Finding the best breweries--wherever you are in the world--can be as easy as doing a web search, or opening up an alternative weekly newspaper or culinary event circular and looking for an ad with something like Voted Best Brewery in it. You may have a favorite brew pub in your home town, but what if you’re in search of some variety, or a brewery in a foreign city? Having a knowledgeable guide, such as a friend, is good, but ultimately taste belongs to the taster, and you can only decide for yourself which breweries are the best. The best brew pubs, ultimately, have the freshest, best tasting beer. Forget about gimmicks, or fancy food on the menu--although for some, that is a determining factor for wanting to drink in that establishment. The best breweries offer craft beer variety that has marketable, staying power.

Take Stone Brewing Company in Escondido, CA, for instance. They epitomize this very ethos, by providing something for any discerning and sophisticated palate. Along with a full brewery offering the best in pale ales, I.P.A., bitter ales, and stout beers, they have an upscale bistro for those who want to pair fine dining with their beer tasting experience. Other top-notch brew pubs exist in cities like Seattle, Denver, Portland and Bend, OR, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Chicago, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. But that’s not to say that your hometown doesn’t brew up a fantastic craft beer, or even standard beer. At Sleepy Dog Brewing Co. in Tempe, AZ, the owners have done away with an extensive food menu, and have stuck to specializing in quality craft beers. This is a tasting room par excellence, with beers to howl about, though the owners encourage the ordering in of food from wherever tasters like.

In Business Week’s March 2005 article, Top 50 American Breweries Reflect the Diversity of American Beer, Brewers Association Director Paul Gatza states, More than 1400 breweries operate in the U.S. today, and craft brewers constitute the majority of the largest 50 brewing companies. This says a lot about brewing culture in the U.S., and alludes to how, in the last 20 years or so, we’ve moved from domestic brewing and distribution (largely having been separated), to a viable and infectious craft brew culture that pairs sophisticated brewmaking with bar and restaurant atmosphere. There are breweries that range in size from one man in his basement to large-distribution microbrew companies who make hundreds of millions of dollars annually.