The World Beer Championships (WBC) was founded by the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) in 1994 as the first international beer competition in the United States. The WBC uses BTI’s methodology and points-to-medals system.

Two years ago, based on input from the brewing community, BTI decided to change the medal protocol of the Word Beer Championships to an Olympic-style competition where there would be only one Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze World Beer Championships Medal awarded for each beer category. There would only be medal assignments if there were at least three products within a given category and at least one of the products achieved a score that would earn a gold or platinum medal in BTI’s medal system.

BTI assigns BTI medals based on points earned, which translate to an absolute quality evaluation for an individual product on its own, and World Beer Championships Olympic-style medals based on the rankings of products within a given category, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place. The 1st place WBC medal could be either a Gold or Platinum, depending on the points that the product earned.