Tuesday Country Stat Attack: 17 United States

[BlackHaddock]

The US, home of the free and RateBeer. Not too sure how one should start (or finish) an introduction to such a large and powerful nation, but I shall try. 330 Million people call the US their home, almost 40 Million in California (where I am currently, but only visiting). There are still thousands of Cowboys and Indians in the US, but they are outnumbered by Mexicans and many other people from all over the world who have moved here and are still doing so, currently the number is around 44 Million immigrants (four of which will soon be in my family, once they get their ‘Naturalization Certificates’).

Huge cities, fantastic National Parks, wonderful scenery, Greyhounds, Amtrak, Disney, Base Ball, American Football and some other stuff make the US what it is today, a melting pot of a country.

Right, let’s talk ‘BEER’. Prohibition finished in 1933, so what has the beer scene done since then I wonder?

OK, try and guess how many US breweries there are on our data base. Wrong, think again!

Sadly the site keeps crashing when I ask it, so I have no idea how many breweries there are in the whole of the US either. California alone has 849 active and 303 closed on the site, Colorado has 411 and 111, New York 494 and 68 closed. I’m not going to go through all the 51 States/regions we have, but there must be well over 9,000 according to my research.

Those breweries have produced a lot of beer and we have some guys and galls who have tried to find as many as they can, but none of them have managed more than 5%:

1	djd07	24214	5%
2	Ratman197	20221	5%
3	Travlr	20168	5%
4	hopdog	17695	4%
5	jtclockwork	17579	4%
6	slowrunner77	17362	4%
7	Drake	17361	4%
8	Tmoney99	17107	4%
9	Dogbrick	16798	4%
10	brokensail	16670	4%
11	deyholla	16529	4%
12	onceblind	16435	4%

9453 Rates are needed to reach the 50th place on the US Leader Board. Might be worth going for?

I am expecting some big stories and fine beer stats, so get replying.

Bonus question: Which is the only US State to have a ‘Union Jack’ within it’s State Flag?

<*))))))><

[Theydon_Bois]

Hawaii …been there and seen one.

[minutemat]

@BlackHaddock

OK, try and guess how many US breweries there are on our data base. Wrong, think again!

I thought that was going to be a trick question, in that 7 breweries opened in the two seconds after you answered the question.

I recall about 5 years ago the total number of breweries being around 4000 in the US, and that applications for new breweries were 4500, so it would more than double within a year. It seemed unbelievable at the time, but I can believe it now. No sign of slowing down either.

[evilempire]

Unsurprisingly, my top country outside the UK, in fact I once worked out that California alone was above any other country (suspect no longer true, had 1000 Polish now and can’t imagine I’ve had 1000 from California). 3,027 US beers, at a rough guess I’d say two thirds in the States and a third elsewhere. Been over there 9 times, first few trips all north-east (basically Washington/Philly/NY/Boston), then Chicago, then California and Miami… then took a hiatus 2009-13 for various reasons, not least the pound crashing from over $2 (happy days) to $1.45 and flights nearly doubling in price, and the demise of the Amtrak pass didn’t help either.

When we bit the bullet and went back in 2014 we headed inland more, taking in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Alberquerque, Nashville as well as California, Carolina, Seattle and the east coast. This summer’s plan includes Chicago and Alaska.

Have now been to just over half the states, and had beer from 43 states + DC at the last count (missing Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming) - that was 2017 though so I’d have to check if I’ve got any of them since

[Leighton]

I am from the US but had only a few beer-drinking years there before moving to London (at age 23). Through many trips back, though, I have tried a whole lot of American beer. Not to mention that there is tons of US beer available in the UK. COVID curtailed my travels such that I haven’t been to the US since 2019.

The US is my second most rated country at 7980 (the UK is number one with 14299).

I have tried beers from 1163 breweries (again, UK is number one with 1334).

[Leighton]

I think I have been to 29 states. But a number of those visits were quite brief during childhood drives from Massachusetts to Florida. In terms of states visited in adulthood, or states where I have had a beer, the number is probably closer to 20.

[Leighton]

In terms of personal biography, I grew up in southwestern Massachusetts. Spent summers in New Hampshire. Went to school in New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York (central NY state, not the city).

[wheresthepath]

I’ve never been to the US, and I don’t think I’m likely to go - not because I wouldn’t like to, but just because my wife’s terrified of flying and I’ve got other places that I want to go more.

