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ThePourFool
As part of a research project, back in December, I started compiling a list of the nation’s beer meccas; those areas where a beer aficionado can go and taste to his/her geeky little heart’s desire and know that almost every stop will be filled with wonders.
So, after making my own preliminary notes, I googled “Ten Best American Beer Cities” – and two variations thereof – and started to read.
For the first minute or so, I was puzzled. Then baffled. Then appalled. Just for an example, GQ gave the title of America’s best city to Los Angeles, a city that sports no real nationally-prominent breweries (with apologies to everyone who brews there) but has a fair number of mid-tier, fledgling, or sometimes downright mediocre producers. Travel + Leisure at least came up with a plausible Numero Uno, Portland, Oregon, but ranked what is pretty much inarguably the nation’s best single metro area, San Diego, as eighteenth, behind the likes of Savannah, Austin, Charleston, South Carolina(!)(?), and Anchorage! I read a total of 23 lists, including one in which the author names a tiny, ramshackle brewpub in rural Montana in his top five and left off Portland and San Diego altogether.
I was stunned. These websites were all large, reputable, well-funded businesses which could have easily assigned any passing beer geek to amass such a list. Instead, when I started to check around, I found that the ten lists were by:
4 travel editors and/or contributing authors, NONE with any experience as a beer writer
2 human interest writers
1 writer of bicycling coverage
1 one alternative music reviewer
2 freelance assignment writers, neither of whom had any background at all in beer journalism.
NONE of the people who authored these lists were any more than semi-casual beer fans. None had written extensively about beer at all, except for one guy who had written a detailed exploration of funky brewpubs in which fighting or arm-wrestling were the main events, for which the production of beer served as a slightly-exotic adjunct.
I searched twenty-six pages deep into google and found NO lists written by anyone professing to be an avid beer freak. I don’t blame the people who wrote these tragically misguided/uninformed lists. They’re just writers trying to patch together an income in a hideously difficult profession. I DO blame their editors, to whom credibility and any hint of acumen clearly meant nothing – beer as a page-filler along the lines of padding out short columns with “Fun Facts and Anecdotes”.
The list of these cities actually isn’t all that hard to compile. Any semi-studious American craft-beer fan could have done it but, obviously, none were contacted. There will be debate, of course; there always is, no matter how definitive a list may seem. But what’s below represents a FAR more plausible picture of the nation’s brewing hot spots than anything on those 26 google pages.
The criteria are simple: the largest clusters of A) total breweries and B) outstanding, nationally-recognized breweries. No fluff about civic amenities, nearby tourist attractions, or restaurants and spas. This list is about BEER, period – where to find it, how many, and how good. Is it subjective? Yes, in the same sense that any list of anything that’s not complied by ALL the interested parties in the particular genre is going to be subjective. But I believe that this list is going to pass muster with most hard-core craft beer fans and that the Honorable Mention cities are mortal locks to realize their potential. So, without further ado…
AMERICA’S REAL TOP TEN BREWING CITIES
Number One: San Diego, California
With superstars like AleSmith, Green Flash, Coronado, Port, Lost Abbey, Alpine, Stone, Societe, Ballast Point, Iron Fist, Mike Hess Brewing, the remarkable and venerable Karl Strauss Brewing, and the emerging AutomaticBrewingCo., and Rip Current, it’s inarguable that SDCA has more sheer brilliance per square mile than any other American city. Hosting Stone, Port/Lost Abbey, Alpine, and AleSmith alone would have made the SD area Top Dawg but both the numbers and quality seal the deal. According to the state of CA, the metro area surrounding SD currently has 39 pending brewery licenses. Obviously, quality breeds quality and the future for this SoCal vacation paradise is so bright they have to brew wearing shades. San Diego is simply the best brewing city in America.
