Based On What?
Brews from America’s Best Beer City need love too!
Posted by: John Chandler on Jun 30, 2011 at 02:00PM
7 Comments
So according to the latest Travel + Leisure magazine, Portland is America’s Best Beer City. Hey, tell me something I don’t know. Maybe someone should have tipped off the readers of Zymurgy, the official publication of the American Homebrewers Association, who wrote in and voted for its annual list of the 50 Best Beers in America. Included in this list are exactly two beers from Oregon—Deschutes Brewing’s Abyss Imperial Stout, and Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale—and none whatsoever from Portland.
But see, they obviously needed all that room in the Top 50 to extoll the virtues of two beers from Samuel Adams (Wrong!), three from New Belgium, and a whopping five from Dogfish Head (No complaints about Dogfish Head, they totally rock. But five beers?). Really Zymurgy? You couldn’t have squeezed in a little something from Laurelwood, Hopworks, Upright, or Bridgeport? Where’s the love for America’s best beer city?
Come on Portland! Let’s turn up some hometown heat. Send your righteous complaints to info@brewersassociation.org.
In the meantime, we can all come together for Oregon Craft Beer Month (also known as July) at Jeld-Wen Field tomorrow night where the OCBM Kickoff Party will feature some of our top taps. Are you listening readers of Zymurgy?
Tags: Beer Festivals Beer Culture Oregon Craft Beer Month Travel + Leisure Zymurgy
Ninkasi not mentioned in any category? Bogus! xoxo
Everyone knows that 50 Top Beers List is a popularity contest, and if there’s one thing Portlanders don’t worry about, it’s being popular.
Bull!!!! Emailed em!!
How much money did Sam Adams pay them for those top spots? I smell a rat too. It’s called “placating big advertisers so they’ll keep buying more ads.”
As a transplant to this area, may I say
Beer in the NW is made exclusively for the palette of the NW. Hops, Hops and dare I say more Hops!?
There are a few beer crafters out there that make a “more than NW beer” but they are few and far between. @ Bex – Ninkasi is a perfect example. Out of the gate, their Total Domination and Tricerahops took over a big portion of the IPA (Imperial IPA) market
in the NWWhen the rest of the country drinks Lager, Pilsner and, well, beers that don’t concentrate on our much loved, but exclusive flavor profile; is it really that surprising that there isn’t more representation from PDX?
We have amazing brewers here – I just wish more would take a ‘hop’ out of the comfortable box that they have put themselves in. How about a nice crisp pilsner that befits our amazing summers?!
pete is right. the hop thing is overboard around here.
eric is equally right.
i’ve been drinking imported heffeweizen for several weeks now because i’m tired of the stupid hop wars. dip sticks. if portland was smart they’d try to diversify – last winter.
anyway who cares.
also, i hate fireworks. dumb-assed juveniles.
Oh come on, dudes. There’s a lot more going on in Portland than just the usual hop hegemony. What about Breakside Brewing? They’re constantly making out-of-the-box ales. Upright’s Belgians are awesome; Cascade’s sour beers crackle on the palate like a string of firecrackers. Have you tried Bridgeport’s Kingpin? Widmer’s Citra Summer Ale?
Yes, IPAs have been the coin of the realm for several years. But I believe things are changing. Sometimes it takes a while for a paradigm shift.