Despite my lack of personal attention it’s still my third most-rated country (behind England & Scotland) with 121 rates, representing 27 states.

Have had some great US beers, even though I’ve only really tried the better-distributed craft brewers. My top-rated beers from the US are:

Sierra Nevada Stout	4.5
Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)	4.4
BrewDog USA / Evil Twin Roaster Coaster	4.3
Anchor Liberty Ale	4.2
The Bruery The Wanderer	4.2
Port City Porter	4.2

Just to balance out these great beers (and all the other posts to come waxing lyrical about the wonders of US brewing), I’d just like to add four words: Cave Creek Chilli Beer…

[Leighton]

I had to come to the UK to find a bottle of Cave Creek Chilli Beer! As I recall, I bought it at Utobeer in Burough Market.

[minutemat]

The United States of America is my 4th highest-rated country with 695 rates (though with backlog cleared this will top 700) from 257 breweries in 46 States. My Top Ten:

	My Rating	Avg	Entered	Updated
AleSmith Reforged XX	4.7	4.08	5/3/2016
Rogue Dead Guy Ale	4.6	3.5	2/7/2014
Green Flash Flanders Drive	4.6	3.81	9/28/2016
The Bruery Melange #3	4.6	4	1/29/2019
Evil Twin Yin & Yang	4.5	3.83	5/7/2015
Westbrook Siberian Black Magic Panther	4.5	3.85	10/30/2017
De Garde The Noir Truffle	4.5	3.49	9/25/2019
Yachats Nature of The Beast #4	4.5	3.26	9/26/2019
Great Notion Hot Fudge Saturday	4.5	3.71	9/30/2019
Lagunitas India Pale Ale (IPA)	4.4	3.56	3/13/2014

Have visited the US numerous times. First visit was in 2002 doing work experience at a record label in Huntington Beach, California during uni. Had a great time learning how to put promo CDs in envelopes. I also learnt that, although I was 20 years old, my date of birth on my driving license when I visited mid-July (07-09-81) made me 21 in the US, so bought beer with it no problem at all.

It was a fun trip, spent a few days in Hollywood, saw Jurassic 5 play an unannounced set at Amoeba Records with a handful of other people… went to Vans Warped Tour in LA and extended my stay an extra week in San Diego.

Returned in 2009 to see a mate in Colorado and completely fail at snowboarding. Went with him to a snow sports conference in Las Vegas, ending up in a Snoop Dogg party his magazine organised, saw the Grand Canyon.

I went back during my touring years, travelled all over. My partner came over a few days before one tour started and we drove around California in an old Dodge Ram. Went to Marty McFly and Doc Brown’s house, San Dimas High School and a few other film / TV sites.

Returned to New York in 2012 around the time I started searching out beer. I guess most of New York’s craft beer scene was yet to appear at that point, but we visited Brooklyn Brewery and got plenty of Flying Dog, Ommegang and Dogfish Head from corner shops. I wanted to visit Torst but it was opening literally the weekend after we left! At that point I think there was only a handful of specialist beer shops, but given the limited time I had, and only carry-on luggage, we didn’t visit them. Spent an evening playing Binky and Chuckie Egg in Barcade - an old mechanic’s workshop filled with old arcade machines and craft beer. Seem to recall a fantastic white wine BA saison, but pre-RB didn’t make a note of it. Took a Greyhound to DC, took a tour of the Pentagon, visited a great spy museum but couldn’t find a decent bar.

More recently in 2019 we did a road trip around Oregon and Washington and packed in as much tourist / beer / film site stuff as we could. Highlights being a Twin Peaks day touring around all the sites, Crater Lake, Goonies beach, Nirvana exhibition in Seattle, Mount Rainier national Park, the hotel from The Shining and bald eagle spotting in Sisters. Visited so many brewpubs it was starting to get exhausting, and began to test my partner’s patience so we had to limit ourselves.

