AB InBev buys RateBeer.com
The Leuven (Flemish Brabant)-based brewery and drinks company AB InBev has bought the well-known beer website RateBeer.com. The man behind the site that made the Westvleteren monks’ Trappist beer a household name the world over Joe Tucker announced that he had sold the sight to AB InBev on Tuesday.
“Although this won’t have an influence on those using the site every day, I would like to announce that ZX Ventures, an AB InBev subsidiary has taken over RateBeer in its entirety”, Joe Tucker wrote in a press statement.
ZX Ventures bought a minority share in RateBeer in 2016. Now it has taken over the site completely. No indication has been given as to how much money changed hands.
Not all beer-lovers are enthusiastic about the takeover. Critics question the site’s ability to be impartial given that its new-owners is a 100% subsidiary of the world’s biggest brewer.
Ratebeer’s Directeur Joe Tucker answers these concerns by writing that the “website will strive to remain impartial”.
Source of information
RateBeer is a recognised as a reliable source of information about beer by beer-lovers the world over. When in 2007 the site declared Westvleteren 12 to be the World’s best beer for the first time it unleashed a rush on the beer that normally can only be bought at Westvleteren Abbey