Another best brewery list.

I used to get upset reading any “best” of anything listing. They are all obviously, and sometimes laughably wrong.
Now, I don’t care about rankings based on subjectivity. I look at lists like these as suggestions as to something I may have missed.

Decent list. Not entirely on board with the actual placement of some of them but, overall, not bad.

Agree with the breweries that made the list, but the order seems a little out of whack.

Stone #2 over Russian River? Flawed list.

Not familiar with #1 (Founders Brewing).

Ummmmm, really?

It’ll be interesting to see how the new Dark Horse show changes their list placement… Sadly I’m sure it’ll make their beer harder to come by.

No Lawson’s, Alpine or Societe?

27 better breweries than Hill Farmstead & The Alchemist at 21? Sure, OK.

Lolz’ing at Evil Twin.

No matter how good Heady Topper is or isn’t, a brewery that produces only one beer does not deserve to even sniff a best brewery list.

Societe is tough. It’s delicious but they have zero distro. Their beers are impossible to enjoy unless someone ships you a growler. Not many breweries don’t bottle.

They produce more than just heady.

Yep…but they’re also barely a blip above Societe in terms of distribution. Only a handful of retailers in a 20-30 mile radius of Waterbury, VT (including the occasional pop-up truck sale). The brewery itself is closed to the public for any sales whatsoever.

Anything is better than zero!

Please turn in your beer drinker’s card immediately.

Agreed, but therein lies their quality. Boneyard falls into this as well. Russian River only distributes to three states outside Ca, & it really could be just 2 as they distribute kegs to Philly places, but don’t send bottles to Pa state stores.

New Glarus was only distributing in state & Surly is only Mn & Illinois.

Tom- I’m going to PM you next time I get some of the new Alchemist cans.

Nice list of breweries, disagree with rankings, but all lists are inherently flawed if based on subjective criteria. I’ve had beers from most of the list, either through distro or trades. Toppling Goliath, Goose Island and Westbrook are big omission IMHO. Agree that Alpine should be on there if Alchemist is listed, same limited distro. Some very limited regional stuff not listed but great breweries off the top of my head…Beachwood, Funky Buddha, Lawson’s, Pipeworks, actually too many to list. These lists are silly.

Unfortunately my gout diagnosis already did that for me.

But as for this Founders Brewing, can one get it in California?

I don’t believe the good stuff is available.

Distribution and availability absolutely has to be part of the equation when discussing breweries, along with the quality of the beers themselves. Consistency of production as well. The #50 brewery, Devils Backbone, has been Small Brewery of the Year twice in a row at the GABF, and yet it can be debated they may not even be the best brewery in Nelson County, which only has a total of three. Many of the geekier beer drinkers (our own Bob Hudak among them) think Blue Mountain is a much better brewery, and there is little doubt BM is more creative, brews beers with more risk/reward. But as a brewery that have had more availability issues and had to recall several releases (though some recent expansions/reinvestments will likely fix some of these issues going forward). Devils Backbone does everything very, very well, and they knock them out like clockwork.

I will also say I am completely OK with breweries not trying to get their beers out all over creation. There are very, very few beers styles for which you can’t find at least one excellent version within 500 miles of us here in VA. I would much rather spend time pursuing breweries like Wicked Weed out of NC than sweat the multitude of issues trying to get Societe here.

Anthony-Only reason RRBC still goes to Philly is because of their relationship with Monk’s Cafe. Actually, can say that about a lot of breweries that just go to Philly. We used to get RRBC in Virginia when they were still at the Korbel facility, and the distributor still has a good relationship with them, so VA has as good a chance as anybody else in the country.

I don’t think they get that far west as of now. The really great stuff…like Kentucky Breakfast stout (KBS)…doesn’t get too far out of Michigan.

I found a 4 pack in SC once… gets better and better with age.

Of the top 27 on the list, 24 of them are among the 50 biggest Craft Breweries in the country (the outliers being Russian River, Cigar City, and Prairie), and given the way the list was compiled this isn’t a surprise. Personally, I like RateBeer’s list better though it’s 100 breweries and encompasses the world.