Beer highlights -

• Bend was my favourite city for beer - so many exceptional breweries within a short distance of each other. Ale Apothecary, Bend Brewing Co, Crux Fermentations, plus who knew Deschutes made great wild, barrel-aged cider? And cask-conditioned bitter in the brewpub? Visited the town Oktoberfest, in the open-air, free, with all local breweries contributing a German beer.
• Stumbling on the fantastic Yachats brewpub on the coast, with exceptional BA saisons
• The Rogue brewpub in Astoria, located in an actual fish canning shed on the seafront, surrounded by seals. Rogue of course had their own branded tuna for sale!
• Hood River, home to Pfriem, Ferment Brewing and the excellent Hood River Brewing
• De Garde in Tillamook, coupled with a visit to the surprisingly good Tillamook ice cream factory

Cider wise, we were warned by Tom Oliver about the state of cider in the US. It seems that watery alcoholic fruit juice (with flavours like watermelon, blueberry and Pina Colada) makes up about 95% of the cider in the US. Schilling Cider house in Seattle had 50 such ciders on tap, with one token ‘traditional’ cider, although there were some interesting ‘premium’ options in the fridge.

We did finally find some incredible barrel-aged cider on tap in De Garde, and in fact a very good lambic selection too.

Next visit will be a similar trip around New England some time this year.

[evilempire]

just trawled my beers and done a bit of cross-referencing… down to 4 States for a beer tick now. Arkansas, Idaho, South Dakota, West Virginia

Been within a few miles of WV, not really been near the others

[Theydon_Bois]

Arkansas was my last … about 7 or 8 years back … took someone living there to bring one to London … not a lot if any distro from Arkansas within the US

To this day that’s the only one I’ve had and Arkansas is my only state on 1 beer

[bryne]

I have visited the US twice. First time was back in 1998 when me and my wife visited New York, Sedona, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Pismo Beach, Monterey and San Francisco. This was before RateBeer and I only remember some decent beers from Anchor Brewing enjoyed in San Francisco. The last trip was with my family in 2016. Our route? See my 75 place ratings

[Cheeseboard]

Not sure how many times I’ve visited the US, I’d guess 10 or 11 times. My dad went over to work there briefly in the late 1980’s and again from 1994-2004 so a few trips would have been to visit him.

I’ve done three trips since I was a beer nerd. 2016 visiting Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and then over to Oregon for Portland & Bend before driving across Yakima en route to Seattle for my flight home. And then both Brewdog Airlines flights in 2019 visiting Columbus, Cincinatti & Indianapolis. It’s probably not anywhere someone would choose to go for a beer holiday but Columbus OH is a fine beer city.

Tried to work out how many states I’ve visited, I make it 13, or maybe 14.

It’s my 2nd most checked in country after England, I’ve logged 353 US beers on here - and 2328 on Untappd - but I’ll never catch up!

Most checked in states - California is top with 68, then Colorado 38, Ohio 33, New York 30. I’ve sampled beers from 42 different US states.

My top-rated, an eclectic selection:

I do hope to get back over there to visit some more states but no plans made as yet.

Cheers
Simon

[danlo]

The US is my 2nd highest country with 479 rates, and my highest rated on 4.5 is Eden Cellar Series #14: Queen Mab

Have been to the US quite afew times and is linked with some great beer memories - back in the 1990’s visiting an Australian friend in Houston and trying Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for the first time, doing stop-over pub-crawls around San Francisco in between connecting flights and trying my first IPA (San Francisco ShanghaIPA) and Black IPA (21st Amendment Back in Black) there, other visits to Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia but all well before my ratebeer days. For ciders it’s a more recent thing and the American ciders I’ve tried are what’s been available here in the UK, or some bottles/ sample brought across.

Cider wise, there are a whopping 730 active cideries in the US, the most entries is by Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider from Portland with 99. My own US cider tally is only 87 ciders from 18 cideries.

The top 5 lists for American Cider and Cidery rates are both lead by @MicroGrog:

United StatesCider Ratings

	MicroGrog	712
	Drake	466
	mcberko	424
	Travlr	375
	obguthr	347

United StatesCideries

	MicroGrog	124
	crossovert	110
	mcberko	101
	Travlr	101
	Drake	98

[Jow]

New goal get on both those lists.

[Jow]

I’m an American who plays along with your stats weekly since I love stats, so I have lots of rates from US. 5k+ to be exact or 80% of my total. In Ratebeer times I lived in New York for 8 years, Florida for 3 and now Massachusetts for past year. NY is my only region with more than 1K rates which was an early goal. Nebraska is lowest with only 1 rate. Distribution laws in US are garbage and many of the states you guys are missing are tough for us to obtain as well. I’ve rated places in 41 states and plan to get all some day but it’s a big country. Chipping away.

[Theydon_Bois]

7,842 US rates for me … 2nd behind England.

Have been maybe a dozen times and stepped foot in 35 states … not been since 2016 mind so if I’d continued at the rate of visits prior to then I’m pretty sure I’d have gone through 10K.

