the Big Beer Year
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A year of discovery.

A world of beers. A community of curious explorers. Your own year of discovery.

Take a photo to add it to your journal.

Beer only, including NA · Cans & bottles · A sip counts · 21+

Around the world, one discovery at a time

The community top ten

Unique discoveries · UTC periods · Weeks start Monday

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Top explorers

Unique beers

    Top breweries

    Discoveries logged

      Counts reflect participating Big Beer Year members, not worldwide sales or drinking volume. One beer counts once per person per year. Ties share a rank; username order determines the ten displayed.

      Your discoveries belong in the story.

      Create your account, choose a username, and build your own beer year.

      The idea behind the year

      Take a fresh photo of the actual can or bottle, confirm that you tasted it, and keep a personal record of the discovery. Each unique beer counts once per year. Weekly and monthly lists show when those first discoveries were logged.

      Inspired by the birdwatching adventure in The Big Year, this is your own year of discovery—through beers, breweries and the places they take you. An independent project, not affiliated with the film. Sign in to keep a journal across devices and choose whether to join the community.

      Friends-and-family pilot planned for 2027, ahead of a full competition year beginning January 1, 2028. Explore at your own pace; drinking volume and speed earn no extra credit.

      Share your discovery

      You choose the app and confirm the post there. If your app doesn’t accept both, download the photo and paste the caption. Your private location and account details are not included.

      Brewery

      Explorer profile

      Find your brewery

      Match the name on your beer’s label with the brewery and its location.

      Participation & privacy

      Community pilot · Updated October 19, 2026

      Discover at your own pace

      For adults 21 and older who may lawfully participate. Take a fresh photo of the actual can or bottle and confirm that you tasted the beer. A sip counts. Only beer, including non-alcoholic beer marked NA, counts; cider and hard seltzer are excluded. Draft beer is excluded from the journal and community rankings. Private friend challenges may allow draft beer as a challenge-only entry. Drinking volume and speed earn no extra credit. Never drink and drive.

      Your private journal

      Entries and photos are stored in your signed-in account so they can sync across devices. Your journal photos, email address, precise check-in places and acknowledgments are not shown in the community. Export provides an optional backup. Deleting entries or clearing the journal affects the account on all devices. Older browser-only entries remain on that browser until you explicitly import them or remove them yourself.

      Your public profile

      Creating an explorer profile with a username, country and avatar is required before using the signed-in site. Participation in the public community is optional. Choose a username and a preset avatar or upload an image you have permission to use. New usernames and uploaded images require moderator review before public display. Offensive, hateful, sexual or otherwise inappropriate content is not allowed. Rejected submissions include a reason. You can choose a replacement. Members can report inappropriate profiles.

      If you enable community participation, your approved username, avatar or approved photo, and discovery totals may appear publicly. Signed-in members can see your voluntarily supplied country, totals and leading breweries. Country statistics come from member-selected countries, not GPS. Explore also uses participating members’ aggregate brewery and beer names, styles and NA flags, without linking beer suggestions to a member or check-in place. Lifetime discovery badges appear on shared profiles. Turn off community participation to hide your profile and exclude your entries from community rankings and Explore suggestions.

      How rankings work

      Each unique beer and brewery combination counts once per person per journal year. Week and month lists show first discoveries within those periods; they do not award repeat drinks. Community periods use UTC and weeks start Monday. Equal totals share a rank and use username order for display; only ten profiles are displayed. Brewery totals aggregate eligible community entries, not worldwide sales or alcohol volume. Names are entered by members and may need correction. Imported older discoveries keep their original date. There are no cash prizes or paid-entry competitions.

      Private friend challenges

      Members may create a private challenge and invite friends with a code. The organizer chooses whether draft beer is allowed when creating it. Challenge discoveries and optional photos are visible to challenge members only. Challenge entries, including draft beer, never add to the personal journal or public community and brewery rankings. Each unique beer counts once per member in that challenge. Non-alcoholic beer is allowed and marked NA; cider and hard seltzer are excluded.

      Explore and the Magellan Pass

      Explore and Passport are open to everyone during the prototype. They are planned for the future Magellan Pass upgrade; My Journal and earned discovery badges will stay free. There is no active subscription or payment collection. Explore’s directory is incomplete and does not confirm opening hours or current tap lists. Lifetime badge totals count each beer and brewery combination once across journal years; repeats do not add badge credit.

      Optional location

      Use my location requests browser permission and sends coordinates to BigDataCloud for city lookup. The provider receives network information and uses location signals for its service. Only editable city text is saved; coordinates are not stored in the journal or shown in the community. You can enter a city manually instead.

      In Explore, location is compared with the brewery directory in your browser and is not saved or sent for city lookup. Switching to the map sends the viewed map area to OpenStreetMap’s tile service. You can enter a destination city without sharing your current location.

      Pilot limitations

      Beer identification, alcohol content and consumption are based on member submissions; there is no independent verification. Moderators may remove inappropriate profiles. Sponsored placements, if added, will be labeled and separate from earned rankings. The pilot has no active sponsors.

      Capture a discovery

      Photograph the actual can or bottle, then enter its label details. Draft beer, cider and hard seltzer are excluded. Non-alcoholic beer counts and is marked NA. Your photo will include our branding and this device’s date and time. It and your entry will be saved privately to your account. AI recognition comes later.

      Optional photo tip: When possible, show the label and the open top. One photo is enough; an open container is not required for prototype testing.

      Family and style are required for new discoveries. These browsing families are adapted from BJCP style-family groupings, with sour and wild beers grouped together. Pilsner is a lager family; style names describe the beer, not the brewery’s country. Check the label or brewery if unsure. Style reference: BJCP. Photo recognition is not connected yet.

      Optional: this sends your current coordinates and IP address to BigDataCloud to find your city. The provider uses location/network signals to improve its geolocation service. Only the city text is saved in your journal. You can type a place instead.

      Your saved photo

      Saved in this browser. The timestamp on newly branded photos uses the device clock.