The Top 10 Beer Cities of 2021 List Is Drunk With Surprises

Photo: John Rensten (Getty Images)

We’re almost a month into 2022, but there’s still time to look back at 2021. Today, we’re specifically going to take a look back at brewing in the last year. For those unaware, the US has almost 9,000 (pending COVID closures) breweries. That’s an awful lot of beer. And, thanks to the folks at SmartAsset, a Fintech financial advising company, we know where the best beer was brewed in 2021. That’s because the company released its annual ranking of the top beer cities in the country.

Instead of randomly ranking big cities that brew a ton of beer (like we would), SmartAsset actually used metrics to create their list. They started with 366 cities and assessed them based on beer drinking, beer environment, and breweries. They took the total number of breweries per 100,000 people. Then they averaged the number of beers made at each brewery. They didn’t stop there though because having a few breweries doesn’t necessarily make you a great beer town. They also looked at the number of bars per 100,00o people and the average price of a pint of beer.

Below, you’ll find their list of the top 10 beer-loving cities in America. While there are many well-known beer towns, there are also a handful of under-the-radar beer destinations as well as a few popular beer cities that surprisingly didn’t make the cut. We’re talking about Philadelphia, New York, San Diego, and Denver. Keep scrolling to see the cities that did make the cut.