Here’s the Best Beer from Every State. Hold onto Your Livers.

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
– Winston Churchill

“All right, brain. You don’t like me and I don’t like you, but let’s just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.”
– Homer Simpson

Looking for something great to drink? Start with the ABV.

Just kidding. Sort of.

As we continue to look at data from Beer Advocate’s best beers state-by-state, it seems two things are clear: people like high ABV styles and rate high-alcohol beers well.

But what does that mean when looking for a top-notch, truly great beer? While we’ve so far kept these rankings in a vacuum, I wanted to put see what would happen with our “best” beers if we put them in more of a head-to-head scenario.

Which is why today we look at the best of the “best” beers from every state and what particular aspects reinforce the belief that to enjoy a great beer, you may not be drinking responsibly.

For this analysis, I started by taking the top-ranked beer from every state and DC, finishing with a list of 51 beers to rank. If you’re curious about Beer Advocate’s proprietary weighted rating (WR) system, read this.

All the beers selected will appear below, but if you want to see the unadulterated list, here you go.

To focus on drinker preferences, I once again split all the beers into two groups – the top-25 and bottom-26.

Here’s the top half:

State	Beer Name	Brewery	Style	ABV	WR	SRM
Florida	Barrel-aged Hunahpu	Cigar City	Imperial Stout	11	4.73	35
Iowa	Kentucky Brunch	Toppling Goliath	Imperial Stout	13	4.71	35
Vermont	Heady Topper	Alchemist	DIPA	8	4.71	12
California	Pliny the Younger	Russian River	DIPA	11	4.68	12
Illinois	BCBS Coffee	Goose Island	Imperial Stout	13.4	4.67	35
Indiana	Barrel-aged Vanilla Bean Dark Lord	Three Floyds	RIS	15	4.66	35
Michigan	KBS	Founders	Imperial Stout	11.2	4.61	35
Connecticut	Fuzzy Baby Ducks	New England Brewing	IPA	6.2	4.56	11
Missouri	Barrel-aged Abraxas	Perennial	Imperial Stout	11	4.56	35
Alaska	A Deal with the Devil	Anchorage Brewing	Barleywine	17.3	4.54	15
Texas	Atrial Rubicite	Jester King	Wild Ale	5.8	4.54	7
Minnesota	Abrasive Ale	Surly	DIPA	9	4.51	12
Wyoming	2×4 Quadruple Pale	Melvin Brewing	DIPA	10.5	4.5	12
Oregon	Abyss	Deschutes	Imperial Stout	11	4.5	35
Massachusetts	Julius	Tree House	IPA	6.5	4.48	11
Ohio	Columbus Bodhi	Columbus Brewing	DIPA	8	4.47	12
Oklahoma	Praire Bomb	Prairie Artisan Ales	Imperial Stout	14	4.47	35
New Mexico	Project Dank	La Cumbre	IPA	7.5	4.44	11
Wisconsin	Sixteen	Central Waters	Imperial Stout	11	4.43	35
Colorado	Uncle Jacob’s Stout	Avery Brewing	Imperial Stout	14.83	4.4	35
Washington	Bourbon Abominable Winter Ale	Fremont	Strong Ale	11	4.4	17
Maryland	Gose Gone Wild	Stillwater/Westbrook	Gose	4.6	4.4	5
Maine	Lunch	Maine Brewing	IPA	7	4.37	11
Virginia	Bourbon Barrel Resolute	Three Brothers	RIS	13.5	4.37	35
South Carolina	Mexican Cake	Westbrook	Imperial Stout	10.5	4.36	35

… and here’s the bottom:

State	Beer Name	Brewery	Style	ABV	WR	SRM
North Carolina	Barrel-aged Sexual Chocolate	Foothills	RIS	9.75	4.35	35
Pennsylvania	Nugget Nectar	Troegs	Amber	7.5	4.34	14
DC	OtWoA	DC Brau	DIPA	9.2	4.33	12
Utah	Big Bad Baptist	Epic	Imperial Stout	11.8	4.31	35
Georgia	Coffee Oatmeal Stout	Terrapin	Imperial Stout	9.4	4.28	35
Alabama	Snake Handler	Good People Brewing	DIPA	9.3	4.27	12
Delaware	90 Minute	Dogfish Head	DIPA	9	4.27	12
Kansas	Old Backus	Free State	Barleywine	10.5	4.26	15
New Jersey	A Night to End All Dawns	Kane Brewing	Imperial Stout	13	4.26	35
Kentucky	Bo & Luke	Against the Grain	RIS	14	4.25	35
New Hampshire	Baltic Porter	Smuttynose	Baltic Porter	9.24	4.25	25
Montana	Barrel-aged Ivan the Terrible	Big Sky	RIS	10	4.24	35
New York	Choklat	Southern Tier	Imperial Stout	10	4.24	35
Tennessee	Sue	Yazoo Brewing	Porter	9	4.12	29
Arizona	Dragoon	Dragoon Brewing	IPA	7.3	4.11	11
Nebraska	Melange A Trois In French Oak Chardonnay Barrels	Nebraksa Brewing	Belgian Strong	10	4.09	17
Idaho	Trout Hop	Grand Teton	Black Ale	8.5	4.01	35
Hawaii	CoCoNut Porter	Maui Brewing	Porter	6	3.99	29
Nevada	Bourbon Barrel RIS	Joseph James Brewing	RIS	9.5	3.98	35
Mississippi	Timber Beast	Lazy Magnolia	DIPA	9	3.91	12
West Virginia	Dun Glen	Bridge Brew Works	Dubbel	7.08	3.86	14
Rhode Island	Bock	Narragansett	Maibock	6.5	3.8	9
North Dakota	Feast Like a Sultan	Laughing Sun	IPA	7.2	3.79	11
Louisiana	IRISh Channel	New Orleans Lager & Ale Brewing	Stout	6.8	3.77	35
Arkansas	Paradise Porter	Diamond Bear Brewing	Porter	6.24	3.76	29
South Dakota	Pile O Dirt	Crow Peak	Porter	6	3.7	29

To highlight the differences, here’s the quick and dirty look at the averaged ABV, weighted rating and SRM (color) from both of the above lists, pitted against the averages for all 507 beers pulled from my original list for comparison:

Top-25 Best	Bottom-26 Best	All Beer AVG
10.5 ABV	8.9 ABV	8.1 ABV
4.52 WR	4.1 WR	4.06 WR
23 SRM	24 SRM	18 SRM

One new twist I wanted to include was the value for Standard Reference Method, or SRM, which measures the color intensity of a beer. In layman’s terms, the higher the number, the darker the beer. A jet-black Russian imperial stout, for example, would register at the top of the scale at 40. For simplicity’s sake, the SRMs for each beer are averaged from their respective style.

So what does this all mean? Well, after yesterday’s look at how ABV might impact ratings, this emphasizes why.

The top-25 clearly has a higher ABV against both the bottom-26 and the overall average, not to mention a rather large difference in Beer Advocate’s weighted ranking score. I was rather surprised the the bottom-26, even though it’s the “best of” what states had to offer, barely beat the “all beer” average in weighted rating.

I included SRM because it once again shows that higher ABV beers (which can often end up being dark stouts or porters like we see here, but obviously not always) perform well. The average SRM for the top and bottom are virtually the same.

Perhaps most important, 18 of the 25 beers in the top half are imperial stouts, double IPAs and a barleywine. Bottom 26? 13 beers from those styles.

Which leads me into the next post nicely. If these are the characteristics that define the best American beers from across the country, what would that patriotic brew look like, exactly? With a little help from my friends, we’re going to find out.

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac