Next Saturday, 1st February, RateBeer.com — a resource I’ve called upon countless times over the years — will cease to exist and it seems to be going out with a whimper rather than a bang.
For those unfamiliar with the story, this original den of beer geekdom and fiercely-argued scoring is an ‘old internet’ predecessor of the now ubiquitous Untappd. Having been created earlier, though, its records were older and its critiques generally more in-depth.
However, in 2016 RateBeer was acquired by ZX Ventures, an arm of global brewer AB InBev, understandably leading to many serious beer markers leaving the platform, and leading to the decision to close the site down. Untappd, meanwhile, has continued to grow and in 2020 acquired another rating site Beer Advocate. The latter remains online in its own right, with discussion boards such as ‘Barleywine appreciation thread’ and ‘post a picture of your pet with a beer’.
RateBeer creator Joe Tucker stayed on after the acquisition to continue running the site. “Tucker believes RateBeer played a part in the explosive growth in craft beer earlier in the century and created a community for like-minded beer lovers to share information,”says a Forbes article.
For many Ratebeer was a properly academic exercise, and from next Saturday that collective wisdom will be lost.
There is one line of hope for ‘Raters’. Canadian-based statistician Matt Berkowitz has made several attempts to engage with AB-Inbev with the offer of acquiring the site and carrying out the improvements needed to bring it up to scratch for a modern audience.
“I’ve had several talks with the global M&A director at ABI, but couldn’t work anything out,” says Matt. “When I heard from Joe that ABI would be shutting down RateBeer, I resumed my efforts to see if I could acquire the assets. I am still hopeful that ABI is willing to relinquish the assets back to the community rather than simply terminate the website and end a 24-year piece of history that has meant a lot to many people.”
There are just days left to find out if he will be successful.
