Some people are wine afficianados, others love fine brandy or scotch. But me, I’m a micro-brew fanatic. In my fridge right now is a good size collection of Victory, Dogfish, Rogue, Bell’s, and a dozen or so others. One of my favorite holiday presents of all-time is my subscription to the beer of the month club. So I was greatly enthused to come across this map via Strange Maps, based on these data on the location of medal winning brews since 1987.
Here’s the top 10 states in terms of overall number of medals.
1. California – 474
2. Colorado – 322
3. Wisconsin – 232
4. Oregon – 170
5. Pennsylvania – 162
6. Texas – 133
7. Washington – 114
8. New York – 98
9. Missouri -90
10. Massachusetts – 76
Here’s the list controlling for population.
1. Colorado – 64.4
2. Oregon – 42.5
3. Wisconsin – 38.6
4. Washington – 16.2
5. Missouri – 15
6. Pennsylvania – 13.5
7. Massachusetts – 12.6
8. California – 12.8
9. Texas – 5.6
10. New York – 5.1
April 6th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Yeah, but Wisconsin has to get some demerrits for all the BAD BEER it produces: all the Miller products, Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee’s Best, Old Style, Pabst, Shlitz, etc. etc. etc.
What the hell happened in Milwaukee that so many bad beers are produced in one place? Stupid cheezeheads.
Actually, I’m joking, I’m a big “bad beer” fan, complete opposite of Richard. Right now, in my fridge, I’ve got Old Style and Highlife. I’m ready for baseball to start and the weather to heat up.
New/ Old Schlitz is really good too. It’s like somebody took the skunkiness out of Bud. Smooth and clean.
If it’s any consolation, I do have some Fat Tire in the fridge, too. I have to drive to Chicago to find that.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Pabst is making a comeback as the beer of hipsters here, God knows why. Sort of like the Hush Puppy story in the Tipping Point.
Do Democrats make better beer? Eight of the 10 states went for Obama, including the top 5 by number and four by population.
Micro-brews & wine are sort of old hat in Oregon, where the new energy is going into distilleries. Is that happening elsewhere?
April 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Pabst is making a comeback as the beer of hipsters here, God knows why.
I like it. It’s a good summertime beer at the ballpark (that’s where I first drank it, at Comiskey). Better than the mainstream beers.
Look, ultimately what’s the difference between Lite, Highlife, MGD, MGD light, etc. etc. etc. They’re all very similar beers.
And I get Old Style half cases of bottles for $5.99. That’s what I like the most!
Distilleries? No trend of that here. What are they making, whiskey? Weird liquers? Quintuple distilled Vodka? Like anybody needs that.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Oregon has the country’s only distillers guild, with 17 members. They make all kinds of spirits. My friend Stave McCarthy’s Clear Creek makes some of the country’s best brandies, although he’s ventured into whisky. Integrity Spirits is making absinthe after the century-old ban was lifted last year. Highball Distillery makes vodka. House Spirits makes gin. The link below has some of their websites.
http://www.oregonlive.com/mix/index.ssf/2009/03/spirit_world_oregons_artisanal_distilleries.html
I quit drinking a couple of decades ago, so haven’t tasted most of these other than sips. Missed out on the microbrews too but I have become a connoisseur of non-alcoholic beer. What I’ve found is if I liked a company’s regular beer I’ll probably like their non-alc and vice-versa. So O’Doul’s and Sharps are predictably dishwater, Becks non-alc is good and I don’t care for Guinness’s Kaliber but many do.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Great map. I’m also a micro-brew fanatic. Too bad they didn’t add BC into the index, as it might make that top ten list as well.
That said, Rogue Brewery in Newport Oregon wins my gold medal.
Brewmasters at microbreweries are an interesting and creative bunch too. Maybe there is an index for them similar to the bohemian or gay ones.
***
Michael — have you tried O’DOuls Amber? When I was pregnant and not able to drink micro-brews, I survived on that one. Didn’t like Becks. There’s a German brewery who’s name escapes me that exports a really nice non-alcoholic beer that tastes the most like the real think (and it’s more of a pilsner, which sounds like your tastes). I’ll try to find the name for you.