Number Two: Portland, Oregon
Diversity: that’s PDX’s main virtue; as wide-open a beer scene as you’ll find anywhere on the planet makes The Rose City an even better choice for a brewing destination than San Diego, if your goal is to explore all corners of the American beer envelope and take repeated walks on The Wild Side. Cascade Brewhouse, the sublime Upright Brewing, the granddaddy of all America’s eccentric, “Outside the Box” brewers, the amazing Hair Of The Dog, the botanical wizardry of Breakside Brewing, the Gluten-Free ingenuity of James Neumiester’s Harvester Brewing, the delightfully unfettered The Commons, and the sheer powerhouse virtuosity of the new Gigantic Brewing, coexist beautifully with stalwarts like Alameda, Old Lompoc, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Laurelwood Brewing, Amnesia, Burnside, Coalition, and satellite bastions of powerhouses Rogue and Deschutes to form a tightly-woven tapestry unmatched anywhere in the world.
Number Three: Seattle, Washington
When it comes to tweaking, rethinking, modifying, and improving the more-established styles of ales, Seattle’s rapidly-expanding legion of brewers has no equal. Seattle is best described as the soggy, northern version of San Diego, a scene primarily built on playing the Greatest Hits – Pales, Ambers, ESBs, Stouts, Porters, IPAs, and what constitutes America’s Core Beers – gilded with rich veins of delightful experimentation. Seattle’s army of breweries has been slow to get into the practice of bottling and widely distributing their beers. Until five years ago, in fact, only Pike, Elysian, Red Hook, Pyramid, and Maritime Pacific packaged anything at all. This reticence wasn’t caused by isolation: the breweries simply sold everything they brewed locally. Now, with bottling and canning on the rise, people everywhere are able to sample Schooner Exact, Emerald City Beer Co., Fremont, Snoqualmie, Two Beers, Sound Brewing, Trade Route, Harmon, Big Al and other packagers, as well as drawing in tourists who explore the tap-only glories of Mac & Jack’s, Georgetown, Wingman, Powerhouse, Brickyard, Dirty Bucket, Twelve Bar, Naked City, NW Peaks, Black Raven, and the extraordinary new Reuben’s Brews, and they’re liking what they taste. The quality standard here is incredibly high and the brewing community is as tightly-knit as any in the US.
Number Four: Denver-Boulder, Colorado
For purposes of clarity – since they are two distinct localities – we separated out Denver-Boulder from Longmont-Fort Collins-Loveland. If we had combined the two, the resulting brewing mega-plex would have been Number Three but even on its own merits, Denver-Boulder is just barely edged out by Seattle’s bedrock brilliance. Also for clarity, we could easily flip-flop Denver at four and Longmont+ at 7, but for the inclusion of Boulder into the Denver metro. Avery, Boulder Beer, Upslope, Twisted Pine, and Mountain Sun, along with Denver’s own towering Great Divide, simply add up to more quality focus than do the Longmont+ majors. But then add in the amazing, emergent Palace of Sour/Brett, Crooked Stave, the funky elegance of Renegade, the sheer artistry of the year-old River North, the blue-collar panache of Wit’s End, the startling suburban brilliance of Dry Dock, the schizo grandeur of Copper Kettle, the endearing eccentricity of Strange Brewing, and what may well be America’s best brewpub and restaurant, the dazzling Bull & Bush, and what you have is an entire emergent scene that’s just starting to blossom and is nearly as wildly diverse as Portland.
Number Five: Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, Michigan
There is just no arguing with what’s gushing out of GR/K these days. This small area of a state better known for cars and college football is killin’ it in craft brewing. Founders, Bell’s, Arcadia, Dark Horse, Brewery Vivant, Hop Cat, and New Holland in one place is about as potent a fifty square miles as you’ll find anywhere outside of San Diego or Portland. According to the local lore, Founders and Bell’s, the area’s two giants, both had fairly rocky starts before their undeniable quality started to win over the state’s legions of BudMillerCoorsPabst die-hards. Today, these two and the others in this dynamic community are icons of Michigan pride and among the most universally-respected American craft brewers. Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo may not have the vacation-spot allure of San Diego or Portland or Seattle but the chance to sample breweries like these in such a small geographic frame is going to be near-impossible for any real craft-beer aficionado to resist.
Number Six: San Francisco, California
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