Asheville, North Carolina represents the spirit of beer enthusiasm, taking top honors
in BeerCity USA 2010 poll. Illustration courtesy American Craft Beer Week.
Asheville, North Carolina is BeerCity USA 2010. While Portland, Oregon organized a healthy challenge against the western North Carolina city of Asheville, in the end the relentless craft beer enthusiasm for Asheville won out. Enjoy the hundreds of comments on the original poll site.
There’s no doubt about Portland, Oregon. Anyone who has enjoyed beer in Portland will agree, it’s a craft beer experience and highlight of the American beer experience. Asheville has 6 breweries who enjoy terrific support from their local community. Beers experienced from breweries in both cities, I can attest to, are worth the journey to these American beer Meccas. In fact beer enjoyed in most American cities is worth the journey. Beer drinkers are on notice: You can leave home now – better beer awaits.
What about the 1,500+ other craft brewers and the cities, towns and villages they call “local?” The growth in enthusiasm and support for celebrating American Craft Beer Week last week is a clear indication that there are many BeerCity USAs worth visiting. Savoring the American beer landscape has turned out to be a fun journey for 90 million American beer drinkers. American Craft Beer Week coincided with BeerCity USA poll and ended with an outpouring of votes for the relatively smaller city of Asheville, North Carolina. In the end the 7-day BeerCity USA 2010 poll reflected a clear winner. Most Americans, on average live within 10 miles of a brewery.
It’s always time to celebrate beer. Here are the results of BeerCity USA 2010 Poll.
19,040 votes were cast by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, May 23 (MountainTime). Here’s the finally tally for the top 10 vote getters:
| City | Total Votes | Pecentage Votes |
| 1. Asheville, NC | 7389 | 38.8% |
| 2. Portland, OR | 6565 | 34.5% |
| 3. San Diego, CA | 884 | 4.6% |
| 4. Philadelphia, PA | 600 | 3.2% |
| 5. Missoula, MT | 515 | 2.7% |
| 6. St. Louis, MO | 421 | 2.2% |
| 7. Seattle, WA | 362 | 1.9% |
| 8. Denver, CO | 234 | 1.2% |
| 9. Milwaukee, WI | 227 | 1.2% |
| Fort Collins, CO | 210 | 1.1% |
Congratulations to the beer enthusiast network and beer passion expressed in the BeerCity USA Poll 2010 by Asheville, North Carolina.
See BeerCity USA 2009 results.
See original rules of BeerCity USA 2010
There are 9 breweries in Asheville, NC according to the Brewers Association’s directory of U.S. Breweries. Ashville’s (2008 estimated) population is 74,543.
- Asheville Brewing Co, 77 Coxe Ave., Asheville, NC 28801 Microbrewery
- Asheville Pizza and Brewing, 675 Merrimon, Asheville, NC 28804, Brewpub
- Craggie Brewing Co., 197 Hilliard Avenue, Ashville, NC Microbrewery
- French Broad Brewing Co., 101-D Fairview Rd., Ashville, NC Microbrewery
- Green Man Brewing Co 23 Buxton Ave., Asheville, NC 28801 Microbrewery
- Highland Brewing Co 12 Old Charlotte Hwy, Ste H, Asheville, NC 28801 Regional brewery
- Lexington Avenue Brewing - The LAB PO Box 7303, Asheville, NC 28802 Brewpub
- Oyster House Brewing Co./Lobster Trap Restaurant, 35 Patton St., Asheville, NC 28801 Brewpub
- Wedge Brewing Co., 129-B Roberts St., Ashville, NC Microbrewery
Comments
Asheville rules!
Oh, and there are more than six breweries here. Please add French Broad Brewing, Wedge Brewing, Craggie Brewing and, in nearly Black Mountain, the great Pisgah Brewing to the lineup. Ten breweries in Asheville.
Don't forget these two Asheville breweries:
Wedge Brewing Company
&
Craggie Brewing Company
and in the metro area: Pisgah Brewing Company
Charlie, last year Portland had 41% of the vote and Asheville 37% of the vote and yet you declared a tie between the two cities. Why with a 4.3% difference this year are you declaring a winner? It's completely disingenuous.
