Found a couple of interesting maps via the twitternet, and since maps and beer cities have been on my mind, I thought I’d pull ’em out.
lyke2drink.blogspot.com
The first (on the right and clickable), is GABF winners by state over the past 20 years. Fascinating. Again with that furrow down the middle of the country, and yet another case for Texas in the poll for Favorite Beer City. I should say that this map represents an enormous amount of work. I’ve been working on a little side project for a while that looks at breweries that have won medals at the GABF and just sifting through that information is hours and hours worth of work, to say nothing of the attractive graphic design. Mike Wirth over at Lyke2Drink: Kudos. That’s pretty.
North Dakota and Oklahoma both have 1 medal. In my heart of hearts I’d like to imagine that it’s because there’s some fantastic tiny brewery squirreled away somewhere in each of these states that are one some sort of “Best Kept Secrets” list. I hope that’s true. Is it strange that the states with the most space for farmland where they can (and do) grow thousands of acres of barley have very few breweries?
Anybody else feel bad for West Virginia?
http://www.sloshspot.com/
The second (on your left and also clickable), lists the Top 50 Craft Brewers in the Country by Sales Volume (Brewers’ Association press release) and mapped by sloshspot.com. This one sheds a little bit of insight on some of the choice of cities in the Favorite Beer City list in my last post. Take a look at the cities popping up here: Missoula, MT! Fort Collins, CO! No wonder they’re there. Too bad they have a collective 67 votes between the two of them. It kinda under represents Big Sky and New Belgium in terms of popularity.
Even more interesting are cities on the Beer City list that don’t show up here: Cincinnati, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, and Asheville, NC (the current leader in the poll) among others. That makes you want to take a trip to see what’s going on in these cities that got them on this list, doesn’t it? I can personally attest to Asheville being a great beer town.
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Albuquerque is a great beer town, and has improved greatly in the past year or so with the opening of a few craft breweries. It’s not hard to find a great local beer. When ya gonna come visit, Erik? 😉
Soon! Ish? The Craft Brewers Conference has just taken away all my extra cash, but it’s on my radar. I also need to head a little (okay.. a lot) left of you and stop by for what I hear is some amazing beer and pizza in Phoenix, AZ.
I was in Austin this past weekend and had my first encounter with Shiner Bock and Ziegen(sp?) Bock, both local products. I liked them both a lot. I also had Lone Star beer. Didn’t like that so much, but knew what I was getting into. Tons of cool bars in Austin, if many of them cater to the Spring Break “50 cent shots!” crowd. I have yet to visit anywhere else in Texas, but I find it hard to believe that a state that big, and that obnoxious!, isn’t good for at least one city on that list.
I’m going to a new city and need to know where to find a good craft brew. What do I do?
Today I’m going to Camden Yards. I’ve heard they actually have decent beer at the park. But I’ll probably get to the neighborhood early and want to grab a pregame pint. I don’t know where to go.
In July I’ll be heading to Chicago. And I’ll have the same dilemma. Is there some place online I can find this kind of info?
So, I’ve been thinking about this, and I think the best place I can think of to find beer is the Beer Mapping Project, which is actually on my list of things that I’d like to sit down and review at some point.
I haven’t spent a ton of time with it, yet.
Outside of that, you want to check out The Map Room, Piece Brewery, Goose Island, and the Rock Bottom there at the very least.