competition.
Send beer you're proud of. It's also clear that the competition was based on quality of style, not just sending the most heavily hopped IPA or sweetest stout. The judges were clearly looking for something more refined and balanced. If you've made a great table beer, lager... be confident in your brewing and send those.
Pastore
Winning Raise the Bar was a massive boost for Pastore, in getting our brand and beers out in front of knowledgeable drinkers in some of the country's biggest craft cities, and in making us part of the craft beer conversation. And as if that wasn't enough, it was a such a pleasure getting to know the WeAreBeer team.
How to Enter
1. Be a brewery that has brewed commercially for less than five years.*
*(Originally this was three years but what with the COVID years, we’ve extended this to five.)
2. Fill out the entry form (click the button below), and we'll provide an address to send the beers to.
3. The panel of judges will taste the beers.
4. Four breweries will be invited to attend all three of our festivals, and be a press and social media feature for each event.
The closing date for entries is 12 April 2024.
Entries are now closed
Raise the Bar
The best new breweries competition
RAISING THE BAR FOR BEER
We’re looking for new breweries with something extraordinary to offer. The UK's brewing sector is becoming more and more crowded, but we want this to be a platform and shine a light on those who are at the start of something incredible.
This year, we’ve changed the criteria to allow breweries to enter who have been brewing commercially for less than five years. Previously, this used to be 3 years but when we consider those covid years, it made sense to extend the parameters.
When you enter, we want you to tell us a bit about yourself and your vision, send us beers that really tell your story, and you could be pouring your beers at three of the country's best craft beer festivals this summer.
Vault City
The exposure to all the areas of the UK where we would never have been able to reach by ourselves at such an early stage. It was also amazing to be able to mix with other brewers who could give us tonnes of great advice.