Bend named nation’s ‘Best Beer City’
In recent decades, breweries have sprung up all over America – in towns big and small – evolving the art and science of brewing while enhancing the city’s livability.
With this in mind, Livability.com has named Bend a Best Beer City, 2014.
“Bend offers innovative and award-winning breweries, residents who consume beer at higher rates than the average American, sophisticated beer tastes and a high quality of life for beer lovers,” the Website said.
Here’s the rest of their news release
Our editors looked at both sides of the beer equation: production and consumption.
For the production side, they took into account the number of award-winning breweries and beers the town has crafted in recent years according to the Great American Beer Festival.
On the consumption side, they used data from Esri to find cities where people were drinking more craft and high-end beers than average, and less macro-brews than average.
In addition, our editors considered the number of liquor stores per capita. They also weighed in the city’s reputation as a beer town, its overall livability, and a shot of our editor’s own experiences with the towns and their brews.
“Being a great beer city has positive implications for attracting talent, fostering business and drawing in tourists,” says Livability editor Matt Carmichael. “But most importantly, it means you have great beer.”
Bend, Oregon was chosen as our top beer city for its extremely high concentration of breweries, one of the highest in the country. It’s more than 25 breweries give residents easy access to high- quality, locally made beer.
Bend is home to the largest beer trail in the west, the Bend Ale Trail, which loosely follows the Deschutes River, which runs between several of the city’s best breweries and is the namesake of Bend’s biggest brewer, Deschutes Brewery.
The city also has several growler filling stations, allowing beer lovers to take home their favorite brews.
10 Best Beer Cities 2014
1. Bend, OR
2. Denver, CO
3. San Diego, CA
4. Albuquerque, NM
5. Tampa, FL
6. Grand Rapids, MI
7. St. Louis, MO
8. Bellingham, WA
9. Hershey, PA
10. Billings, MT
About Livability.com:
Livability.com explores what makes small to mid-sized cities great places to live, work and visit. We examine issues related to livability such as walkability, cultural amenities, transportation, urban planning, and sustainability through exclusive research and discussions on our blog. We celebrate the accomplishments of these cities through our monthly top 10 lists, our annual ranking of livable cities, our rich photography and conversations with readers in social media. Livability.com is a division of Journal Communications, Inc.