April 6th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Wendy,
Is it Clausthaler? That’s one of my other favorites.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
It isn’t that Pabst is making a comeback as a Hipster beer, it already is one. It is ubiquitously a hipster beer, everyplace, everywhere. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, NY, Portland, everywhere. It is so true that its a cliche. I’m with you, Michael, I have no idea why. It tastes like Mayo. It’s wretched.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Beer fads are funny. Pabst Blue Ribbon used to be dive beer, the kind of places that had two ancient pinball machines in back and the carpet smelled of Lucky Strikes. I’ll bet it started showing up at artists parties because it was cheap and caught on. Sort of blue collar chic. Now it’s in good restaurants for $4 a bottle.
Coors used to be unavailable in many states. It’s filtered rather than pasteurized. An alliance of major brewers wanting to keep out a competitor and unions that didn’t like Adolf Coors anti-union right wing politics got state legislatures to pass laws requiring beer to be pasteurized. Because it was forbidden it became very popular and kids from California and the East Coast would drive to Colorado and come back with carloads of Coors. Once it became widely available the cachet wore off and it was left to people who like slightly watery beer.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:15 am
It’s funny how the appeal of a beer can depend on its distributorship. I drive to Chicago to get Fat Tire, which is not distributed in Indiana. Others drive from Illinois to my town in Indiana to pick up Bell’s, the owner of which is in a pissing match with the Illinois distributors and who refuses to allow his beer to be distributed there.
We’ve also got Three Floyds brewed in town. Pretty good if you like your beer over-hopped.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Speaking of dive beers and fads, when I waited tables at a fairly nice restaurant right off of the Penn State campus in the ’80s, out of town professors and administrators would come to the restaurant constantly and be ecstatic to find Rolling Rock pony bottles on the menu for under a $1…they couldn’t believe their good fortune because it was considered “hipster” beer in other parts of the country. (At the time, it was brewed about an hour outside of Pittsburgh in Latrobe…I think they brew some Samuel Adams there now).
All of us Pennsylvanians thought this was pretty funny as you could go to the bar next door, buy a case for a couple of dollars more and for even more value, stand on the case to better see the band. But to the visitors, Rolling Rock was exotic…there ya go.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I always liked Rolling Rock esp ponies – way, way better than Pabst – but haven’t seen them since I lived in the ‘burg. In high school, we’d get the old heavy-duty cardboard case and just throw ice in it to keep them chilled.
Victory Hop Devil (Pennsylvania) is my fave esp on draught at Pittsburgh’s Sharp Edge or Two Amy’s (the best pizza in the US) in DC. Rehobeth Del. Dogfish IPA is my no. 2. Then Mendocino’s IPA. Then Rogue and Bell’s. All fantastic. My taste leans toward uber-hoppy IPAs.
Been getting my stash at Papa Joes in Birmingham Michigan and Beer of the Month Club.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Today’s Willamette Week (alternative weekly paper) has the schedule for the 15th beer & wine fest with booths for 44 local brewers, 24 wineries, 5 distilleries, 7 local cheeses and 5 chocolatiers.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I receive e-mails from a local brewery where you can go to brew your own beer…you put together a group and can tailor your brew to your taste (IPA, Porter, Stout). Kind of like Build A Bear for adults.
Anyway, a reference to this movie (Beer Wars Live) was in the last e-mail, comes out next week.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Americas-Brewing-Beer-Battle-bw-14541304.html
April 8th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
As a home brewer myself, I really like this map…and discussion.
I’m curious whether home brewing clusters in the same places as other creative activities. Perhaps not, given the space requirements. I’ve gotten by brewing in a relatively small apartment, but I suspect the majority of home brewing takes place in more suburban and rural locations.
As for the trend toward micro-distilling – I certainly see it happening in the Midwest. North Shore Distillery, just north of Chicago, is putting out a range in infused vodkas and gin. And St. Julian Winery, near Kalamazoo MI (home to Bells Beer), has started making Eau de Vie, brandy, and vodka.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Perhaps the granddaddy of modern American home brewing is Portland’s own Fred Eckhardt. Here’s his wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Eckhardt
In addition to beer guru, Fred was a professional photographer and swimming coach. He and his longtime partner Jimmy Takita maintained a sort of salon for Portland’s gay community and assorted counterculture and intellectual types. I haven’t seen them for a few years, but it’s good to know that Fred at least is going strong.
Portland is a city with lots of single family housing, so it may be more amenable to home brewing than cities that are mostly apartments, but I really have no idea how much goes on any more.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:38 am
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December 3rd, 2011 at 11:15 pm
He has good measurables and could be very good with new staff.