What are your top 5 beer cities?

1. Minneapolis, MN
2. St. Paul, MN
3. Duluth, MN
4. Rochester (area), MN
5. St. Cloud (area), MN

 

Hah! Hmmm..

I'm good with that.

There is so much good beer being brewed, but kinda spread out, so just cover the regional area. When I visit Portland, I don't think of it as visiting the city. I go to look for beer (and breweries) that happens to be in the city.

 

Larry, that is a very poignant point.

I suspect that when most BAs posted in this thread about the 'best' beer cities it was biased towards the beers brewed within those cities when just as importantly it should be considered how good is the selection of beer from non-city breweries.

During my last visit to Portland, ME (2019) I must confess that I too was of the biased sort since I solely visited a number of Portland breweries and drank the beers in the taprooms (e.g., Allagash, Definitive, Foundation, Austin Street, Oxbow, Goodfire, Lone Pine,...). Hindsight being 20/20 I wish I had explored the broader beer scene in Portland.

Cheers!

 

1. Chicago
2. Minneapolis
3. Denver
4. San Diego
5. NYC

The regional bias is real. I don't know as much about the east coast. I don't trust my own rankings as much as some other Beer Advocates who are better traveled. Furthermore, each city specializes in their own style. (For example: hard to beat SD in a WCIPA)

 

San Diego, number one. I'm still researching to find numbers two through five.

 

Maybe we can all agree that SD was a West Coast IPA mecca? That’s a bit narrower than saying it was the “original craft beer mecca in the U.S.”—especially since stuff was going on in NorCal, Portland, and a few other places much earlier than the late 1990s/early 2000s…

 

Worldwide:
1. Brussels
2. San Diego
3. Prague
4. Edinburgh
5. Portland, OR

6. Denver
7. Portland, ME
8. London
9. Burlington, VT
10. Boston (because I know it well)

 

Today's Scottish brewers using peat smoked malt might be them using a foreign tradition to a certain degree. While there's debate if Scottish brewers ever used such malt for beer brewing, the prevailing wisdom is that they probably didn't use such malt for the last few centuries. It's connection to Scottish ale is more of a foreign caricature due to whisky.

 

Tulsa is coming on for sure.

 

1. Portland, Maine
2. Richmond, Virginia
3. Asheville, NC
4. Tampa Bay, FL
5. Burlington, Vermont

These are in no particular order. Light on west coast as been to many of those cities already.

 

No particular order:

Grand Rapids
Kalamazoo
Ann Arbor
Detroit
Grand Rapids again.

Cheers.

 

Huey Lewis agrees! My list was a joke BTW. A few old timers got it I’m sure.

 

Homer! (And I don't mean like your list hit a home run. )

 

I want to build on PapaGoose03's list (below) because he separated U.S. from international; making the question more manageable. (It's also the list I most agree with.)

Two other points before I embellish his list.

First, we should consider metros and not just cities. Vibrant crafters proliferate in a city, but then start their own shops often in the suburbs (where more people live in the U.S.)

Second, we should consider regions. This is particularly useful for the Belgian and Bavarian traditions since regions specialize based on ingredients availability, competing with the next town based on something more important that sports, etc.

Below I edit based on regions and substitute San Diego for Bend; and Scotland, after dividing up Brussels/Brabant into its two dominant ale cultures.

 

I've been to 4 of the 5. Regensburg was my favorite of your list, although I have drunk way too much in Brugge and Bamberg.

 

1. Des Moines IA - Why does their local Target have a better beer aisle than most of NY's beer stores? Also the Jack Daniels across from the beer cooler is just not fair. I scored Surly tall boy 4 packs for $8... it was $7.99 for a 6 pack of Bud at the time in NY. Seriously just not fair.
   
   
2. Syracuse NY - I think people are sleeping on this one and I'm possibly starting an argument, but here it is. Good craft. Lots of cool bars and pubs with great local flavor and food. Dinosaur BBQ is amazing and the beer selection ain't too shabby at all for a supposed biker bar. You can drink on the cheap. You can drink on the expensive. You can do both in the same 1 mile radius. Always a good time.
   
   
3. Brooklyn, NY - Six Point. Brooklyn Brewing. Coney Island. I could go further, but I'm not sure I should. We'll be here all day. Almost as many bars and breweries as there are men with beards and beanie caps. Craft beer heaven and although being a hipster helps to enjoy it is not required for the craft experience.
   
   
4. Buffalo, NY - This is less about craft brewing and more like I never expected to be able to legally wander through an entire city block with a cup that I paid one price for and then openly go from bar to bar for refills. In my early 20s it was just awesome-- I'm not sure how that translates into my mid-40s, but... nostalgia. To be young again. *Sigh*
   
   
5. Philadelphia, PA - Specifically the Market Street and "historic Philly" areas. Yes, there's a bit of "tourist" to it all, but drinking in pubs that were originally built in the 1700s is pretty cool. Lots of good craft brews though Yard's is the possibly best (Outside bar? Check. Inside bar? Check. To go 6 packs? Check.) and you should start there. Wander a bit off the beaten path and you find all sorts of funky very good restaurants to try each with its own ethnic beer flair. My first Tsingtao beer was here in a small, but well loved local Chinese Restaurant chain that specialized in Schezuan Chinese food (Han Dynasty) in the early 2000s well ahead of when I found it a decade or so later anywhere else. Wander too far... you might be mugged... just saying, but stay where it doesn't look like a war zone and you'll be good. Believe me... you'll know if you go far far off that beaten path.

 

If OP wanted us to consider metro areas or regions, he would have named the thread suchly. Color within the lines.

 

Dino is one of the things I miss most since moving out here 22 years ago.

 

Only including cities I've enjoyed beer in and in no order:
Portland, Oregon
Portland, Maine
Asheville
Philadelphia
Denver
(Honorable mention given to NYC)

International top 5 I would pick
London(pub culture is great and I love the Bermondsey beer mile)
Copenhagen
Tallinn
Prague
Berlin

 

They have one in Newark and the Bronx too. You can also find their sauces at Shop Rite and Price Chopper super markets along in others. It's not quite the same, but that's how I get my fix of Slathering Sauce for the last 8 years plus.