What an amazing year in craft beer. Quite possibly the tastiest, best produced quality, and most innovative U.S. brews of any year, throughout history -- came out in 2017.
Take a look at Forbes and Paste Magazine's picks for top breweries of the year. Then read below as Pimpin' breaks down (from an industry insider's perspective) not only the best breweries of this past year, but also predicts who will emerge as the star breweries of 2018.
Pimpin' Ain't Yeasty's Top 17 Breweries of 2017
17. Tree House (MA) - Julius, JJJULIUSSS; couldn't leave these juicy gods off the list.
16. Sante Adairius (CA) - West Ashley, Westley; they're on everyone's best Saisons list.
15. Bottle Logic (CA) - Reaction State, Ground State; B.L. headlined trade forums all 17'.
14. Saint Arnold (TX) - Bishop's Barrel, Pumpkinator; GABF's Midsize Brewery of the year.
13. The Bruery/ Bruery Terreaux (CA) - Chocolate Rain, Tart of Darkness; incredible quality.
12. pFriem (OR) - BBA Stout, BA Saison, Pilsner; who else is killing it in some many categories?
11. Grimm (NY) - Tesseract, BA Double Negative; fans of so many styles put Grimm #1.
10. Fremont (WA) - Brew 2000, B-Bomb; Fremont is murdering the cellarable beer game.
09. Side Project (MO) - Fuzzy, Jammy, La Ruche; not many Wild Ale brewers are on their level.
08. Perennial (MO) - BA Abraxas, Maman; dark beers thicker than a snicker, I swear to blog.
07. Monkish (CA) - Beyond Automatically, Socrates'; top tier hazy collab kings.
06. Trillium (MA) - DDH Congress Street, DDH Mechler Street; they run the juicy IPA streets.
05. Hill Farmstead (VT) - Clover, Double Galaxy; Saison kings make top IPAs and Barleywines.
04. Other Half (NY) - DDH Mylar Bags, DDH All Citra Everything; NY hazy DDH specialists.
03. de Garde (OR) - Broken Truck, Imperial Bu's, Premiere's; flawlessly intense tart Fruit Sours.
02. Holy Mountain (WA) - Guava Table, Spirit Crusher; Saison elite -- monsters in most in styles.
01. Tired Hands (PA) - Vanilla Milkshake, Only Void; #1 no one else is brewing like them.
The Top 10 Up and Comers To Watch As You Down Their Beers In 2018
10. Atwood (WA) - Berry Curl, No Whey; nano brewery, no hype, making exceptional Wild Ales.
09. Woodland Empire (ID) - Ada County Stout, Sourdough Saison; Beets and Carrot Sours!
08. Triple Crossing (VA) - Foam + TC, Interstellar Burst; juicy IPAs shaking up the South.
07. Pure Project (CA) - Triple Dry Hyped, New Fashioned; so innovative and quality-conscious.
06. Societe (CA) - The Roustabout, The Butcher; they do all styles better than most specialists.
05. Plan Bee (NY) - KarnL, Nectar, Royal Jelly; Their own farm, and bees, and a dill pickle Sour!
04. Ale Apothecary (OR) - Sahalie, La Tache; meticulously detailed small batch Sours.
03. Hudson Valley (NY) - Multichorus, Planetfall, Sour focused, but do other styles very well.
02. Industrial Arts (NY) - Wrench, State of the Art; NE IPA specialists, Wrench ranks high.
01. Great Notion (OR) - Juice Jr, Blueberry Muffin, PeanutBrother; Mind blowingly flavorful beer.
There are over 5,000 American craft breweries now, so making this list was tough. All of the breweries above did a truly outstanding job this past year. Feel free to comment with who you felt was undeservingly left out. Ranking ain't easy my friends, but drinking craft beer in 2017 sure was fun!