As I touched on before Arkansas was my last state to rate and the only one still stuck on 1.

Kansas, North and South Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi, Nebraska, West Virginia and Louisiana are the other states on single figure rates for me.

At the higher end of the spectrum I’m in the top 50 raters of half a dozen or so states and top 3 for me are California with 1,898, New York 865 and Oregon 836.

I’ve visited most of the beer destinations and venues … Portland (both), Bend (OR), Seattle, Asheville (NC), Tampa and St Petes, NYC, Boston, Denver, San Diego, San Fran, Santa Rosa, Houston, Philly to name a few.

I’ve been to the source of … Victory, Alesmith, Lost Abbey, Russian River, Wicked Weed, Cigar City, Stone, Great Divide, Deschutes, Hair of the Dog and Cascade amongst others.

Always thoroughly enjoyed my US trips and also attended the RBWG in Tampa in 2015 and the RB best festival in 2016.

Must get back and my next target state wise is Alsaka (done the other tricky one with the Union Jack in the flag).

Beer Wise a visit to HF and as I’ve not been for 6 years NYC and Boston again … none of those Haze Bois were about on my last visits.

[evergreen0199]

United States of America, one hell of a country, I was besotted with the place since I was a small kid. The films on TV, everything seemed more colourful, brighter, bigger and more exciting than clapped out old Blighty. I’ve been to the USA 25 times now for holidays and have visited almost 40 states. I even got married in Nevada. My first visit to America was in 1984, a week in New York City where the streets were meaner and the subway was smothered in graffiti. My earlier trips to the US were always on Greyhound buses, often spending one night on the bus and the next in a motel doing some huge journeys across various states, meeting whacky people along the way. Always wanted to emigrate there in my 20’s but trying to obtain a green card was extremely difficult so it didn’t happen. I usually hire a car on my trips these days unless it is NYC when I buy a subway pass and go all over the place.

Always thought US beer was dreadful until the late 90’s when I tried Anchor Liberty and thought this is pretty decent, trips since then always involve good beer. There is so much good beer on the other side of the pond these days it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve only scratched the surface with my 883 rates, but I’ve had a lot more beers pre rating.

Breweries that standout are Stone, Three Floyds, Russian River, Founders, Other Half, Dark Horse, Bells, Alesmith, Great Divide, Hoppinn Frog, Dogfish Head, Toppling Goliath, Prairie, Oskar Blues, Bells, Ballast Point, Lagunitas, Green Flash, Hair of the Dog, Central Waters all score highly with me.

I’ve enjoyed every single trip to the USA and met some great people over there and hope to get back there as soon things improve on the travel front.

[theprof]

I lived in the US for just over four years in the 80s [in Detroit where they already sold T-shirts saying 'will the last person to leave Detroit, please turn out the light].
I also spent a year or so in Atlanta about a decade ago now, and it has been the centre of my professional career. Most recently that has meant fairly regular trips to Boston, the last at the end of February 2019 which some say was around the time one of several potential patient zeroes in the pandemic was attending IT gatherings at MIT. Given that introduction, I am dismayed that my total is so low–216. Most of those come from North-East and Midwest states with a few West coast exceptions but the heartland is largely untouched in terms of ratings and my top 10 is deeply unoriginal.

Founders Barrel Aged CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout)	4.2
Westbrook 7th Anniversary Chocolate and Sea Salt	4.2
Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale	4
Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)	4
Silver City Fat Scotch Ale	4
Bruery Terreux Beret	4
Odd Side Ales Mind Bullets	4
Oskar Blues Ten FIDY - Bourbon Barrel Aged	4
Oskar Blues Death By Coconut	4
Trillium Congress Street IPA	4
18th Street Barrel Aged Decameron	4

I also suspect most of the Founders and Oskar Blues was drunk either at the Junkyard in Nottingham or the Meadhall in Boston so hardly near the tap. If RB had been on my radar during my Atlanta years then most of my ratings would have been from the Brickstore in Decatur which had a great selection, although it also improved my understanding of Belgian beer and once had a tasting of Harviestoun ales!
It’s a bold move to take on the US in one go on this thread, given its size and variety. Most of the Brits on the forum who have been to the US will know that the accent is a real plus for you. It’s the only country I know where I am mistaken for a gentleman, and that alone guarantees that I will return even in retirement. Not least because now you go for the beer whereas on my first trip in 1976, you avoided it.