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LOVE Allagash White and Sierra Nevada will always have a warm place in my heart. Went to Chico State in the mid-eighties and their vintage rail station turned brewery there was a frequent destination for ale and darts.
No doubt about it!
Talk about hard- Some of the Belgians and Tripels in particular that Allagash has done has made them immortal in the US, even to this day.
As for Sierra, it was one of the very few breweries that revolutionized the modern IPA. Wave two came via Hills / The Alchemist in VT.
Pretty awesome you were there, in prime time, and able to go to the brewery. Sierra is legendary.
I've generally always heard Portland, San Diego, and Denver as the top beer cities.
Speaking on Portland, we have a good number of acclaimed breweries like Breakside, Great Notion, Cascade, Hair of the Dog, Upright, Modern Times, and Ecliptic. A lot of the best breweries are concentrated in the inner Southeast neighborhood, so if you're visiting Portland for beer tourism, you can hit up a handful of top notch breweries within close walking distance of each other. If you venture just an hour or two outside of Portland, you can hit up Pfriem, de Garde, Fort George, and Pelican.
I don't know if it's quite top 5 but Austin should rank very highly. I believe the Central Texas region including the hill country has 100+ breweries a few of which are truly world class.
Some smaller cities with outsized beer scenes are Bend, Fort Collins, and Asheville.
I don't know if it's quite top 5 but Austin should rank very highly. I believe the Central Texas region including the hill country has 100+ breweries a few of which are truly world class.
Some smaller cities with outsized beer scenes are Bend, Fort Collins, and Asheville.
Add Boise to the list of smaller cities with an impressive local micro brewery scene. They are all over downtown and the rest of the city and Metro.
Idaho is the second largest grower and producer of hops in the nation and the top state for barley growth and production. There's a good chance Idaho grown products are used in your fave beers brewed in your city.
The largest hops farm in the world is surrounded by forests in North Idaho.
Idk what you mean. Binny’s is an incredible liquor store with loads of imports... Maybe that’s where you’ve been?
If you mean the stouts - Like Bourbon County and Deth’s Tar, etc. They’re good, great even. But I’ll take an Alchemist Beelzebub or Great Notion Double Stack or Maine Fall Coffee right up there, or over those. And that porter/stout style is really what people have decided Chicago does well (aside from hop butcher NEIPAs).
The seemingly weekly / monthly Porter or Stout releases from Tree House or Trillium blow doors off of the comps in Chicago, to be honest.
I think I mean, it seems a high proportion of the package stores in Chicago have the best selection of international bottled beer in multiple locations.
In New York or Boston, i cannot find a lot of the beer I would drink in Europe. However, in Chicago I have been abled to find every single beer of interest at multiple places in Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Uptown.
I think thats an interesting feat for Chicago. The draught or local IPA scene may not be as strong as those other five.. but i do find the imported beer selection is absolutely phenomenal. Chicago also remains the only place in America where Ive seen Augustinar on draught year round at three bars. Brilliant.
I don't think it's possible to have a productive conversation on this subject with someone who dismisses one of the country's most critically acclaimed craft breweries as "totally average, at best." With that said, I'm out.
And to whomever left me a comment claiming I've been duped by New Glarus's marketing machine -- what on Earth are you even talking about? I have literally never seen or heard a New Glarus ad of any type in my entire life; not on TV, not on radio, not in a magazine, not even in those free craft-beer newsletters stacked in the entryway of your favorite craft beer bar. The only New Glarus marketing material I've ever seen in third-party settings are signs and posters bearing their logo (and maybe their "Life is too short to drink cheap beer" catchphrase) hanging in bars and liquor stores. And I have to travel 50 miles from my home to even see those.
Which brings me to another point: we're talking about a brewery whose products aren't even distributed outside of Wisconsin -- just how big do you think their marketing reach or budget really is?
FYI: I did not include cities like Portland (ME), Burlington (VT) , or Asheville (NC). Yes they have great beer, but no they cannot stand up to major metros.
The Worcester, MA metro packs a punch for a smaller one. Tree House, Wormtown, Greater Good, Wachusett, and River Styx are all pretty great. The only certified Trappist beer in the US is brewed in Spencer.
I’m a beer fanatic.. Just like judging a local food scene, I love trying local beer when traveling.
Whether it’s creativity, “culture”, raw amount of breweries... What say you? Please include your local breweries worth trying!
My “Big 5” Metros:
New York City
Boston
LA
Portland (OR)
Denver / Boulder
FYI: I did not include cities like Portland (ME), Burlington (VT) , or Asheville (NC). Yes they have great beer, but no they cannot stand up to major metros.
Portland and Burlington don't really work here because they're not major metros, but they've got better beer than just about every major city in the US. Heck, Waterbury VT (population 5000) has better beer than two or three of the cities on your list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mwj119
Portland was, is, and will always be a world class beer town. Commercial success aside. Seattle, take note.
As for New York... It’s... Well, it’s a wagon. Other Half, Finback, Grimm, Singlecut, Torch, Gun Hill. I’d say NYC is high on quality, low on quantity, which is counterintuitive. But it’s a great beer town in the boroughs.
New York belongs at or near the top of the list not because of the breweries that exist within the city (which are pretty good), but because of the actual beers you have access to at a typical beer bar/restaurant or store.
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