50 States Rated for Beer
- Thread starter nfrine
- Start date
Toppling Goliath.
Sought after enough that you can usually get some pretty awesome trades from across the country for it, like Pliny or Heady.
A lot of that has to do with the breweries here being small. I've had beers at hole-in-the-wall breweries like Lake Time in Clear Lake that I would put against offerings from some of the more well-known breweries. Same goes for more well known (in Iowa) places like 515, Confluence, or Big Grove.
Oregon beer is very overrated. Widmer, Ninkasi and Rogue do nothing for me. Deschutes is really good though.
The 10 states in front of us are no better and all arguably worse, and Oklahoma is much worse. They have one great brewery and nothing else in the state. Plus, their beer laws make it nearly impossible to get good beer from other states.
There's a general belief that Iowa is backwards and uncultured, and few people, beyond those who know the state, avoid this approach for these types of lists and it's very evident.
nfrine said:
About twice as close to Minnesota as Wisconsin.
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Or Illinois.
Surly is almost a Wisconsin beer, I guess. Budweiser she be considered Illinois, too.
Totally agree on Rogue, yawn. Oregon beers now are like Seattle rock bands in the early nineties, the ****ty ones get the benefit of being lumped in with the good ones.
I like Central Water, but I think they're a bit over rated. O'So is probably my favorite Wisconsin brewery after New Glarus.
I'd take the newer Des Moines places over Central Waters. Not saying Central Waters is bad (I do like their beer), but I remember being told that their Illuminator DIPA was better than Abrasive by a guy at a liquor store in Rochester. Not so much, bro. Not so much.
Oregon has a vibrant craft beer scene, but what gets out of the state is just not anything to write home about. Based on the beers you can buy here, I would have Oregon well below California and Colorado, as well as about half of the Midwest.
Iowa would never finish dead last in the nation in beer as long as it shares the nation with Utah...
Yeah, I think some of you are a little lost on the concept that not all beer made in a particular state gets out of said state. We don't get any beers from Vermont in Iowa, thus, Vermont must have terrible beer right?
I've had Vermont beer, and have zero issues with it's ranking.
Look at the states in the 10 spots in front of us. I've had beer from nearly all of them, and they aren't better than Iowa. None hold a candle to TG, save Prairie. Iowa's spot on the list is based on an inaccurate perception of the state.
Oregon has a ton of breweries and is very beer-friendly. They should rate high. But compare their "flagship"/large distro breweries to states like California, Colorado, and Michigan and I have a very hard time calling them number 1.
Last week, I found out that some friends were visiting Wisconsin (by car). I tried to get a hold of them to ask them to bring me back some Spotted Cow. When I finally made contact, they had already left Wisconsin.:cry: Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade them to turn around...
Oh boy, here come the beer snobs...educate me beer expert. Shower us with your golden beer knowledge!
In an honest question how does Regional Distribution work? I remember when Michelob Golden was finally "released" to Iowa it quickly became the commercial nectar, yet it was extremely popular in Minnesota before then. Same as Yuengling, it is a pretty good popular Commercial beer out east, but it is nowhere to be found west of Penn. I'm just curious if these same rules that prohibt "imports" also prohibit our "outports."
I think those distribution decisions were purely driven by the brewers themselves.
IIRC, Michelob Golden isn't available outside of the Upper Midwest, and at one time was Minnesota-only, despite being made in Missouri - where it wasn't available.
On a side note, I just saw that Polk City will be getting a brewer.
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