The American Homebrewers Association Annual Best Beers and Breweries in American survey results are in.
Here are the 2019 Top-Ranked Beers in America according to the over 46,000 members of the AHA.
| State | Dark | Hoppy | Milk Stout | Saison | Witbier | Grand Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||
| CO | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||
| FL | 1 | 1 | ||||
| IL | 1 | 1 | ||||
| IN | 1 | 1 | ||||
| MA | 1 | 1 | ||||
| ME | 1 | 1 | ||||
| MI | 4 | 3 | 7 | |||
| MO | 1 | 1 | ||||
| OR | 1 | 1 | ||||
| VT | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Grand Total | 6 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 |
I appreciate the geographic diversity of the beers, but feel that we need to go a bit broader on styles. All three outliers (Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout, Allagash Wit, Boulevard Tank 7) are BJCP commercial examples for their respective styles. But we are not nominating dozens of the others styles. For this graph I smooshed Imperial Stout, RIS, and BBA Stouts into “dark” and SIPA, PA, IPA, NEIPA, DIPA, and IIIPA into “hoppy.”
| Top Breweries 2019 | |
| State | # of Breweries |
| CA | 3 |
| NC Shared | 3 |
| CO | 3 |
| CA Shared | 2 |
| CO Shared | 2 |
| MI | 2 |
| IL Shared | 1 |
| TX Shared | 1 |
| DE | 1 |
| FL | 1 |
| IL | 1 |
| IN | 1 |
| MA | 1 |
| ME | 1 |
| MN | 1 |
| MO | 1 |
| OR | 1 |
| PA | 1 |
| VT | 1 |
| WI | 1 |
| Grand Total | 24 |
The Top 24 Breweries are informed by the total number of votes per beer. There are four breweries with multiple states (Lagunitas, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, and Sierra Nevada), which makes the above table look wonky.
Ten brewers in the top 24 including Dogfish Head at #5 and Firestone Walker and Stone tied at #10 do not have a top-ranked beer because they have a broad portfolio of nominated beers and/or limited distribution. New Glarus Spotted Cow is only available in Wisconsin and was voted the best beer in the state. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA was voted best in Delaware and is available in over 40 states and D.C., but didn’t get enough votes to be ranked. I would guess that Dogfish Head’s 60 Minutes, 120 Minute, SeaQuench, and World Wide Stout all got numerous nods as well to get the brewery ranked.
I would love to see all the data. Anyone in AHA want to provide it?
The beers and breweries seem to be perennial favorites. I’ll take a look at years past and see who moves in and out of favor.
Congratulations to the winning breweries. Since the AHA is about celebrating making and drinking good beer, I hope folks seek these beers out while expanding their horizons on different styles.
Mural Brewing 
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