A random Rochester subreddit poster got me thinking about how you measure the best. So I asked some experts for some perspective (and reached my own conclusion).
Agreed that it's pretty much entirely subjective and in all likelihood nobody has really spent enough time in all the major beer cities to accurately rate them anyways. But for fun, I'll throw in my two cents.
I've been touting Rochester as one of the best and most underrated beer cities around for a long time on reddit (not that I go there anymore), but the best is definitley a stretch from my experience. Not indefensible, as we said it's all subjective and maybe the styles and options here really are the best in the world to that redditors tastes. But, in all my travels, and I do a lot of beercationing, my top city would probably be a two way tie between Denver and San Diego. They've got it all, the quantity of breweries, the quality of breweries, good beer is easy to find almost anywhere you are (this keeps some bigger cities like NYC off the top cities list for me), and one big one that Rochester still lacks for me compared to these places a walkable area with a ton of hiqh quality beer options. Hard to beat the North Park neighborhood of San Diego for that.
I think Rochester comfortably falls into the second tier of beer cities, in which I would also include Burlington, Asheville, Portland (ME), Seattle, and as of recently Buffalo. Until the past few years I'd rank Rochester well ahead of Buffalo, but they are really developing a great beer district that we still lack. They also now have (or soon will) two of our best breweries in Other Half and Mortalis, and they have them in the city limits not a 20-30 minute drive away for most of the population like we do. I do think we have more good to great quality breweries than they do (and about to add another big one with Aurora), but the beer district and having those heavy hitters right in the city probably swings the pendulum in their favor.
And my tier 3 would include cities like Portland (OR), Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, and Pittsburgh. Including them mostly as I realize some people would argue some of them in the second if not first tier.
Agreed that it's pretty much entirely subjective and in all likelihood nobody has really spent enough time in all the major beer cities to accurately rate them anyways. But for fun, I'll throw in my two cents.
I've been touting Rochester as one of the best and most underrated beer cities around for a long time on reddit (not that I go there anymore), but the best is definitley a stretch from my experience. Not indefensible, as we said it's all subjective and maybe the styles and options here really are the best in the world to that redditors tastes. But, in all my travels, and I do a lot of beercationing, my top city would probably be a two way tie between Denver and San Diego. They've got it all, the quantity of breweries, the quality of breweries, good beer is easy to find almost anywhere you are (this keeps some bigger cities like NYC off the top cities list for me), and one big one that Rochester still lacks for me compared to these places a walkable area with a ton of hiqh quality beer options. Hard to beat the North Park neighborhood of San Diego for that.
I think Rochester comfortably falls into the second tier of beer cities, in which I would also include Burlington, Asheville, Portland (ME), Seattle, and as of recently Buffalo. Until the past few years I'd rank Rochester well ahead of Buffalo, but they are really developing a great beer district that we still lack. They also now have (or soon will) two of our best breweries in Other Half and Mortalis, and they have them in the city limits not a 20-30 minute drive away for most of the population like we do. I do think we have more good to great quality breweries than they do (and about to add another big one with Aurora), but the beer district and having those heavy hitters right in the city probably swings the pendulum in their favor.
And my tier 3 would include cities like Portland (OR), Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, and Pittsburgh. Including them mostly as I realize some people would argue some of them in the second if not first tier.