World's Best Beer Cities

[Shawn]

It's summer in Tokyo, and that means beer gardens everywhere. Time for a ranking list we can all drink to: Zane Lamprey's World's Top 25 Beer Cities.

1. Munich
2. Brussels
3. Dublin
4. Portland
5. Prague
6. Asheville
7. San Diego
8. Denver
9. Boston
10. London
11. Seoul
12. Milwaukee
13. Ho Chi Minh
14. Seattle
15. Montreal
16. Amsterdam
17. Philadelphia
18. Melbourne
19. Edinburgh
20. Chicago
21. Vilnius
22. Grand Rapids
23. Moscow
24. Mexico City
25. Tokyo

Ok, definitely a little too American-skewed. You're never going to convince me that Asheville tops London or that Grand Rapids beats out Tokyo. Here is Zane's intro to the list:

Originally Posted by The Article

Two perks of hosting television shows about traveling and drinking are that you get to, well… travel and drink! With “Three Sheets” (on MOJO, FLN, Travel Channel and Spike), “Drinking Made Easy” (on HDNet, now AXS.TV), and “Have Fork, Will Travel” (on Food Network), I have traveled to over 60 countries, to shoot over 120 episodes of television. Regardless of the show’s subject matter, be it food or drink, I have enjoyed local beers in all of those countries. The most popular questions that I’m asked about my experiences are: “What’s your favorite city to drink in?” and “What’s your favorite beer?” So, at the risk of alienating every reader, as no one is bound to agree with all of my choices, I decided to rank the 25 best beer cities of the world!

This was no easy assignment. Many cities have proud brewing traditions dating back centuries, while others are barely a few decades old. Also, as this is a list of the top beer cities, not countries, some locations that would be on the top 10 beer countries list, they have no specific city on this top 25 beer cities list. Sorry, Austria!

In the US, there are just over 1,900 breweries. There are nearly 10,000 worldwide. With 195 countries recognized by the US, and only 24 without a brewery, picking 25 cities within those remaining 171 countries was a challenge. Several countries with multiple breweries don’t even have a city on this list, including Liechtenstein (3), New Zealand (87), Denmark (135), Switzerland (335) and China (500).

This is a list of cities that are passionate about beer. They have been considered for their beer culture, beer history, and contributions to the world of beer. Some have rich traditions in beer, some are just coming into their own, but one thing is unanimous; these are beer cities.

[10023]

London is too low, San Diego is too high and New York City is conspicuously absent.

You could put about 15 cities in Germany ahead of Grand Rapids, and I just don't like Asian beer.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Ok, definitely a little too American-skewed. You're never going to convince me that Asheville tops London or that Grand Rapids beats out Tokyo. Here is Zane's intro to the list:

I'm not going to argue that Asheville tops an alpha city like London or Tokyo in anything (except weather data; we're tops in the world for that), but I will say that our beer is of excellent quality thanks to our excellent water and it's drawing attention. We managed to attract two major breweries to town in the same year (Sierra Nevada and New Belgium), and our selection of homegrown breweries is growing apace. The Asheville Brewers Alliance lists 17 local, homegrown breweries in and around the city -- that's a lot of beer flowing out of this city toward the far corners of the country and the globe.

[SHiRO]

Ho Chi Minh City instead of Bangkok, Singapore or Qingdao?

Grolsch is not an Amsterdam beer.

Still, most all cities I associate with beer are on there (no Copenhagen though), plus some strange ones that don't quite fit the rest...

[IWant2BeInSTL]

I'm sorry but this list is B.S. How are you going to put Denver, Milwaukee, and f*cking BOSTON on it and not St. Louis, especially considering that beer culture, history, and contributions comprise the bulk of the criteria? I don't think I'm just being a St. Louis cheerleader here, either. St. Louis had more beer gardens and breweries than any of those cities prior to prohibition and is home to the largest American brewer in the U.S. which invented the American lager and the refrigerated rail car making widespread distribution of beer possible. And not to knock Boston or Sam Adams, but the original Sam Adams recipe was created in St. Louis by Louis Koch in 1860 and then taken to Boston a century later by one of his descendents.

If the criteria were simply "which cities are CURRENTLY making the best new beer" then I'd let it slide as the modern microbrew culture in St. Louis, though it has taken off recently, is behind that of other cities on this list. However, given the stated criteria I don't see how this is anything other than typical anti-St. Louis bias. In terms of U.S. cities I'd say the criteria are closer to "which cities are the current media darlings and have had a brewery at some point?"

[Shawn]

Don't short change Boston on this one.

The existence of Samuel Adams and Harpoon - don't forget Harpoon! - probably earned Boston the No. 9 spot as one of the founding cities of American craft beer, but anyone who's been here the past two decades knows that the emergence of breweries like Pretty Things, Backlash, Blue Hills, Notch, Slumbrew, Mystic, Jack's Abby, and Clown Shoes puts Boston at the forefront of craft. World-class beer bars like the Publick House, Lord Hobo, Sunset, and Deep Ellum make Boston a great place to grab a pint. And then there's the traditional aspect: you've got bars like Doyle's in Jamaica Plain who pour a perfect pint of Guinness. Plus Boston has the highest beer consumption rate per capita in the country - we really love our beer.

How many award-wining craft breweries does St. Louis have? Cause Budweiser is a mark against the place as far as most beer fans are concerned...

[ardecila]

Uh, the list is based on the guy's travel experiences. He never claimed to know anything about the history of brewing or which cities were prominent in the past.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

I'm sorry but this list is B.S. How are you going to put Denver, Milwaukee, and f*cking BOSTON on it and not St. Louis, especially considering that beer culture, history, and contributions comprise the bulk of the criteria? I don't think I'm just being a St. Louis cheerleader here, either. St. Louis had more beer gardens and breweries than any of those cities prior to prohibition and is home to the largest American brewer in the U.S. which invented the American lager and the refrigerated rail car making widespread distribution of beer possible. And not to knock Boston or Sam Adams, but the original Sam Adams recipe was created in St. Louis by Louis Koch in 1860 and then taken to Boston a century later by one of his descendents.

