Cincinnati Is For (Beer) Lovers

Ol' Cincy, you've done it again. For the second year in a row, Cincinnati has topped SmartAsset's list of the best U.S. cities for beer drinkers. Food & Wine shared the news, explaining that SmartAsset's criteria includes the total number of breweries, the number of breweries per every 100,000 residents, the average number of beers available at each brewery, the number of bars for every 100,000 residents, and the average cost of one pint of domestic brew.

So, what makes Cincinnati such a sudsy destination? According to SmartAsset, the city has 31 breweries, which each have an average of 112 different beers available. Plus, on average, a Cincinnati pint will only cost you about four bucks. The beer-friendly title is just the latest development that confirms our theory: good stuff comes from Cincinnati. (Consider Graeter's ice cream, or this gorgeous subway map linking each of the city's Taco Bells, for example.)

Asheville, North Carolina, takes second place on the SmartAsset list, jumping two whole spots from last year. The rest of the top 10 are, in order: St. Louis; Portland, Oregon; Pittsburgh; Denver; Bend, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Missoula, Montana; and Cleveland. (Quick note that the Top 10 is actually unchanged from 2019, but the list's top three cities have swapped places.) If my calculations are correct, small cities have some of the best beer in the country. The question is: which of these yeasty gems will I visit first in a post-COVID world?