GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The 3rd best brewery in the world is located right here in Grand Rapids.

That's according to the folks at RateBeer.com, who released the annual list of 100 best breweries in the world on Friday, Feb. 1. The website uses the Bayesian estimate formula to calculate ratings.

Founders Brewing Co. took the No. 3 spot on the list, just ahead of Kalamazoo's Bell's Brewery, which nabbed the No. 5 spot.

Related: Bell's, Dark Horse among best breweries in the world

Other Michigan breweries to make the list included Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales of Dexter at No. 64, B. Nektar Meadery at No. 31, Dark Horse Brewing Co,. of Marshall at No. 29 and Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. of Warren at No. 11.

Founders ceded their No. 2 spot on last year’s list to Three Floyds Brewing of Indiana, a brewery with which Founders maintains close ties. Three Floyds took No. 1 in 2012. In 2013, that distinction went to Hill Farmstead Brewery of Vermont.

Founders has steadily climbed the list over the last decade. The company took No. 2 in 2011, No. 4 in 2010, No. 7 in 2009 and 2008, No. 14 in 2007 and No. 27 in 2006.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of the world’s best brewers,” said Founders vice president and co-founder Dave Engbers.

Engbers said it was beer rating websites like Beer Advocate and RateBeer that have given the company invaluable recognition among craft beer enthusiasts worldwide over the past decade.

Mark Sellers, owner of HopCat, which RateBeer ranked as the best beer bar in the world this year, said last year that he and his wife happened across a bar owner in Belgium once who counted a single bottle of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) as one of his prized possessions.

Related: Full coverage of Founders Brewing Co.

Engbers credited the rating websites with helping create a dialog between Founders and its customers in the days when the company was struggling financially.

“All of a sudden, we realized that without having to spend money on ads, or do huge promotions, we could let the value and quality of our liquid speak for us,” he said.

“That was the greatest thing in the world for us because we didn’t have a big marketing budget and all of a sudden people who really truly appreciated the craft we do were giving feedback,” he said. “They created a buzz about this brewery that was for the most part completely unknown 10 years ago.”

“It gave us a voice where we didn’t really have one before.”

That buzz has yet to abate. The brewery celebrated a 15-year anniversary in 2012 with a specialty barleywine release called Bolt Cutter that nabbed a Top 25 best beer of the year accolade from Draft Magazine.

The brewery is in the middle of a massive $26 million expansion project at their Grandville Avenue SW facility; a fourth major expansion in five years for the brewery, which is trying to position itself for national impact.

Email Garret Ellison or follow him on Twitter.