The Best (And Worst) US Beer Cities – 2023

You always have to take beer rankings done by financial or real estate sites for what they are…clickbait to drive you to their businesses.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun diversions…

Real Estate Witch is the latest to come up with a Best Beer City ranking based on the following…

• Breweries per capita
• Average price of beer
• Affordability of domestic beer
• Affordability of imported beer
• Average Yelp rating of breweries
• Average Yelp rating of bars
• Bars per capita
• “Beer passion” score based on Google Trends data

The weirdest aspect of the methodology that went into this ranking was the “Beer Passion” score…but it is what it is.

Notable Beer Stats from the 2023 Report

• Pittsburgh is the best beer city in the US. Steel City has more bars and breweries than the average city, high online search interest in beer, and low prices.
• Portland, Oregon, has the most breweries per capita, with 4.4 breweries per 100,000 people — more than triple the average city in our study (1.3 per 100,000).
• New Orleans has the most bars per capita, with an intoxicating rate of 60 bars per 100,000 residents — 3x the average city (19 per 100,000).
• Memphis, Tennessee, has the highest-rated breweries on Yelp, averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars.
• Las Vegas has the highest-rated bars on Yelp, scoring 4.35 stars on average.
• Detroit has the best beer prices, with the average beer costing $3.55 — about a dollar cheaper than the national average price ($4.78).
• New York City has the highest average beer price at $6.21.
• Residents of Oklahoma City have the most affordable beer scene, with a nightly domestic beer costing just 2.1% of the area’s average annual income.
• Boston and Philadelphia are the most passionate beer cities, each scoring a perfect 100 in our Google Trends metric, which measures online search volume for beer-related terms.
• Ohio is the best state for beer, with two cities ranking in the top 20: No. 2 Cincinnati and No. 20 Columbus.
• Missouri, the second-best beer state, is the only other state with two cities in the top 20: No. 17 Kansas City and No. 18 St. Louis.
• Los Angeles is the worst beer city overall. L.A. has the second-highest beer prices at $5.74 and just 0.3 breweries per 100,000 residents.

And now, (drum roll, please)

The Best Beer Cities of 2023

1. Pittsburgh, PA
2. Cincinnati, OH 
3. Milwaukee, WI 
4. New Orleans, LA 
5. Denver, CO
6. Louisville, KY
7. Indianapolis, IN
8. Nashville, TN
9. Charlotte, NC
10. Minneapolis, MN

But the end of the day, some beer scenes simply fall flat.

The Worst Beer Cities of 2023

1. Los Angeles, CA
2. Riverside, CA
3. Tampa, FL
4. Phoenix, AZ
5. Memphis, TN
6. Sacramento, CA
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Washington, DC
9. Birmingham, Al 
10. Virginia Beach, Virginia

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