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Right, Spotted Cow is the Miller of the NG line. It's so popular here that it sits on taps next to Miller, Bud, or whatever, in hick bars with 4 taps. But it's not very good at all.
I know a guy there, and he said they fund all their small batch beers (which are consistently high quality) with all that Spotted Cow dough. So I can't be too angry with it!
Actually, first met the dude at WI brewers showcase down the road at a bar I frequent. They had NG, Potosi, O'so, and a couple others...high quality brew night. I uncharacteristically tipped a few too many, and when there was a drawing, I turned around to look, leaned back, and pushed down on the New Glarus sample table, knocking over all the (full, and partially full) bottles and glasses he had set up. I felt dumb as heck, obviously, but he was quite cool about it. He told me a story from earlier in the year when he went to his (very pregnant) wife's Christmas party. She couldn't drink (obviously), so he doubled up and ended up knocking over his own table of beers! We laughed, and he filled my glass again (haha!). Over the course of the night, I got all kinds of stories from him. Next time I was out that way, the gal and I went to the brewery, and I saw him there. He took us around a bit and showed some of their backroom stuff. Beautiful brewery in a beautiful location, feels more like a winery. A buddy who travels the world for Lakefront Brewing told me that New Glarus is hands-down the shiniest/cleanest brewery he's seen outside Japan, and I can believe it. It sparkles. And the fruit/sours are the best.
Not to take away from Grand Rapids reputation as a leading beer city, because I think it's definitely become a major player. I don't think the "Beer City USA" title should be taken too seriously. It was decided by online voting. Local Grand Rapids media is notorious for shamelessly promoting those things. The two years it won the contest local residents overwhelmed the next nearest city (Ashville) which is prolly the biggest reason it won.
Aside from that I think it's still undervalued for its beer scene at this point.
Actually, the next nearest was Kalamazoo. Ashville came in third the one year that Grand Rapids won outright.
But I agree, online polls mean nothing as they can be influenced by media blitz.
Of course there are more unbiased views like this: 8 Underrated Beer Cities*|*U.S. News Travel
Here is a link saying Denver is the TOP DOG in the US. Hard to argue with it! So much great stuff here, both craft and Macro breweries! More beer is brewed in and around Denver than any other place in the US!!!
I voted Great Lakes (New Glarus, Two Brothers, Three Floyds, Rolling Meadows, Ale Asylum, Bell's, Surly, Great Lakes, etc.), but Pac NW is really great, too.
But Surly is not in the OP's Great Lakes, because they didn't put Minnesota with Great Lakes.
Which means that the Great Lakes region also does not include (off the top of my head) Summit, Fulton, 612, Bauhaus, Lift Bridge, Excelsior, Cold Spring, Mankato, and Schells's entire catalogue (not sure if they qualify as micro-brew).
It is also missing numerous places in Minnesota that have very, very limited or not distribution: Dangerous Man, East Lake, Town Hall, LTD, and Steel Toe, to name a few.
I voted Midwest just to be a homer, but in all honesty, I think PNW eeks out the Great Lakes on this one. If Minnesota were in the Great Lakes category with great beer producing states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana (and Ohio, I guess, I just don't know their beers too well), then Great Lakes would almost certainly come out on top.
Pretty sure that Metro Denver is either the largest or 2nd largest in the US. Denver or Portland Metros are probably 1 and 2 in the US. Not sure which is 1 and which is 2 though!!!!!!
I think it's Portland, San Diego, and then Denver. Either way, they are all really close to each other for tops.
I think it's Portland, San Diego, and then Denver. Either way, they are all really close to each other for tops.
Seattle is up there as well and actually has more breweries than any other metro area.
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E, MD, NJ, NY, PA, D.C.