If the criteria were simply "which cities are CURRENTLY making the best new beer" then I'd let it slide as the modern microbrew culture in St. Louis, though it has taken off recently, is behind that of other cities on this list. However, given the stated criteria I don't see how this is anything other than typical anti-St. Louis bias. In terms of U.S. cities I'd say the criteria are closer to "which cities are the current media darlings and have had a brewery at some point?"

In fairness, Budweiser isn't really beer (very slight exaggeration), and the list is about today, not history.

[Centropolis]

St Louis is the Rodney Dangerfield of historical beer cities. Fuckin' Budweiser! there was and is now more than people know.

[IWant2BeInSTL]

@ardecila: i should have read more closely. you're right; it sounds like he only ranked the cities he's visited. initially i read the last couple of sentences as a list of criteria but i guess they're not.

@mhays: see my comment to ardecila. i misread the last couple of sentences as criteria. not arguing that A-B makes (mostly) mass-produced shlock these days. but historically they're huge, and i thought that was a big part of the criteria.

@Shawn: i'm not short-changing boston, but i also think boston gets more attention in general because it's boston. saint louis has over 20 microbrews, several of them award winning (Schlafly, O'Fallon, Urban Chestnut and Perennial Artisan Ales to name a few), with more popping up every day. take a look in this SSP thread for a partial list:

link

can i ask where you got your info about boston consuming the most beer? i've never heard that one.

in any case it's all moot since i didn't read carefully. no more saying "criteria" for me.

[goat314]

The fact that St. Louis is not mentioned sorta illegitimizes this list in my humble opinion. The home of Budweiser "King of Beers" and arguably the largest brewing city in the US not mentioned? Suspect lists as usual.

[IWant2BeInSTL]

Originally Posted by goat314

The fact that St. Louis is not mentioned sorta illegitimizes this list in my humble opinion. The home of Budweiser "King of Beers" and arguably the largest brewing city in the US not mentioned? Suspect lists as usual.

GOAT, WATCH OUT! i did the same thing, but apparently the list is based on where this guy traveled and not on which cities have the richest beer history.

[pizzaguy]

Originally Posted by 10023

London is too low, San Diego is too high and New York City is conspicuously absent.

You could put about 15 cities in Germany ahead of Grand Rapids, and I just don't like Asian beer.

Some of the best beer in the world is made in San Diego. It deserves its spot.

[Derek]

Yeah the beer scene in San Diego is actually pretty decent. That's not a horrible spot for it. Portland seems fairly accurate. I'm pretty sure people drink more beer than water here.

[Naudin]

Nuremberg in Bavaria deserves a spot in this list. Nuremberg and the surrounded Fraconian swiss was and still is huge in beer production and breweries.

For example the small city Lauf near Nuremberg (30,000 citizens) had more than 900 breweries back then in the middle age until the 19th hundred century.
Sure , often it was just the licence for a family to brew but until today you can find small breweries with a kwnoledge of centuries in this business.

You can believe me that we have awesome beer in any kind of variation. (Smoke beer, red beer, strong beer and so many more)

Prague for sure, Pilsen should be there as well as Copenhagen. Dublin, Boston check.

Well one city near Nuremberg comes to my mind: Erlangen. A university city which celebrates the "Bergkirchweih" (mountain fair) which comes from stocking the beer barrels in the cool mountain cellars. Now they are all beergardens with several breweries.

Oh and don't forget the Nuremberg beerfest with more than twenty breweries....

Well too much information....sorry. If you want more information PM me.

[tdawg]

For Lagunitas alone San Diego deserves its spot.

[MolsonExport]

Which city drinks the most Bud (and/or Coors light, Keystone, etc.) per capita? whichever city achieves such an indubious distinction should be regulated to the bottom of any list, as Bud (and worse, Bud light or bud light lime) is steer piss, and nothing more.

Of course I do agree that Munich automatically must lead any such list of great beer cities. Hell, there was once even an attempted coup d'etat from a beer hall in Munich. Prague is up there, as it should be. Where is Copenhagen? Lille (northern france) is in former flemish territory and is much more beer-oriented than wine, as opposed to the rest of France. Montreal has a flourishing micro-brewery industry, and at one time was reputed to have more bars (and churches) per capita than anywhere else in North America.

Clairton, Pennsylvania, as depicted in the Deer Hunter. Those guys drank a shitload of beer, all the time.

For the record, I love Asian beer. But my favorite beers hail from Germany, Belgium, Britain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Holland, and Austria.

[Centropolis]

There are around 20 other breweries and growing besides A-B in the St Louis area and besides the old school non AB brands like Lemp and Greisedieck, too. Maybe that wouldn't put us on the list, but Budweiser could dissappear and a lot of people wouldn't care (besides the jobs). The Budweiser jabs can stop anytime...

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Boston has the highest beer consumption rate per capita in the country

we absolutely need a source on that lofty claim.

everything i've ever read on beer consumption rates, binge drinking, alcoholism rates, etc. have always pointed to wisconsin being at the top of the nation, so my gut instinct tells me that milwaukee would lead the way for american cities.

[TarHeelJ]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

we absolutely need a source on that lofty claim.

everything i've ever read on beer consumption rates, binge drinking, alcoholism rates, etc. have always pointed to wisconsin being at the top of the nation, so my gut instinct tells me that milwaukee would lead the way for american cities.

Is this ranking really a source of pride? I can't see it as something to argue about.