Wikipedia:WikiProject Beer/Guidelines


WikiProject Beer: Guidelines


This page provides editors with guidelines regarding the structure and content of beer and brewery articles. The aim is to provide some element of consistency with other Wikipedia articles, while allowing flexibility as needed by the demands of the individual topic.

The intention is not to impose a rigid form on beer related articles, but to provide solutions to common problems, and to suggest workable formats and approaches that enable editors to build articles to a common and interchangeable framework that aids navigation for research and minimises effort for construction.

Notability

Guidelines on assessment if a beer-related topic could be a standalone article, or would be more appropriate dealt with within a parent article.

Breweries are organisations and beer is their product; as such, main guidance for notability for breweries can be found at WP:Company, while main guidance for individual beer brands can be found at WP:Product. Editors are encouraged to write about breweries initially as sections in parent articles, such as regional articles on breweries, or articles on the settlement in which the brewery is located. Stub articles are not to be encouraged. A brewery defines itself as notable by the ability of an editor to write a full, meaningful and appropriately sourced article.

Naming convention

Shortcuts

Articles on brewing companies and breweries use the English name of the company/brewery: Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Use English words and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). The common name of the company is used as the title instead of the legal name: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies). As breweries tend to have a product with the same name as the company - Heineken, Carlsberg, Coors, etc. - it is conventional to identify the brewing company/brewery as such, even when the product does not have a standalone article. So: Heineken International, Carlsberg Group, Coors Brewing Company, etc. The most common identifying global term is '... (brewery)', though '... (brewing company)' is preferred in North America.

In the first sentence of the article the name of the company/brewery in the original language may be placed in brackets after the English name, though still within the bold commas. Examples: Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery - Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma); Budweiser Budvar Brewery - Budweiser Budvar Brewery (Budějovický Budvar).

The legal name may be placed in brackets after the common name, though still within the bold commas. Examples: Fuller's Brewery - Fuller's Brewery (Fuller, Smith and Turner plc); Gales Brewery - Gales Brewery (George Gale & Co. Ltd).

Country specific beer articles follow the guideline in Wikipedia:Naming conventions (country-specific topics), and appear as Beer in Norway, rather than Norwegian beer. Terms such as Norwegian beer may be created as redirects to the main article.

For further guidance:

Brands

Shortcuts

A beer brand is the name of a beer produced by one or more breweries or brewing companies. The beer may have a long history and may have changed breweries over the years - such as Pabst Blue Ribbon. The beer may be brewed in many locations around the world, such as Budweiser. The beer may be brewed in many locations around the world, and may be slightly different in many of those locations, such as Guinness.

Product/brand names should be in italics, such as Guinness Original or Guinness Draught. Company names should remain in standard script. So:

Following discussion (here and here), lists of products are to be discouraged. It is preferred for brands and style examples to be described in prose, and such comments to be supported by references to reliable sources. Also see Wikipedia:Embedded list.

It is important when deciding to write a standalone article a beer brand that the editor first checks to see that the beer is not already included on Wikipedia, either with its own article, or as part of a larger article. Most beer brands are discussed on the brewery page.

Secondly the editor must decide if the beer brand is notable enough to generate enough interest for its own article, or if it should appear as part of the main article for the brewery or brand owner. Convention and consensus has been that the majority of beers do not deserve their own articles.

If the editor does not know the name of the brewery making the beer brand, then a Google search or looking on a comprehensive beer database site such as RateBeer.com should be done. If there is an article on the brewery on Wikipedia, then the beer should be added to that article. If there is no article on the brewery, then a decision has to be made on creating an article for the brewery. See Wikipedia:Notability (breweries).

It is not recommended that a beer article be created without first having a brewery or brand owner article.

If the editor decides that a beer brand is notable enough to have its own article, and there is sufficient material to create more than a stub, then the following guidelines may be useful:

  1. A picture of the beer brand logo, bottle, pump clip or advert should appear on the top right of the page.
  2. A wikilink should be created in the first sentence to the parent brewery.
  3. The region in which the beer is brewed should be mentioned in the introductory paragraph.
  4. The beer style should be mentioned in the introductory paragraph.
  5. The beer strength (abv) should be mentioned in the introductory paragraph.
  6. The article should be given an appropriate regional (or multi regional) brewery category: Category:Beer and breweries by region

Article structure

Shortcut

The structures suggested in this section are intended to serve as a starting point for writing a good article; they are not meant to enforce a single, binding structure on all articles, nor to limit the topics a fully developed article will discuss.

The order and range of sections will vary according to need, although it is strongly recommended that articles conform to the basic structure of a lead section with infobox if appropriate, followed by a history section, main section(s) as appropriate, then finishing with See also (if appropriate), References, External links, and Nav boxes. Beyond that, editors are advised to come to a consensus that works best for the beer article in question. References are required for every article.

