Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
Scroll to top

Top

No Comments

The End of RateBeer

ratebeer
DJ DeLaRosa

Nobody uses RateBeer
Who cares about that website?
Is that like Untappd?

How did we get here? RateBeer has been online since 2000 and built a community out of nothing. Through the site, beer connoisseurs found a community that led to meetups and lifelong friendships. It was more than just a website for reviewing beers.

The quality of the reviews are unmatched, and breweries would use their high ratings as a badge of honor. Liquor stores and bottle shops would use RateBeer rating tags to promote beers and boost sales. This culminated in the RateBeer Best awards, which honored the top breweries, brewpubs, and even the users themselves. Go into any high-profile brewery, and you’ll see them proudly displaying their RateBeer Best certificates and medals.

Beer Stats

The statistics of the site were what truly made RateBeer special, as each review would add to the user’s “tick” list of countries, beer styles and breweries. No other beer site had this kind of data or visualization to track your progress. Seeking out new countries and styles to rate became the norm as trading became more and more popular.  Users could use the forums to seek out beers out of their markets and countries and make friends and connections along the way.  RateBeer also uses place ratings from users to review brewpubs, breweries and bottle shops to help users find their best options while traveling the globe.

The Great Shut Down

This all came to an abrupt halt when RateBeer was sold to Anheuser-Busch through ZX Ventures, who claimed they wanted to bring the site to greater heights. This turned out to be far from the truth, as the website became virtually unusable. If it weren’t for the moderators behind the scenes keeping RateBeer alive and allowing users to continue to rate, the site might have shut down even sooner.

Now, it seems that the plan all along was for ABI to shut down RateBeer on February 1. Was this their plan from the start? They’ve shown they are only out to crush the little guy and take away more and more shelf space at bottle shops and grocery stores. Was it to get rid of all the bad ratings for Budweiser products?

There was a final push from Ratebeer user Matt Berkowitz to try to acquire the website and database from ABI, which was met with a firm “No,” as they would rather let the site die than allow it to continue under new management.

“This would be the dream — to put it in the hands of people who really care and could make it into something modern, user-friendly and essential for beer drinkers.”

–Peter Hale, a long time RateBeer user

Uncertain Future

With no other options left, users are now left with uncertainty as they compile their ratings to move to other sites to continue their beer ticking journey. While Untappd is the most popular, Brewver is a site created by some former RateBeer users, and it’s the closest to RateBeer of old. It also allows users to upload their RateBeer .csv files up to 1,000 at a time. Untappd on the other hand has not been user friendly for the RateBeer migration and only allows one rating at a time and 200 daily max.
With the site finally coming to an end, I leave you with a quote from a friend and longtime RateBeer user:

“RateBeer changed beer. It allowed people to discuss beer openly, trade beer throughout the world. It was an open forum, and I wish it would still be around so I could meet up with those same people. RateBeer helped create craft beer.”

– Keir Haug


Can't visit the site everyday like us? Bummer! No worries, we've got you covered. Submit your email below to receive our monthlyish newsletter on reviews, tours, events and more!

Submit a Comment

three + 16 =