"There are 6 breweries in Asheville, NC according to the Brewers Association’s directory of U.S. Breweries." Unfortunately, the Brewers Association has misspelled AshEville on their website. 3 additional breweries show up under Ashville:
French Broad Brewing Co
www.frenchbroadbrewery.com
Type: Micro
Craggie Brewing Co
www.craggiebrewingco.com
Type: Micro
Wedge Brewing Co
www.wedgebrewing.com
Type: Micro
Dont be such a poor loser!!!
Thanks everyone who pointed out the Asheville Brewer's Alliance also contains French Broad Brewing, Wedge Brewing, Craggie Brewing and Pisgah Brewing. Newly opened Nantahala Brewing Company just joined the list and Heinzelmanchen Brewery and Appalachian Craft are also near by!
Congrats to Asheville!
Don't forget about The Lexington Ave Brewery. And The Biltmore IS have a local brewery brew exclusively for them . YAY Asheville.
That's really cute that a town with 10 breweries would think it's a "beer city." If it's beer quality and variety you love, travel West, my friends.
Portland is essentially the hometown of the local craft brew scene in the US. However, per capita, I believe Asheville has more breweries per person- for what it is worth. Anyway, more good beer in more places should be applauded, so get over yourself and the territorial stuff - and go have a great local brew WHEREVER you are!
Thanks everyone who pointed out the Asheville Brewer's Alliance also contains French Broad Brewing, Wedge Brewing, Craggie Brewing and Pisgah Brewing. Newly opened Nantahala Brewing Company just joined the list and Heinzelmanchen Brewery and Appalachian Craft are also near by!
Congrats to Asheville!
Congrats to all of the cities that were in the poll - they all have great local brews... being an Asheville resident and a touring musician who got to spend some great times in Portland OR, this was a matter of "local pride" voting-wise. Portland does in fact have some great beers (as does San Diego, Denver, Seattle, etc etc.) I always make a point of checking out local beer when on tour. For our little city to sustain 10 breweries does say something for the region... all in all - I'm glad to see the craft-beer scene on the rise nation-wide.
I would have voted, but I was too busy drinking beer at the umpteen million awesome craft breweries here in Portland. I got distracted.
im going to Ashevilles BEERCITY FESTIVAL in June for sure... Ive heard nothing but great things about the taste of there beers... got my ticket already... cant wait and congrats to a great city
Not a good poll. No one in the Oregon Brewers Guild probably knew about this poll! Portland has 28 breweries in the City! Largest per capita.
oregonbeer.org
The Oregon Brewers Festival [1] the largest gathering of independent craft brewers in the United State. Case in point
This is ridiculous. This whole poll and most of these comments.
It seems only Portland and Asheville care. Living near Asheville I naturally voted that way. Proud to be a customer. Hope I get to Portland someday.
You poor-sport Portlanders are acting so childishly. It's just a fun poll. And if you really did want to win, all you had to do was vote. Portland's what, like ten times the size of Asheville?
And Tauran, the Oregon Brewers Guild was pretty actively pushing for votes on Twitter (and probably other avenues). Portland does have enough breweries and beer-lovers that if they really wanted to, they could have won with ease.
So if you don't care enough to give it the old college try, don't come in here whining when you "lose."
How's that backwash taste?
@Andrew:
"Charlie, last year Portland had 41% of the vote and Asheville 37% of the vote and yet you declared a tie between the two cities. Why with a 4.3% difference this year are you declaring a winner? It's completely disingenuous."
Andrew if you read the final article for last year there was a lot of Ballet stuffing from the same IP addresses and votes caste after the pool closed which made the results you keep babbling about wrong. In other wards you probably cheated. Isn't it about time you stop being a sore loser as you are not doing the City of Portland or its beer community any favors with your poor attitude. That goes for the rest of you folks bad mouthing and being sore losers. I doubt very seriously we would have acted as childish as you. We would have just gotten back to work and improved for the next time. Seriously, your poor attitude is only hurting yourselves and its disgusting behavior on your part. Bye Andrew....grow up!
@James: PollDaddy, who hosted the poll, rejects multiple votes from the same IP address. That means if you keep voting from your place of work or home, your vote still only counts once. It also means people from the same business get one vote. If you *actually* read the article about last year's results, Charlie said that many votes came from the same IP *block* (e.g., ranges owned by Comcast, AT&T, etc.), not the same address. Learn something about the Internet before mouthing off, why don't you?
The facts are these: last year Portland won by 4% and a tie was declared. This year Asheville won by 4.3% and Charlie declared Asheville the winner. Totally disingenuous by Charlie.
