# Top 18 Craft Breweries in America

> Nine and a half thousand breweries operate in America, and these are the ones people drive out of their way for.

*By YPB Team · Published September 15, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-18-craft-breweries-in-america*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Tree House Brewing** — score 1000/1000
   Charlton, Massachusetts — a destination-only brewery people queue for in the rain.
2. **Sierra Nevada** — score 999/1000
   Chico, California, 1980 — its Pale Ale taught America what a hop tastes like.
3. **Goose Island** — score 862/1000
   Chicago, and Bourbon County Brand Stout, the beer that invented the American barrel-aged stout.
4. **Cigar City Brewing** — score 764/1000
   Tampa, Florida — Jai Alai IPA and a brewery that gave the Southeast its own identity.
5. **The Alchemist** — score 764/1000
   Stowe, Vermont — Heady Topper put the unfiltered hazy IPA on the map in a four-pack of cans.
6. **Russian River** — score 647/1000
   Santa Rosa, California, home of Pliny the Elder and the double IPA as a pilgrimage.
7. **Bell's Brewery** — score 647/1000
   Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Two Hearted Ale, repeatedly voted America's best beer by homebrewers.
8. **Founders Brewing** — score 647/1000
   Grand Rapids, Michigan — KBS and Breakfast Stout made barrel-ageing a mainstream release date.
9. **Deschutes Brewery** — score 647/1000
   Bend, Oregon, 1988 — Black Butte Porter outsold every other craft porter in the country for years.
10. **Odell Brewing** — score 647/1000
   Fort Collins, Colorado, 1989 — a family brewery that stayed independent while its neighbours sold.
11. **Allagash Brewing** — score 647/1000
   Portland, Maine, and the Belgian white that convinced Americans a cloudy beer was intentional.
12. **Firestone Walker** — score 503/1000
   Paso Robles, California, and the oak-fermented pale ales from its Union brewing system.
13. **Anchor Brewing** — score 503/1000
   San Francisco's Anchor Steam is the beer historians point at when they date American craft to 1965.
14. **Samuel Adams** — score 503/1000
   Boston Beer Company, 1984 — the brewery that proved craft could scale without a buyout.
15. **Stone Brewing** — score 503/1000
   Escondido, California — arrogance as a brand strategy and a bastard on the label.
16. **New Belgium** — score 0/1000
   Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Fat Tire amber that rode a bicycle onto every shelf.
17. **Great Lakes Brewing** — score 0/1000
   Cleveland, 1988 — Ohio's first craft brewery and its Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.
18. **Dogfish Head** — score 0/1000
   Delaware's off-centered brewery, built on 60/90/120 Minute IPA and continuous hopping.

Tags: brands, drinks, usa, beers