Beer Advocate and the United States of Beer: The Complete Series!

Here’s your #longread of the week. Much like the series I wrote about the growth of beer-related vernacular and Google, I wanted to provide a handy, single location to easily relocate all the posts related to this Beer Advocate series. It was a beast to corral and this offers a compilation of that work. Thanks to everyone who followed along, including Tom Cizauskas of Yours for Good Fermentables, who wrote a recap of my work. In chronological order, here are all the pieces to this series:

A State-by-State Analysis of Beer Advocate Rankings: Setting the Stage

I collected data from Beer Advocate’s “top beers” rankings of each of the 50 states in the U.S. as well as the District of Columbia. What does it all mean? This is our start to better understand the habits and behaviors of beer drinkers and what that means on a state and national level.

The United States of Beer (According to Beer Advocate)

Not just a full list of the 507 beers that comprise the top “10s” of every state (and DC) in the Union, but a brief analysis and a map that shows the representative brewery for each state.

The Big Beer Impact: Does ABV Influence Rankings?

A deep dive into the numbers to investigate the possible connection between alcohol content and how that impacts perception of a beer. Plus, do ABV and high ratings have anything to do with climate?

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

Playing off the idea of ABV and high ratings, 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.

An Experiment with Beer Advocate’s Best: A Beer So American, You Could Salute It

What’s the point of all this work if we can’t have a little fun? Using data from the list of 507 best beers and some help from friends, we now have a recipe for a uniquely American beer: the True American Patriot IPA.

What Beer Advocate’s “Low” ABV Beers Tell Us About Preference

By looking at the lower-ABV beers of the best beers from every state, it’s possible to find even more correlation between what raters may consider a “good” beer when it comes to ABV.

A Final Look at Beer Advocate “Best Beer” Data

Two last pieces of analysis left over from previous posts. Most important, does income have anything to do with what could be a “best” beer? +Bryan Roth “Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac