Who Does the Nominating and Electing?

We believe the integrity and honor of the Hall of Fame rests firmly on the ability of those of us who superintend it, to conduct the nominating and voting processes impartially and transparently.

In the genesis days of this project, we invited notable people in the industry to participate in the creation of The Hall.  Those people who agreed to participate became our Board of Advisors -of whom there are about fifty members.  They come from various sectors of the industry, but a majority of them are beer writers and journalists.  This is not unlike the American Baseball Hall of Fame, which relies on sports writers to elect players into their Hall.

These Advisors have a deep knowledge and understanding of the craft beer industry’s history -especially of the people who founded small breweries and who actually brewed the beer.  People you won’t see included in the Board of Advisors are folks with a direct affiliation with a brewery or a beer brand.

Once a year, Advisory Board members are tasked with submitting nominees for the ballot.  Once the nominees have been vetted, the ballot is finalized and distributed. Along with the Electors, the Advisors also participate in the final voting.

***You can read the finer details of our Election Process on the ACBHOF website.***

As for the Board of Electors, a good portion of these members are people who were initially contacted to be Advisors, but declined for various reasons.  They agreed to continue their participation in The Hall by way of the annual voting process.

We have augmented the Board of Electors with many more people intimately familiar with the craft beer industry’s history and history-making pioneers.  The list of Electors is long and still growing; we are looking to top off at about 100 Electors.  Due to their sheer number, and to maintain their anonymity, Electors are not listed on the website.

All told, we expect to have approximately 150 people participating in the final vote each year.  The nominating and voting process will likely take about two months to complete, and the final class of inductees will be formally announced in the Fall.  Very shortly thereafter, inductees will appear in The Hall on the ACBHOF website.  Stay tuned.