List your top 10 breweries

That’s a top 10 list for the ages. Here’s a more philosophical question—are the best (“best”) beer brewing breweries necessarily the best overall breweries?

I’ve had some so-so beers and stellar experiences, and some stellar beers with so-so experiences.

 

Pfriem, Unibrou, Deschutes, I dunno.......

 

Off the top of my head

The Alchemist
Russian River
Human Robot
Forest and Main
de Garde
Root + Branch
Jester King
Suarez Family
Parish
Cantillon


And yes, I'm leaving out Tree House, Hill Farmstead, Trillium, etc.

 

The best way I could think of to answer this question was to list the 10 breweries that have produced the most beers that I’ve tried, based on my reviews (I try to review every new beer I try—with probably a 98% success rate). So here’s my list based on almost 14 years of reviewing beers, along with the number of unique beers from each brewery:

1. Fremont 63
2. Stone 44
3. Deschutes 40
4. Sierra Nevada 28
5. The Bruery 28
6. Boulevard 24
7. Firestone Walker 23
8. Holy Mountain 21
9. Dogfish Head 20
10. Lagunitas 20

Honestly some of my true favorite breweries didn’t make the list—e.g., Orval, Brasserie Dupont, Unibroue—because they don’t make that many unique beers, but what they do make are real favorites. So admittedly my methodology might be flawed—but I also would not have come back to any of the breweries on this list so often to try something new if what I’d already had wasn’t sufficiently impressive.

I should also note that I probably reviewed about half of all the beers I’ve tried in the first 3 or 4 years of my beer journey, before I settled into more of a pattern of tried and true favorites and seriously slowed down my reviewing pace. So that’s why basically none of these breweries are the shiny new thing. Some of them were once, though.

 

North Coast
Firestone
Fremont (non BA stuff)
Enegren
Two Coast
Stone
Brävery
Alesmith only because of Speedway( non BA)
Thats it

 

Sierra Nevada
North Coast
Cantillon
De la Senne
Schönrammer
Ghost Town
Crux
Russian River
Odd Side
Redwood Curtain

No real rhyme or reason beyond thinking of stuff I buy happily and regularly along with stuff I buy anytime I see it without thinking

 

Russian River
Sierra Nevada
North Coast
Weihenstephaner
Schneider Weisse
Other Half
Paulaner
Stone
Green Bench
Chimay

Guinness and Unibroue are interchangeable with any of those.

This is like an all time list of breweries/beers I've experienced.

 

-Jack's Abby
-Founders
-Sierra Nevada
-Firestone Walker
-Allagash
-Lagunitas
-Bell's
-Smuttynose
-Great Lakes
-Harpoon

Interestingly, my list is about the same as when this question came up 15-years ago.

 

My favorite breweries are the Iowa breweries that have consistently put out excellent beers of different styles. Here are a few, in no particular order:

Toppling Goliath (Decorah)
Lion Bridge (Cedar Rapids)
SingleSpeed (Waterloo/Cedar Falls)
PIVO (Calmar)
Tellurian (Charles City)
Gezellig (Newton)
Allerton (Independence)
Confluence (Des Moines)

 

1. Schilling beer co
2. Von trapp
3. Jacks Abby
4. Notch
5. Sacred profane
6. Human robot
7. Live oak
8. Fox farm
9. Forest and main
10. Dovetail

 

I’m going to limit this to breweries with taprooms or brewpubs I have also visited.

Ranking order based on overall experience (quality, diversity of style, taproom, staff/management/ownership, patrons, etc.), and how upset I would be if I found out they have closed permanently and or sold.

Current Top 10

1. Spiteful (Chicago)
2. Revolution (Chicago Taproom)
3. Beachwood (Huntington Beach CA)
4. 3 Sheeps (Sheboygan WI)
5. Hop Butcher For The World (Chicago)
6. 3 Floyds (Munster IN)
7. Firestone Walker (Marina del Ray CA)
8. AleSmith (San Diego CA)
9. Central Waters (Amherst WI)
   
10. Hop Nuts (Las Vegas NV)

Dropped Out:

• Tenaya Creek Sold, Beer Zombies still producing a few select beers.
• Goose Island Closure of OG Brewpub, anti worker management.
  
• Bell’s Sold, Chicago distribution dropped off thereafter.

 

Hmm, lets see...

In no order:

Ayinger
Traquair
Timothy Taylor
Orval
Saint Arnold
Riggs Beer Company
True Anomaly
Weihenstephaner
Sierra Nevada
Cantillon

Notes:
Riggs has kind of taken the place for Live Oak for me, for my favorite German style brewery in the U.S. Still love Live Oak, but they are getting harder to find around me, and when I do they are really old six packs. Real Ale would be in consideration, but again, I don't get them all that often as they are not very fresh when I see them anymore either. I haven't had Timothy Taylor in a while, since I worked in the UK, but they are that good on cask. Boon, 3 Fonteinen, Hanssens are all up there as well. Lots more that I haven't mentioned of course, like North Coast and Deschutes are also up there. Russian River needs to be mentioned as well, but I'll give that spot to another brewery as it is already mentioned a lot and I just want to include more local stuff to me

 

I am listing my all-time top 10, whether I still purchase their products or not at this point (looking at you Stone):

2SP Brewing (PA)
Stone (CA)
Sierra Nevada (CA)
Deschutes (OR)
Dogfish Head (DE)
Selinsgrove (PA)
AleSmith (CA)
Firestone Walker (CA)
Great Lakes (OH)
Founders (MI)

 

Tough one. I'll go with these in no particular order:

Kloster Andechs
Cantillon
Chimay
Het Anker
Sierra Nevada
De Struise
Mountain Sun
Able Baker
Giesinger
Breakside

I didn't really mention any of my favorite German (or Belgian) places in the US since I might as well just go with their source material.

 

Random thought burst:

Firestone Walker
Cigar City
3 Sons Brewing
Founders
Chimay
Epic Brewing
MIA Beer Company
Brasserie La Debauche
Fort Myers Brewing
Avery Brewing

 

I'm going to go with places I've actually visited, and also had their beers either from distro, trades, or in person.

1. Side Project (though, they'd drop out of #1 if they didn't have their Cellar location)
2. Live Oak
3. Alma Mader
4. Cohesion Brewing
5. BKS Artisan Ales
6. Cantillon
7. Odell
8. Machine House (both locations I have visited are now closed..?)
9. Monkish Brewing Company
10. Jester King

That list would probably change depending on the given day and my mood. All of those places serve up great beer and offer a fun place to visit. Meaning I'd be happy to sit in any one of those taprooms for awhile, enjoying great beer and company. Don't forget to bring some discs to Live Oak for a round or two of disc golf!

 

For me, a top brewery must do multiple styles well. In no particular order

Treehouse
Hill Farmstead
Sante Adairius
Tired Hands
Side Project
Bissel Brothers
Trillium
Schilling
Maine Brewing
Firestone Walker

 

Fat Heads (Ohio)
Troegs (PA)
Founders (MI)
Goose Island (IL)
Sierra Nevada (Ca)
3 Floyds (IN)
Surly(MN)
Cinderland (PA)
Firestone Walker (CA)
Ballast Point (CA)