I couldn’t help but get caught up in the buzz created by RateBeer when they released their Top 100 Breweries last week. So I decided to put together my own personal list. The criteria is pretty loose, but a few things I used to make my list…1) I have to have decent access to their beer 2) I think it is important to show the ability to make good beer across a variety of styles 3) If you are only going to focus on one style you better do it well! I thought about making comments after each brewery as to why I think they should be there, but screw it. I spent a lot of time moving breweries all around this list. If I let it stew for another day I would probably change it up again so I am just going to release it in the current order. Once you get through the list, please leave me your two cents in the comments section. I can’t wait to hear how smart or stupid you think I am (and I mean that seriously).
1. Toppling Goliath 
2. Cantillon
3. Hill Farmstead
4. Bruery
5. Cigar City
6. Russian River
7. Central Waters
8. Crooked Stave
9. Goose Island
10. AleSmith
11. 3 Floyds
12. Bells
13. Surly
14. Kuhnhenn
15. Founders
16. Evil Twin
17. Perennial
18. 4 Hands
19. Stone
20. Dark Horse
21. Firestone Walker
22. Boulevard
23. Sixpoint
24. Maine
25. Rochefort
26. Midnight Sun
27. New Glarus
28. Upland
29. Jester King
30. Olde Hickory
Obvious Omissions: Cascade, Hair of the Dog, Alpine, and Lost Abbey. Just haven’t had the opportunity to drink enough beers from these breweries to include them on the list. I expect most of them to make the 2014 list though.
Other interesting note: I put together a similar list last year. I believe my top 5 was (in no particular order): Bells, Founders, Three Floyds, Surly, Goose Island. Amazing what a year of new beers will do to a list like this
I bet FW was one that you moved a bunch, yes?
Wow that is a pretty impressive call actually. I think FW dropped 7 spots from the original ranking. Surly dropped 8 spots. No huge risers other than AleSmith and Cigar City which kept moving up each time I re-ranked. Everything in the 22-30 range was a complete jumble. New Glarus was the last one I kept moving down and then gave a bump at the very end.