One thing I have noticed about us humans is that we like lists. We like making lists and we like looking at lists made by other people. People make lists for all sorts of reasons – to remind them to do certain things,  to prioritize tasks, to make complex tasks simpler by breaking them down into discrete (simple) steps etc. In many respects, lists simplify and provide a semblance of order to something more complex.  According to Jane Porter, “Lists are soothing. They’re simple. They provide instant gratification and purpose.” Claudia Hammond, in an article on the BBC website, even made a list of reasons why people love lists. Making lists, apparently, is also a common compulsion of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

I am not a big list maker myself. I never have been. I do have a few lists that I maintain, however. For example, I have a list of all the countries I have visited. There are forty-two countries on that list, arranged alphabetically, from Australia to West Germany. For the last two years, I have also kept a list of breweries that I have visited. I visited forty-six breweries in 2017. It’s only September, and already I have visited fifty-two this year. Occasionally, I do refer to and use lists. In July, I was in Zurich, Switzerland. I was browsing the internet, preparing for the trip, when I came across a list of the best beer bars in Zurich. There were thirty-six bars on the list. I ended up visiting five of those during my day and a half in the city.

When it comes to lists, I tend to categorize them into two types – those that are based on hard data, and those that are based upon people’s opinion. The latter type can reflect the collective wisdom of a large number of people, or the opinion of a single individual. Probably, my favorite all time list is one that was published in the Sports Section of the British newspaper, The Observer, in November 2002. The list reflected the opinion of two of the newspaper’s sports writers, Matt Tench and Jamie Jackson, and is titled “The top 10 greatest rivalries in the history of sport”. It’s a fascinating list – check it out. Although I am not a big creator or user of lists, I do recognize their value.

Not surprisingly, there are lots of lists associated with the beer industry.  A few weeks ago, I came across a list of the top selling beer brands in the United States in 2017 – clearly a list based on hard data.

Other beer-related lists are opinion-based. For example, the beer rating site, Beeradvocate, provides a list of the world’s top 250 rated beers. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) have their own list of the best beers in America (as well as the best breweries). The aforementioned best beer lists represent the collective wisdom of large numbers of people – in the case of Beeradvocate, the contributors to the website and in the case of the AHA, members of their organization. Of course some folks don’t need input from others to create a list. Their own opinion will suffice. In a 2014 piece in Times Union (Albany, NY), Chad Polenz, shared his list of the top ten worst beers of 2013.  And, of course, there are all sorts of other beer-related lists out there, including “15 Unique US   Ale Trails”, the “Top 27 Authentic Belgian Beers”, and “18 Beers for Wine Lovers”.

So, why am I writing about lists. The catalyst for this blog entry was an e-mail that I received a few weeks ago. It was from Kaja Olcott, Communications Director, for Reward Expert Inc. According to the blurb at the bottom of kaja’s e-mail, “RewardExpert helps users navigate the world of frequent flyer programs and credit card rewards. The free web service provides smart tools and features that enable users to make more rewarding decisions. Through personal finance and travel insights, users are empowered to turn their spending into earning.”

Anyway, Kaja was e-mailing me to give me the heads-up on a new report produced by Reward Expert. The report was titled, “The Top Ten Places in the U.S. for Craft Beer”.  The report defined a “place” based upon 3-digit zip codes (i.e., the first three digits of five-digit zip codes).  Three factors went into ranking places. The first two were the number of breweries per 100,000 population and an average score for breweries in each place based upon consumer reviews of beers. The third factor was a little less clear. In the write up, the third factor was noted as “the total number of reviews found”, while in the data table it was listed as the “number of breweries”. The three factors were combined to create a composite score for each place. Scores were generated for 589 places across the United States.

Based on Reward Expert’s calculations, the top ten places for craft beer are

1. Two Harbors, MN/Arrowhead Region (zip code 556)
2. City and County of Boulder, CO (zip code 803)
3. Jackson, WY (zip code 830)
4. Uncompahgre Region/Southwest Colorado (zip codes 814, 813, 812, and 811)
5. Asheville, NC (zip code 288)
6. The Colorado High Rockies (zip codes 804 and 805)
7. Juneau, AK (zip code 998)
8. Portland, ME (zip code 041)
9. Boston, MA-NH-RI Metropolitan Are (zip code 022)
10. Bend, OR/Central Oregon (zip code 977)

As can can be seen from the list, in some cases (e.g., The Colorado High Rockies), zip codes were combined to create a geographically larger place. It is an interesting list, not so much for the factors that went into creating the ranking, but for the way in which places were defined.  Not being aware of what these zip code places looked like, I did an internet search and found the following map for my own state, Ohio.

Of course, if you look around the internet, you will find plenty of other lists of  “best craft beer places”. Some of these are based on the opinion of one person (the writer) or the collective wisdom of a larger group. For example, according to a panel of beer experts and the readers of USA Today, the  best beer place in the United States is St. Louis, MO. The Beer Connoisseur’s international correspondents were asked to identify their twenty-four best beer cities  worldwide – Portland, OR that topped their list.

But there are a few rankings that, like Reward Expert, are based on data. Infogroup considered both craft breweries and beer retailers in their analysis and calculated the number of such establishments per 10,000 population, for every metropolitan area. The top beer place, according, to Infogroup is Bend, OR. However, if you just consider metropolitan areas over one million population, the best beer place is Portland, OR. Either way, Oregon is a great state for beer lovers. According to Infogroup, Portland also ranked number one for wine.

A number of different factors went into creating SmartAsset.com’s list of the best beer cities in America – total number of microbreweries, number of microbreweries per 100,000 residents, number of bars per 100,000 residents, average Yelp score of breweries, and average price of a pint of beer. Using these criteria, Asheville, NC ranks number one in the country.

Russell Goldenberg, writing for The Pudding, uses both quality (consumer ratings) and quantity (number of breweries). On his interactive website, Goldenberg allows the reader to weight the relative importance of each of these factors. Changing the weighting changes the rankings. If you weight quality 80% and quantity 20%, Santa Rosa, CA comes out as number one. Change it to 70% quality and 30%, and San Diego, CA replaces Santa Rosa at the top of the list. At 34% quality and 66% quantity, Denver, CO jumps to the top of the pack. Goldenberg only considers cities with a population of at least 40,000 population. Goldenberg also allows you to set different minimum thresholds for the minimum number of breweries within a particular radius, and for different types of beer (light beer, 0-4% ABV; medium beer, 5-7% ABV; heavy beer, >7%ABV; and all beer). The three sets of rankings illustrated above are for cities with at least five breweries within a twenty mile radius (all beer). Overall, Goldenburg’s ranking system may seem all a bit convoluted, but it is fun to play with. Try it here.

Of course, even when data are used to identify the best beer places, diferent rankings rarely agree with one another. So on one list San Diego,  CA is the best beer city, while on another it is Portland, OR. This happens because different data sets, different criteria, and different methodologies are used to create these different lists. To me, the great thing about lists, such as these, is not that they provide a definitive answer. Rather, I like lists because they can be the catalyst for debate and discussion. Whether its the best sports rivalry, the best IPA, or the best beer city, most folks have their own opinion, and their own ideas, as to who or what should occupy which any particular position on a particular list. And there is nothing better than sitting down with friends, over a pint of course, and debating the merits of a particular list.