(Munster, IN) – Three Floyds Brewing continues to dominate RateBeer’s annual list of best breweries, beers, bars and retailers.
Per RateBeer’s Joe Tucker, “Over 3.5 million times, RateBeer beer reviewers worldwide have raised a glass to review a new beer. We have tallied those scores and now present them as our competition results. RateBeer Best was again the largest beer competition in the world — more than 140,000 beers from over 12,000 brewers worldwide were tallied.”
Three Floyds has finished in the top two out of thousands of breweries for the past several years (since 2003).
Other highlights…
Breweries: The top eight brewers are all based in America. Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont is a tiny operation that rose up faster than any other brewery over the past year from 34th to 6th. Boston Beer Co. jumped onto the list at #85.
New Breweries: Anchorage Brewing Co. out of Alaska was named the new brewery of the year. Like Hill Farmstead, Anchorage is a tiny operation and the two breweries have a collaboration brew to take place this year. Haymarket Pub & Brewery out of Chicago, High Water Brewing out of Chico and Urban Chestnut out of St. Louis were the other U.S. brewers mentioned.
Beers: Westvleteren 12 reclaimed the top spot from Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter. This will only fuel media reports and frenzy around Westvleteren 12’s release in the U.S. this spring. Goose Island Rare Bourbon County Stout was named the best beer by a U.S. brewer supplanting Russian River Pliny the Younger.
It should be noted also that #2 and #3 are Founders and Bell’s, both from Michigan. In fact, Michigan breweries occupy 7 spots in the world’s best breweries list.
And in the Top 50 best beers in the US, Michigan has 7 entries (ALL of the Top 3), including multiple entries from Founders and Bell’s, as well as entries from Kuhnhenn and Dark Horse.
You’re welcome, world.
Cheers from The Great Beer State.
Im pretty sure this is correct, but AleSmith has been in the top 10 ever since this list has started. Am I wrong? are there more? Assuming 3 Floyds has been as well!
You’re probably right on AleSmith.
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Yes, Three Floyd’s is awesome, and yes, Much love from “the glove!”
While I appreciate the top breweries on the list (and frequently enjoy their beers often), the simple fact must be stated that more midwest locale use the website and vote for beers. Thus skewing the data. It’s a simple fact of a)availability to specific markets and b) propensity of that market to vote
Bob, it’d be interesting to see what the Indiana/Illinois/Kentucky average for Three Floyds ratings is versus other locales though it wouldn’t surprise if they are better due to higher freshness of the beers. If your theory were true, I think we would see more California breweries higher on the list and AleSmith at #1.