American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
Financial and real estate firms have used beer as a way to draw visitors to their sites for years. Beer is seen as vital youthful and trendy… retirement info and refinancing rates, not so much. But this form of clickbait, while sometimes fun, can be tremendously misguided…as was this guide published by SmartAsset.
SmartAsset is a financial site that started ranking “best beer cities” in 2015 and they’ve just released last year’s findings. Their data is based on 296 of the nation’s largest cities. They started by calculating the total number of microbreweries and brewpubs per 100,000 residents which is reasonable.
But when they introduce the average Yelp score of breweries (!), the number of basic bars per 100,000 residents and the average price for a pint of a draft beer into the mix, things get ridiculously skewed especially from a craft beer perspective.
We’re fine with Portland Maine being ranked at #1. That’s consistent with the Brewers Association’s per capita findings and at least it’s a legitimate beer city.
And we’re cool (we guess) with Asheville, NC being ranked in the top 5.But a number #2 ranking for Asheville…before Portland, Oregon, Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington…really?
And absolutely no love for San Diego…REALLY?
Hey we’re happy that Billings Montana is beefing up their beer game. But even if every one of the state’s 1013 residents started drinking from breakfast on, it doesn’t warrant a #4 ranking as a best beer city. Are they counting in cattle?
And we’re sure Wilmington, North Carolina is a very nice place…But the number #7 beer town? Sorry, but not even close.
So here’s their rakings …See what you think. We think SmartAsset would be “smart” to stick with financials.
