Editorial
The craft beer revolution has reached every corner of the world. That makes ranking cities harder than it used to be — there are excellent taprooms in Ho Chi Minh City, Nairobi, and Montevideo now. But there is still a meaningful difference between cities where craft beer is a trend and cities where it is a culture, a history, or an obsession. These are the 10 cities where that difference is most clear.
Our ranking weighs four things equally: the quality of the breweries producing in the city, the depth of the tap list available to drink on site, the density of good options per square mile, and the price-to-quality ratio that makes a city liveable for a week of serious drinking.
"Craft beer is not a trend in these cities. It is a culture that predates the word 'craft' by several centuries."
The craft beer revolution has cities competing for the title of the world's best. These 10 are winning.
Portland, Oregon wins. By every metric that matters for craft beer — breweries per capita, innovation per square mile, price per pint, quality of ingredients, depth of culture — Portland is the best city on earth for serious beer. The city has 75 breweries operating within the city limits. That is more per capita than anywhere else in the world, including Belgium.
The Oregon hop fields supply the city directly. The water profile is exceptional. The culture of putting beer first — not cocktails, not wine, not branding — is embedded in Portland in a way that resists trend. Deschutes, Hair of the Dog, Culmination, Breakside, Ecliptic. These are not famous-in-Portland breweries. These are world-class producers that happen to be concentrated in one medium-sized American city.
The comparison cities for any serious craft beer trip are Denver's brewery trail, Brussels' classic Belgian scene, and London's Victorian pub and taproom combination. All three are exceptional. Portland is better.
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