Top Craft Beer States

A few weeks ago, my Twitter feed was filled with re-tweets of USA Today’s article listing the 10 Best Craft Brew States. Many people were excited that their state made the list. I was happy that my home state, Washington, was number two, finally getting some national respect.

The problem with the article was that the list was solely based on the number of Craft Breweries per state. True that the number of craft breweries is a factor in determining the best craft beer states, but what about breweries per capita, craft beer consumption, history, and quality? It is a difficult assignment, but with some research and ground rules you could probably do a little bit better.

When articles like this are posted, I skip right to the comments to see the backlash. In this case, people from states that did not make the list chirped in to say why their state should be listed, how their state is the best and that the writer doesn’t know anything. The commentary got quite comical and a little mean. I loved the ones that said “…where is North Carolina?”, that had responses that said “north of South Carolina”.

I used to get riled up at lists like this too since I have a strong bias for the Pacific Northwest. Lucky for me, the PNW was at the forefront of the movement in the 80’s and I have not known a time when craft beer wasn’t available (At least for the 21 years I’ve been of drinking age). Call me provincial, but if Washington, Oregon, Seattle or Portland, are absent from a “Best Beer States/Cities” list, I discount it.

Lately I’ve had a change of tune. It’s just exciting to see how many states, cities, and regions are taking claim to the best craft beer. How awesome is it that that craft beer has spread across the country?  People all over this great nation now have great local beer to drink, and they too are proud to support their breweries. It’s amazing! My motto is Traveling Globally, Drinking Locally. Visiting near and far away places to try the local beers, preferably fresh from the source, is my passion. It’s getting so easy to do now.  I love it!

To poke a little fun, I decided to do my own listing of the best craft beer states, that is completely random. What the heck. Now everyone can complain. It’s a double random list that I prepared with the help of Random.org. I first took a list of the states, plus Washington DC, and randomized it, and then I created a 1-51 random sequence, placed them in a spreadsheet, and then sorted starting with one.

The randomness gods have spoken and here is the list. It is best enjoyed while drinking your favorite craft beer. I think a few of the states are fairly accurate, Colorado would be in my top 4, but Oregon at 45 is comical. North Dakota, who knew?