We at Zephyr Adventures, organizers of the Beer Bloggers Conference and vacation tours around the world (including beer tours), have created what we think is the first-ever analysis of the most influential beer websites in the world.

Our analysis includes four factors:

Alexa Rating : While this is not a perfect indicator of a website’s popularity, it is easy to access and relatively accurate.

: While this is not a perfect indicator of a website’s popularity, it is easy to access and relatively accurate. Incoming Links : We recorded the number of incoming links according to Google.

: We recorded the number of incoming links according to Google. Facebook Likes : Given the influence of social media, we considered the number of Facebook likes.

: Given the influence of social media, we considered the number of Facebook likes. Twitter Followers: The same goes for Twitter.

We analyzed a total of 83 popular beer-related websites but limited these to those in the English language. We allocated from 25 to 1 points for each time a site was in the top 25 of one of the above four factors. In other words, the website with the best Alexa rating received 25 points and the website with the 25th best Alexa rating received one point. With four categories, the maximum score is 100.We recorded data from December 30 through January 2.

20 Most Influential Beer Websites in the World

Rank Name Website Score 1 Heineken www.heineken.com 91 2 Beer Advocate http://beeradvocate.com/ 76 3 New Belgium Brewing www.newbelgium.com/ 68 4 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery www.dogfish.com 65 5 Sierra Nevada Brewing Company www.sierranevada.com 52 6 Budweiser www.budweiser.com 51 7 Stone Brewing Company www.stonebrewing.com 48 8 Bud Light www.budlight.com 47 9 Samuel Adams www.samueladams.com 44 10 BJ's Brewhouse http://bjsbrewhouse.com/ 39 10 tie Brooklyn Brewery www.brooklynbrewery.com 39 12 SAB Miller www.sabmiller.com 37 13 RateBeer.com www.ratebeer.com 35 14 Untappd http://untappd.com/ 29 14 tie Miller Lite www.millerlite.com 29 16 Beer Pulse www.beerpulse.com 28 17 Coors Light www.coorslight.com 27 18 Carlsberg www.carlsberg.com 26 19 Magic Hat Brewing Company www.magichat.net 25 19 tie BrewDog www.brewdog.com 25

Heineken tops out as the Most Influential Beer Website in the World. It scored first in number of incoming links (574) and Facebook fans (16,556,027), third in Alexa rating (47,223), and 8th in the number of Twitter followers (72,413) for a very impressive score of 91 out of 100.

Beer Advocate magazine took the number two spot, scoring first in Alexa rating (12,032), first in number of Twitter followers (427,636), sixth in incoming links, and lower in Facebook likes for a score of 76.

New Belgium Brewing ranks as the third-most influential beer website with a score of 68, handily surpassing most of its big-brand competitors such as Budweiser and Coors Light.

Other interesting facts about the analysis:

Six of the top 10 spots are held by craft breweries (if you include the Boston Beer Company and BJ’s Brewhouse)

Budweiser (#6) and Bud Light (#8) place two websites in the top ten

Please recognize the following:

1. We undoubtedly made mistakes. Take a look at the data (Most Influential Beer Websites Analysis), which shows only those sites receiving a score, and please provide any corrections or sites we are missing so we can update future versions.

2. This analysis is a snap shot in time, taken from December 30 through January 2. The stats change daily. We’ll do this analysis again next year.

3. Deciding what factors into the ranking is arbitrary. We know Alexa rating is biased towards a certain type of site visitor and realize social media plays heavily into these results. We are open to other suggestions but think this is a good start.

4. We thank VinePair for doing a similar analysis in the wine industry.

Please tell us what you think!

Note: If you appreciate the time and effort we put into this analysis, please consider promoting this post on Facebook or Twitter. You can follow Zephyr Adventures or the Beer Bloggers Conference on Twitter and like us on Facebook (Zephyr, Beer Bloggers Conference). Who knows? Perhaps some year we’ll make our own list.