The craft beer world is filled with passionate opinions — and nowhere more so than among those who wield notebooks and pens. Ask any three beer writers to name the country’s single best brewery, and you’re likely to get over a dozen well-argued responses, from the totally obvious to the truly arcane.
For this year’s annual survey, we asked 30 beer pros of various stripes — beer writers, educators, historians, community leaders, authors, and just one cartoonist — to name the best breweries in the country right now. Their choices run the gamut, from long-term favorites to hot new arrivals, from high-volume producers to neighborhood taprooms.
These picks echo some of the big changes that are currently ripping through the beer world. As with hard seltzer, glitter beer, and brut IPA, the beer world moves in cycles and trends. Some of what used to be celebrated no longer holds the same cachet, while once famous names might not have the same status they did a few years ago. This month’s “year in beer” report from the Brewers Association shows that the total number of 9,736 small and independent breweries in the U.S. at the end of 2024 is a plateau at best, with 399 brewery closures slightly outpacing this year’s 335 new openings. The days of comparing craft brewers to rock stars and constant double-digit craft brewery growth are clearly behind us.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all gloom and doom. As you’ll see from this list, there are inspired
