Untappd Names The Top 5 Breweries Of 2021

Untappd is an immensely popular geosocial networking service and mobile phone app that allows its users to rate the beers they’re drinking, and share those check-ins and their locations with their friends.

Founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather in 2010, Untappd has an enormous following among beer lovers whose check-in’s provided the data used in this ranking.

And now (drum roll please) Untappd’s Top 5 Breweries of 2021

Tree House Brewing (Charlton, MA)

Tree House Brewing, which in addition to its flagship production facility in Charlton has two additional breweries in Deerfield and Sandwich, MA and a farm location in Woodstock, CT, reclaimed the top spot in 2021 after a brief stint in the #2 position in 2020.  But what makes Tree House Brewing’s dominance all the more striking is that the brewery doesn’t distribute. You have to travel to one of their locations to enjoy their beers.

Other Half Brewing (Brooklyn, NY)

Another American regional Other Half Brewing was ranked as the #2 most checked in brewery in the world in Untappd’s year-end ranking. Up from number five in 2019 and number three in 2020, the Brooklyn-headquartered company has a larger production facility near Rochester, NY and a boutique brewery in Washington, DC. It also made big moves in direct-to-consumer distribution throughout the pandemic.

BrewDog (Ellon, Aberdeenshire Scotland)

In spite of an incredible 810,000 check-ins, the Scotland-based global craft brewing company, BrewDog took a slight hit in 2021 dropping from its #1 position, to #3. Obviously the pandemic, which shut down its more than 100 bars around the world, was a factor in this dip.

Founders Brewing (Grand Rapids, MI)

In spite of the economic toll brought on by COVID-19 Founders Brewing retained its #4 ranking in 2021. Considered a Macro Brewery by Untappd, as opposed to a regional like Tree House and Other Half, Founders, which is now majority-owned by Mahou San Miguel of Spain, continued to benefit from its extensive distribution reach. A network made all that more important throughout the pandemic.

Sierra Nevada Brewing (Chico, CA)

Sierra Nevada Brewing, which also has an East Coast brewery in Mills River, NC, stayed the course as well, easily retaining its #5 position with over 526k check-ins. And in a year when many a brewery played things safe, the brewery aggressively grew its Hazy Little Thing line and even expanded its Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha family.

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