Just to confuse matters, the way it used to be done is:
3 points for an unique entry ie. the only one.
2 points for the next non most popular entry ie. Two or more entries but not the most popular entered.
1 point for entering the most popular entry.
1 point was also awarded to everyone that entered a valid beer. The reason this was introduced in the past was simply because technically it was possible to have a valid entry and still receive zero points.
You could have 1 person with a max pointer beer, two people with a two pointer beer, three people with no points as four people entered the most pop beer.