Wikipedia:Notability (breweries)
 | This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Breweries are organisations and beer is their product; as such, the 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. |
A brewery or beer brand is generally considered notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in reliable, independent secondary sources.
- Trivial or incidental coverage of a brewery or beer brand by secondary sources is not sufficient to establish notability.
- Advertising, press releases and the brewery's own websites are NOT to be used to establish notability.
- All content must be verifiable.
Notable means "worthy of being noted" or "attracting notice." It is not synonymous with "fame" or "coverage" - that a beer brand exists, is available in the local supermarket, and is heavily advertised doesn't in itself mean it is notable. Please consider notable and demonstrable effects on culture, society, economies, or history. Large breweries are likely to have more readily available verifiable information from reliable sources that provide evidence of notability; however, smaller breweries can be notable, just as individual beer brands can be notable, and consistent standards should be applied to ensure that advertising budgets are not creating a bias favoring larger breweries and best selling brands.
Guidance for the notability of breweries and beer brands[edit]
A brewery or beer may be notable if it meets any one of the following criteria:
- Is significantly and purposefully mentioned in at least two reliable published works (not directories).
- Is the main subject of at least one published work.
- Has a unique or rare feature that can be verified by a reliable source.
- Is historically significant (e.g., the first brewery to brew Scotch Ale or American Pale Ale, or the first example of a Milk stout) that can be verified by a reliable source.
- The brewery building has some architectural importance that can be verified by a reliable source.
- One or more of the structures at the brewery is a listed building.
- That an editor is able to write a full and appropriately referenced article on the beer or brewery.
Focus[edit]
Decide which is more notable - brewer, company or product, and write the article with the appropriate focus. If the beer brand is the notable topic, then the article should be named after the beer, with the brewery redirected to the beer article.
Writing about breweries[edit]
In Wikipedia:Places of local interest it is suggested that "An article about a place could be created if there's enough referenced information to make it encyclopedic. Otherwise, write the description to articles of parent areas."
Breweries are part of the local economy, as such a brewery could be mentioned in the nearest settlement article as per Wikipedia:UKCITIES#Economy and Wikipedia:WikiProject_Cities/Guideline#Economy.
A regional article in which breweries, both minor and notable, are discussed, would be appropriate. Breweries mentioned in the regional articles that develop sufficiently may be spun off in summary style into their own articles.
Creating stand alone stub articles on breweries or beer brands is not helpful. Find the nearest parent article in which to create a section, and then when the information has sufficiently grown, break it out in summary style.
Notability tests[edit]
The most popular test among editors for the notability of a topic is the "Google Test". This test is not seen as reliable by all editors. However, a brewery or beer that returns less than 100 hits may be unlikely to be notable.
A brewery or beer for which an editor is unable to write more than a stub (not including a list of beers or personal opinion on the flavour of a beer) is possibility not notable.
Suggested approach[edit]
Following a discussion, WikiProject Beer editors came to a loose consensus that:
- Editors should be encouraged to create regional articles for breweries.
- Editors should be encouraged to write full articles for breweries and beers rather than stubs.
- Breweries mentioned in the regional articles that develop sufficiently to be spun off into their own full articles.
- Stand alone stub articles on breweries are not to be encouraged, but nor are they to be discouraged. However, it would be more appropriate if brewery information was started in a regional article and only moved out into its own article when there is sufficient information for the article to stand by itself.
- Beers should be written up as part of the brewery/company page, as WP:PRODUCT, unless shown to be notable; in which case the brewery's products should be broken out from the brewery/company article in summary style.
Following this approach, a brewery defines itself as notable by the ability of an editor to write a full and meaningful article supported by appropriate reference to reliable sources.