Top 5 Beer Countries

1. USA
1a. California
2. Colorado
3. Michigan
4. Oregon
5. Belgium

 

In order:

1) Belgium
2) Germany
3) USA
4) Netherlands
5) France or U.K.

Honorable mentions to Canada and Czech Republic

 

I'm somewhat surprised at the lack of Japan on a lot of these lists, though arguably the majority of their beer is not widely distributed. (And if it wasn't for trips to Singapore I wouldn't have tried even 1/4 of what I've had from Japan.) The sake brewers that have started making beer are producing world class product. Think of the cleanest German made beer, but applied to non-German style beers. (Saisons, IPAs, APAs, etc) It is an attention to quality that is unsurpassed.

 

USA
UK
Denmark
Belgium
Netherlands

 

You guys started early today? Surely any comparison in terms of numbers when it comes to the likes of beer should be done by head of population, I don't really see where size of country really comes into it with todays transport

EU is probably half the physical size of the US, similar population and has more breweries

UK is about 1/50ths size of US, 1/5th population and has 1/3 as many breweries

All this means is .....we all have good beer both sides of the pond now and it's still improving

 

Good ol' USA
Great Britain
Germany
Belgium
Canada just because it rides on America's coat tails

 

Awesome information. I hope they do distribute this more widely. I can see the craft of sake brewing translating well to beer. And I've always admired it. I haven't been anywhere in the Western Pacific for nearly 20 yrs, though. Sure miss the culture.

 

I've already alluded to countries with "honourable mentions" , many countries do have some world class brewers but can't be placed in the "top five"
That's because one swallow doesn't make a summer. To be a top beer country there surely has to be enough popular interest in "craft" beer and it should be generally available rather than just specialised outlets.Even the US has only 6% of its beer volume as craft ; the figures are higher in Northern European countries.France and Italy are basically wine drinking areas which happen to contain a small number of excellent breweries.It's a combination of quality with market penetration.

 

Top 5 empirically derived: USA, Belgium, "Scandinavia", Canada, UK&Ireland.

I computed the mean ratings of the top 50 beers from each country based on the BA ratings and here is the order:

usa 4.58
Belgium 4.38
Scandinavia 4.15
Canada 4.13
UK&Ireland 4.12
Germany 4.11
Netherlands 3.92
Italy 3.9
France 3.74
Australia 3.74
Japan 3.71
Brazil 3.23
Mexico 3.15

 

Personal preference:

Belgium
USA
UK
Netherlands
Germany

I might possibly bump USA up to #1 after I have more of the "famous" US brews. I've had the best Belgium has to offer and I'm in love. I've only had a good amount of the higher ranked US beer (Bells, Founders, Smutty Nose, etc...) but have yet to try Russian River and a handful of others. That being said, UK and Netherlands have some damn good beer and I want to try more, though I feel I've had a good enough amount to make a judgment. German beer I admit is very good in quality, but I'm just not wild about a lot of the styles that are more popular there.

It's been a couple years since I ran around in the UK but I can definitely vouch for the Netherlands as another European country having some very ballsy beers. Something I had a couple weeks back had lemongrass and chili pepper. Maybe I'm not as well versed in crazy beer, but that was very new for me (though I have seen pepper type beers) and I found it surprisingly good.

 

You need to remove .47 " 'murica, fuck yeah!" bonus that those scores include though

 

USA
Belgium
Germany
UK
Canada

 

But you shouldn't really be judging on the basis of a few "famous" beers , it should be on the ones that form the bulk of what's drunk.The OP asked for beer countries not best individual beers (which in any case are matters of taste and opinion) ie in which countries can a beer enthusiast easily and effortlessly find exactly what he wants wherever he happens to find himself.

 

You Brits are just bitter because we beat you in Vietnam.

 

WTF BOUT DA FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA BRO?

 

1. United States
2. Belgium
3. Czech Republic
4. United Kingdom
5. New Zealand (killer hops grown there gives it the wildcard)

 

Hard to beat the UK, Germany and Belgium's beer culture. Hard to out drink the Czechs. Hard to beat America, period.

 

1) Northeast (mid-Atlantic and above)
2) West Coast
3) Northwest
4) Midwest
5) South

 

I have lived a very large part of my life outside the US. In fact I wasn't even born here so I'd like to think I'm unbiased when I say the US is making the best beer in the world. I have traveled and/or lived in countries such as England, Canada, Ireland, Holland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, KL, HK, New Zealand and Australia. In my humble opinion.

1. US
2. Belgium
3. Germany
4. England
5. Australia (there is my biased homer pick)

 

Not that different from most people's lists.
In no particular order
Germany
Italy
USA
Belgium
UK