American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
While most rankings like this are devised to drive visitors to this site or that…this listing is more than vacant clickbait.
Here’s the deal…
RAVE reviews is an online site that combines lifestyle, entertainment and travel with product assessments. They recently published a ranking of the 30 Best Breweries in the Northeast that was interesting in its approach and not totally ridicules.
And while we may have some qualms about the listing’s order, things like Southern Tier and Two Roads Brewing being ranked higher than Vermont’s Hill Farmstead, on the whole it’s a very solid collection of breweries in the Northeast that are worth your time…
The ranking is constructed around the US Census Bureau’s definition of the Northeast, which includes, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, and its methodology is more nuanced than so many of these clickbait listings.
All of the craft breweries in this 2021 ranking have made it to several other “best of” lists, including Thrillist, Timeout, and Frommers. Then RAVE looked at sales rankings from Beer Advocate and the Brewers Association.to round out things.
The following criteria was used to determine the top breweries in the Northeast…
- Nostalgia factor– how well it reflects the local region’s attributes and culture
- Popularity factor– how popular is it based on sales and word-of-mouth
- Scarcity factor– how difficult it is to obtain and the demand for small batch runs
- Cult factor– how often people talk about it and the strength of its following
- Destination factor– how it treats visitors (tours, tasting rooms or restaurants, etc.)
Breweries can get up to 20 points for each. A 20 in any of the factors would make that factor a perfect score for that brewery and those scores once tallied determined the ranking’s order.
And here’s what they came up with…
Top Breweries in the Northeast 2021
- Trillium Brewing – Boston, MA
- The Alchemist – Waterbury, VT
- Southern Tier Brewing Company – Lakewood, NY
- Two Roads Brewing Company – Stratford, CT
- Brewery Ommegang – Cooperstown, NY
Hill Farmstead – Greensboro Bend, VT- D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc – Pottsville, PA
- Victory Brewing Company – Downingtown, PA
- Smuttynose Brewing Company – Hampton, NH
- Lookout Farm Brewing – South Natick, MA
- Brooklyn Brewery – Brooklyn, NY
- Allagash – Portland, ME
- Baxter Brewing Company – Lewiston, ME
- Jack’s Abby Brewing – Framingham, MA
- Plan Bee Farm Brewery – Poughkeepsie, NY
- The Church Brew Works – Pittsburgh, PA
- High Point Brewing Company – Butler, NJ
- Evil Twin Brewing Co. – Ridgewood, NY
- Hermit Thrush Brewery – Brattleboro, VT
- Schilling Beer Company – Littleton, NH
- New England Brewing – Woodbridge, CT
- Tree House Brewing – Monson, MA
- Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company – Newport, RI
- Maine Beer Company – Freeport, ME
- Notch Brewing – Salem, MA
- The Norwich Inn and Brewery – Norwich, VT
- Oxbow Brewing Company – Newcastle, ME
- Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewing Company – North Conway, NH
- Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Warren, VT
- Beer Tree Brew Co. – Port Crane, NY
