Best small beer city

I'd definitely agree--not just the number but the quality of the breweries, I mean, come on--but wikipedia says 144,000 and OP called for small cities as he defined as less than 100K population. Though that may disqualify a few of the others mentioned here too, I haven't checked.

 

I like Burlington a lot, but haven't been to many of the other towns mentioned here (yet).

 

Bend, Oregon.

 

I'd say Burlington just barely edges out Portland but both are great cities to visit with some awesome beer bars and great local breweries.

 

Madison .Wisconsin

 

+1 to Ft. Collins: Odell's, New Belgium and .......Budweiser!

 

And don't forget funkwerks and crooked stave.

 

+1 for Kalamazoo but Portland ME is definitely a close second. Only if Allagash or MBC had a brew pub...

 

Just saw these pics of Bend's beer life: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/travel2017792186/1.html .

 

Bamberg, Germany is the correct answer. 9 breweries in the town center, plus 250 or more within an hour's radius. The Guinness Book agrees.

 

Durango Colorado

 

Where I live...your best beer is local.

 

Bend, Oregon kills it.

Two words: BONEYARD BREWING.

 

Last I checked, Madison had over 200k people, making it double the admittedly arbitrary 100k population cap that the OP suggested.

 

with a population at 17,000 people and at least five breweries i'm going to have to back this 100%.



as for ft collins, the population there is almost 200k, so i guess it's out of the running.

 

Basically it is Bamberg. I would suggest going, then going to the surrounding locales.

 

Grand rapids proper is almost 200k, and the metro area is over 700,000.

A lot of people aren't taking into account metro populations, that can be a huge factor.

 

I've never been, but I've heard great things about Fort Collins. Having grown up in Bend, I'm biased to that area. I visited Asheville, NC I can appreciate the town, but it doesn't compare to Bend IMO.

The only problem with Bend is the lack of jobs. That place still has a tremendously high unemployment rate, and a terrible real estate market right now for homeowners.

Other than that, it's great. Tons of beer and tons of stuff to do outdoors. Hard to beat!

 

Indeed. The downsides to being a playground for rich folks are that there's no jobs outside the service industry, and the home prices are fucking insane.

 

Fort Collins