Top 5 WA Breweries.

Fremont
Skookum
Chuckanut
Georgetown
Silver City- keeping it local............

 

I probably wouldn't have come to them on my own if others hadn't mentioned them first, but I have been to the brewery and think their whole portfolio is pretty strong. Plus, it was a grab for street cred by naming a more recent brewery than the other four.

 

Given the similarity of all our lists, is it actually tough?

 

In no particular order:

E9
Chuckanut
Holy Mountain
Fremont
Wander

 

That's where I am with regard to Skookum. I've only had 3 or 4 beers from them, and all were IPAs. Good beers, certainly, but I definitely haven't had enough to get much of an opinion of the brewery.

 

No order:

Fremont
Skookum
Reubens
Stoup
Holy Mountain

I really wanted to include Floodland, but I feel the above five put out exemplary beer across a variety of styles. Same would apply to Machine House and Chuckanut for me. It's pretty amazing that Field To Ferment, BBomb, and Parkland Pils can all be from the same brewery. Same can be said about Three Fates, Midnight Still, and Astral Projection.

Stoup is a sleeper IPA hitter for me; they've been consistently putting out some of the best northwest/west coast IPAs I've had. Their barrel projects are pretty solid too.

Special mentions: Cloudburst (tough one), Bale Breaker, Georgetown, Structures, and Aslan.

 

Going with...

1. Fremont
2. Reuben's
3. Three Magnets
4. Everybody's
5. Silver City

Honorable mentions: Chuckanut, Bale Breaker, Georgetown, 54-40, and Paradise Creek

 

Wish I could think of some hot take, but it would have to be

Chuckanut
Fremont
Georgetown
Reuben's
Holy Mountain

Runners up: Bale Breaker, Wander, Cloudburst

 

Structures
Fremont
Skookum
Holy Mountain
Block 15

 

Block 15 is from Corvallis...?

 

Surprised not one Grains of Wrath mention(?).

 

Likely due to proximity, but they seem to deliver a hell of a lot more to Portland than they do Seattle. I never see kegs here. I forget that they're even in WA.

 

Reuben's
Floodland
Chuckanut
Fremont
Holy Mountain

 

I feel like I need to get to know the breweries outside of the city better than I do to have any sort of meaningful top 5. Similar to a bunch of replies as well, I think that to be considered as top X within the state, a brewery should demonstrate mastery at brewing multiple different styles. There are plenty of breweries where I've had great IPAs or great wild ales or great _____, but either I haven't seen much variety from them or at least I haven't tried enough variety from them (also a bunch that I just haven't tried enough offerings from in general to build an informed opinion [most of the Bellingham big hitters come to mind...]).
So for me I guess it would look like (in no particular order):

Fremont
Holy Mountain
Cloudburst
Black Raven
Silver City

I actually surprised myself with some of those, and there are a bunch who are right on the cusp, either because I just felt like they didn't quite knock one of the above off, or for the aforementioned reasons of lack of experience on my part and/or lack of diversity in what I've seen from them.
Also, of course, I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, ha!

Or to sum up:

We are fortuate.
Many great breweries here.
Tough, then, to narrow.

 

Missed the WA constraint: slip in Reuben's instead.

 

It seems like I need to make a stop in Arlington one of these days. I truly cannot think of seeing any Skookum beers on tap around my usual Seattle haunts that wasn't a hazy or milkshake IPA. Looking at their website, they obviously do much more than that and their year-round IPA is a west coast.