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Best beer map of America
I love to see information compiled visually. It’s easier to digest and make sense of.
Veteran drinks journalist Rick Lyke and his son-in-law Mike Wirth have created a map that will be of great interest to any beer lover … The Brewers Association awards medals at its annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) to the best beers produced by breweries in the U.S.
Lyke and Wirth took all of the information on the awards presented since 1987 and created a visual tool that any beer fan would be interested in. You certainly have to take this with a grain of salt as listed under top beers is Miller Genuine Draft, Old Milwaukee Light, Coor’s Original and Budweiser — but that could have something to do with the fact that some of the data is from the late ’80s which would have been a little early for the bulk of the microbrew revolution happening in the States. Still, the map does clearly spell out that beer lovers in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oregon and Pennsylvania have access to some of the best beers out there.
Another interesting note is the top beers in the history of the GABF: Alaskan Smoked Porter (15 medals total), New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale and Genesee Cream Ale (10 medals each) and Samuel Adams Double Bock (9 medals).
As Lyke points out, “Medals are not the end all and be all to finding a great beer, but the GABF competition has given beer fans a way of knowing about the quality of a beer before they spend their hard earned money. It has also given the marketing departments at brewers across the country something to talk about.”
Top 10 medal-winning states are: 1. California - 474; 2. Colorado - 322; 3. Wisconsin - 232; 4. Oregon - 170; 5. Pennsylvania - 162; 6. Texas - 133; 7. Washington - 114; 8. New York - 98; 9. Missouri -90; 10. Massachusetts - 76. Ohio (with 71 total medals), Michigan and Illinois narrowly missed making the list.
One thing this data doesn’t do is take into account the population size of the states listed here. If you take the list and make it reflect the number of medals per million of inhabitants, here’s what you come up with: 1. Colorado - 64.4; 2. Oregon - 42.5; 3. Wisconsin - 38.6; 4. Washington - 16.2; 5. Missouri - 15; 6. Pennsylvania - 13.5; 7. Massachusetts - 12.6; 8. California - 12.8; 9. Texas - 5.6; 10. New York - 5.1
The worst states for beer based on this map and the states with the fewest medals would be West Virginia (0), North Dakota, Oklahoma (both just 1), Alabama, Rhode Island, DC (2 each), South Dakota, Nebraska, Louisiana (4 each) and Connecticut (5).
Click here to check out the map for yourself.
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Comments
By Bob Van L
June 17, 2009 12:22 AM | Link to this
Hello Alexis ! Great story - adn a great map ! Awesome… and thanks for the tip! Met yo at teh South Park a couple seeks ago, and finally found your story. Let me know when we can indulge in some more beer talk … and / OR beer tasting? Bob BPS- at the Trolley Stop…