Appropriate sequence of items in lead section

This is a sub-article to Parent article

Brewery articles

Place a {{Infobox company}} Infobox at the top of the page, filling in as much information as possible.

The text below can be cut and pasted as a starting point.

{| class="wikitable"
|{{Infobox company
| name = 
| logo = 
| type = 
| industry         = [[Alcoholic drink]]s 
| products         = [[Beer]] 
| fate = 
| predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = -->
| successor = <!-- or: | successors = -->
| founded = <!-- if known: {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} in [[city]], [[state]], [[country]] -->
| founder = <!-- or: | founders = -->
| defunct = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| hq_location_city = 
| hq_location_country = 
| area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = -->
| key_people = 
| owner = <!-- or: | owners = -->
| num_employees = 
| num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) -->
| parent = 
| website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}


Lead

Start with the common name of the brewery/brewing company, with the original language and/or legal name in brackets kept within the bold commas. Examples: Budweiser Budvar Brewery (Budějovický Budvar) and Fuller's Brewery (Fuller, Smith and Turner plc). The first sentence would state what type of company it is - brewery, brewing company, brewpub, or regional brewery; followed by (if known) date of founding, name of founder(s), place of founding, and name of original company if different to current name. Other information to include in the lead would be parent company (if any), current location, and most notable product(s). Other information to consider would be annual turnover, locations of brewing plants, and area of distribution. Mention should be made of significant material included in the main body; if there is a section on the brewer or an advertising campaign, this should be briefly included in the lead.

History

The history of the brewery should focus on the brewery itself, and only include the history of a parent company, a related brand, or the country, state, region, or city in which the brewery resides when absolutely necessary in order to understand the subject of the article. As much as possible, contextual information should be linked according to the Wikipedia Manual of Style on linking.


Brewery / Brewing plants
Brands/Beers/Products

Product names should be in italics, such as Guinness Original or Guinness Draught. Company names should remain in standard script. So:

Following discussion (here and here), lists of products are to be discouraged. It is preferred for brands and style examples to be described in prose, and such comments to be supported by references to reliable sources. Also see Wikipedia:Embedded list.

Subsidiary companies
Advertising
References, external links, categories, nav boxes, etc

Product articles

Lead
History
Composition
Style, abv, ingredients, etc.
Advertising

Sections that discuss some aspect of advertising, including images of advertisements, are perfectly appropriate for a brewery article. Take care not to cross the line into advertising, puffery, or anything that would seem to violate guidelines on maintaining a neutral point of view. Language that seems to cross the line from a discussion of advertising to actual advertising will likely be deleted.

References, external links, categories, nav boxes, etc

Formatting here should follow standard Wikipedia guidelines for citations, external links, categories, and navboxes. Items added to these sections should not contain links to breweries—only to sources of more information that will help the reader understand or contextualize the topic of the page.

"List of breweries in" articles

Lead

The sequence of items in the lead section should follow the general guidelines for a lead section in a beer article. The remainder of the text in the lead should include a very general introduction to the subject of beer in the place covered by the list. This can be as simple as a statement reaffirming the nature of the page, as in the list of breweries in Wisconsin, or it can be a more fulsome introduction to the subject, as in the List of Microbreweries.

Adding a brewery to the list

The criteria for adding a brewery to a "List of" follow the Wikipedia Guidelines for Adding Individual Items to a List, List Selection Criteria, Common Selection Criteria, and verifiability. Lists should be comprised of already-existing breweries, not breweries-in-planning or breweries that have not yet opened. Breweries that are no longer in operation, but don't have a Wikipedia page, should be notable beyond the fact of their one-time existence. As per WP:ORGIND sources as to the brewery's existence and notability should be independent of the brewery itself. Appropriate sources are indicated on WP:ORGIND.

In general, based on the above-linked guidelines, lists should only include breweries that are already open, and that have either a linkable Wikipedia page or a reference note to a verifiable, independent source. Links to the brewery's webpage are not acceptable as sources of notability.

References, External links, Categories, Nav boxes, etc.

Formatting here should follow standard Wikipedia guidelines for citations, external links, categories, and navboxes. Items added to these sections should not contain links to breweries—only to sources of more information that will help the reader understand or contextualize the topic of the page.

Checklist

Lead and sections

Images

Referencing

Lists

Following discussion (here and here), lists within beer article are to be discouraged. It is preferred for brands and style examples to be discussed within the text, and such comments to be supported by references to reliable sources. Also see Wikipedia:Embedded list.

Grammar

Avoid

General strategy and discussion forums

Suggestions

  1. Wikipedia:WikiProject Beer/Beer brand article suggestions
  2. Wikipedia:WikiProject Beer/Brewery article suggestions
  3. Wikipedia:WikiProject Beer/Beer style article suggestions


References