Best U.S. beer city: the poll

where is Minneapolis ? Dennis3951 had the good response

 

Um the city that has the most arrogant bar 2011 in the US isnt even on that list.

btw I dont see the Triangle of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill or Cleveland, OH.

 

People...it's March. This should be done in brackets. 32 cities, four 8-city polls, and the winners of each poll square off in a final four.

 

Portland hands down. It has more kickass breweries within a short distance. No other city has its density.

 

To those saying "where's the city I would have chosen?"... again, the limit was 10 (see the OP). Every city you mentioned in this thread was in my list and I was going to add them all; but when I hit 10 I couldn't add any more. So then I tried to be evenhanded to each region, and also probably favored larger cities over smaller towns. So Bend had to go, as did Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, Minneapolis, and a half-dozen other cities that didn't make the cut. I could be mistaken, but I don't think anyone in the other thread suggested a city from the state of New York.

Yes, the choice is subjective but I think these 10 cities are pretty representative of the most common answers. If I'd left off Boston or Chicago I guarantee we'd be hearing the same gripes.

And athough I didn't even think of doing it, providing "none of the above" or "other" as a choice would have eliminated one other city from the range of options. It's not perfect, but I think it's a fair list given the constraints.

 

And then we can create world peace and fly to the sun on the back of a magical unicorn.

 

San Diego for breweries maybe, Chicago for overall beer nerdiness.

 

Ive been to all these places. Lived in Philly and currently live in Boston. I voted for portland.

 

I have only been to Grand Rapids and Chicago on the list, and neither one of those would be the best I have experienced.

 

Not to knock the folks that live in DC, but best beer city?

 

Yeah... that was probably the last city that made the cut when I was trying to decide which cities to include/exclude. The reason? Apparently DC's unique distribution laws allow a much wider selection than just about anywhere else in the country. Plus I remember a place (apparently now closed) call the Brickskeller that had an amazing beer list when I spent a college semester in DC back in the early '90s. So admittedly, the 10 listed are not entirely objective. (Start your own poll! )

I might fine-tune this with another poll, cutting DC and Milwaukee and adding one other city (about a dozen would qualify) plus "other/none of the above." Not sure if that would settle much though; I'm thinking Portland, Philly, and San Diego will probably always end up in the gold-silver-bronze categories. Helluva trifecta to beat there.

 

Agreed

 

I like Denver the best, followed closely by Philadelphia

 

Grand Rapids. Biased opinion since I live 10-15 minutes from there, but we've got Founders, Hopcat, Siciliano's, and literally a metric shit-ton of breweries popping up all over the area, including one that'll be a five minute walk from my house. I just can't imagine a better place for beer.