By the way, are you the same James who called me a "habitual liar" and a "bigot" for my pointing out Portland won by 4% last year, anyway? If you are, then shove off. Grow up. You do a disservice to the apparently excellent Asheville beer scene by representing it as you do with insults.
@James: Oops, mea culpa:
"On a random sampling of multiple votes from the same IP address (I was checking the ones that had between 20 and about 80 from the same IP address) the majority were from communication services such as AT&T and Comcast. Some were from large companies and even then the votes from the same company were sometimes mixed."
I misremembered the language Charlie used from last year. My apologies. But your accusation that Portland got more votes last year because we cheated is completely unfounded and your insults are still out of line.
No matter how many times you try to count the # of breweries in Asheville, it does not come close to PDX. Not being a poor loser, just hate the misrepresentation. It is great out here on the West coast, craft brewing is our thing, not Asheville's, but they dp rank up there per Capita. Nice town, Asheville. Feels like the college towns out here. As for beer quality, we tried the breweries and felt there were a little 'green' at the art still. Not complaining though. Love the effort!
@Andrew....the only one who has continually whined and insulted is you Andrew, those are the facts Andrew. Also Andrew we don't have Comcast so that would indeed be you folks I believe...nice try...perhaps the beer you are drinking is to bitter which is making you a bitter and sore loser which as I stated earlier is only an embarrassment on Portland due to actions of your own, Andrew.
Andrew last year the poll was not set up that way. Once again please get your facts straight or stop trying to distort the truth to your advantage. Its really childish and ridiculous on your part and rather embarrassing to the Portland brewing community. Have a nice life.
and Andrew...I am very well aware of the internet, etc as I am in a related business. Poll are set yup by the user, etc and have numerous options. You now, I really don't think I have ever met such sore loser and cry baby in my lifetime then you. Its ridiculous on your part.
Seems to me that we should be celebrating the fact that craft beer is getting recognition, not whining and fighting with each other. Seriously, the little backhanded insults and outright fighting is pretty childish. I live in Waynesville which is right next to Asheville, and we are happy about the recognition for our "little town". That being said i don't think we would have made a big deal about it if we had lost, we would have just gotten to work to get ready for next year. We know the beer in Asheville is awesome and, while the recognition is nice, we don't need it to be proud of our beer. Everyone needs to stop being so petty and get to work for the next poll. If Mr. Papazian even has one. The way everyone has been whining and fighting if i was him i think i would tell everyone to go screw themselves and forget about it.
If any Ashevillians ever make it to Portland to check out the scene here, I would be happy to buy their first beer and be a beer guide. Oregon Craft Beer month in July will have events going daily and festivals every weekend. Great time to be here for beer. But so is anytime else. You can send me Beer Mail on BeerAdvocate.com. The username is HopTsar.
10 breweries? They won and they only have 10 breweries?
I think its time to make a new rule: If you can count on your hands how many breweries you have in your town, YOU'RE NOT A BEER TOWN.
Get real, people.
It's not the amount of breweries in Asheville - 10. It's based on the local beweries output of bierra that counts. See Pisgah Organic IPA for example. Or, better yet, contact the fine folks of Bruisin' Ales downtown Asheville to see why.
I agree that these polls may misrepresent each good beer community. In the world view Portland comes out as one of six great beer cities in the Lonely Planet Blog.
The Melting Pot of Washington, DC (1220 19th St. NW in DC) will be hosting a Magic Hat beer dinner on Friday, June 11 at 7pm. It's 4 courses + 4 Magic Hat pairings (see below) for $58 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
I thought you might be interested in helping us publicize the event to your Washington, DC readers.
Magic Hat Beer Dinner Menu:
First Course
Lucky Kat Cheese Fondue paired with Lucky Kat
Second Course
California Salad paired with Magic Hat #9
Third Course
Circus Boy Shrimp, Filet Mignon Florentine, Citrus Pork Tenderloin, Garlic Chili Chicken, and Chicken & Vegetable Potstickers, all paired with Circus Boy
Fourth Course
White Chocolate Apple Pie Fondue paired with Wacko
Thanks!
I went to college 45 mins from asheville omg they really do have the best beer. Its just so refreshing. Its great just to go to downtown and grab a beer and hang out with all your friends!
Mmm, Highland Gaelic Ale
Asheville doesnt even seem like a city to me. The beer here is amazing.
Pisgah brewing company FTW!
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