The Top 10 Beer Stories of 2015

Pictured at right, Dick Cantwell playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. This was the most-viewed picture on the Washington Beer Blog in 2015. Can you guess the story with which it was associated?

Below we list the top ten stories of 2015, as well as the top brewery openings of the year.

Since starting the Washington Beer Blog in 2008, we have published nearly 3,500 stories. Even more astonishing, we have published over 1.5 million words, mostly about Washington beer. Thank you for your patience and your endurance.

All 1.5 million words are still out there, so people often stumble across stories in our archives when using Google to search for beer-related information. That’s why our list of top stories is usually a mix of the old and the new. Usually more new than old, but it’s always interesting to see what interested people on the worldwide web.2015-web-stats


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Speaking of archives, check out the very first post we ever published here (October 11, 2008). It’s a bitter sweet story, sadly prophetic in the face of all that happened in 2015.

2015 Top Ten Posts

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Below is the list of the Washington Beer Blog’s most-viewed stories of 2015. Most of them are from this year. Some of them are from the archives but still manage to maintain their relevance in 2015. This list is based on real web stats; it is not a matter of opinion.

  1. It’s an Acquired Taste – The most-viewed stories on the Washington Beer Blog in 2015 were all related to Anheuser-Busch’s acquisition of Elysian Brewing Company. Based on page views, the top story of the year was Dick Cantwell Resigns from Anheuser-Busch and Elysian. The initial story we posted in January, Elysian Confirms the Acquisition, came in second. There were other stories on this topic that ranked very high. It was big news.
  2. Dirty Draft Beer Lines (2012) – This story about the need for proper draft line maintenance, which we published back in 2012, always ranks very high. Are we the only ones who talks about dirty draft beer lines? Google thinks so.
  3. Beer at the Ballpark 2015 – Our annual report about beer at Safeco Field. Published every spring just prior to the first home stand, this story tops the charts every year. This is due to the fact that the Mariners don’t share a lot of information publicly about the craft beer program at Safeco Field. Remember, although there is good beer at our ballpark, Coors is still the official beer of Major League Baseball, so it makes sense that the Mariners rely on resources like the Washington Beer Blog to pimp their craft beer program. They can’t.
  4. Top 10 Beer Cities in America – Anytime you put the words “Top 10” in a headline, you’ll get a lot of traffic. People cannot help but check out the story to see how much they disagree with your uninformed, misguided, and utterly foolish analysis of anything. This top 10 list is different in that it is based on empirical data. That didn’t stop people from freaking out, though.
  5. Fresh Hop, Wet Hop, What’s the Difference (2013) – Fresh hop beers have gotten more and more popular in recent years. The popularity of this story is proof. Like the dirty beer lines story above, this one googles awfully well.
  6. What’s that Keg Doing at Goodwill? (2013)  – Another one from the archives. We have not investigated the situation but assume people are finding this story because they’re asking questions about keg repatriation (the act of returning a keg to its rightful owner). Sure, maybe it googles well, but it’s not exactly a sexy story.
  7. More Acquisitions on the Way: The Letter  – Another acquisition-related story. A local brewery reached out to us and said they’d been contacted by a potential buyer. We shared the actual letter the unnamed brewery received. This is what first contact looks like when Big Money comes calling.
  8. Washington Breweries Rake in 13 Medals at GABF – Cheers to Washington beer! Once again, our brewers kicked some ass at the Great American Beer Festival. The list of medal-winning breweries and beers always gets a lot of attention.
  9. Seattle’s First Gluten-Free Brewery – This year Ghostfish Brewing opened and became Seattle’s first gluten-free brewery. Subsequently, it became one of our top posts of the year. A few months later, they won two medals at the GABF (two of the three medals in the Gluten-Free category).
  10. Washington Beer Awards Winners – Every year at the Washington Brewers Festival they announce the winners of the Washington Beer Awards. They make the announcement when the festival gets started at noon on Saturday, and that’s when we post the winners on the blog.

Top Brewery Openings (as reported and viewed on the blog)

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Again, based on web stats and not my opinion. Ghostfish Brewing, mentioned above, was the top “new brewery” story of the year. Here are the others.

 

 

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6 thoughts on “The Top 10 Beer Stories of 2015

  1. happy holidays. I love all about microbrews and your blog is always a wealth of valuable info.

  2. The beer line cleaning thing is interesting. I clean and replace my own, so it’s not an issue for me, however I have friends opening a bar and they have no idea who to contact. I think a lot of people know they need someone and just google “seattle beer line cleaning” and your post is one of the first non-commercial results. Probably people coming here for recommendations which, as a beer enthusiast and brewer, is encouraging. It might be interesting to do an interview with one of the local tap maintenance guys to get some insight (and horror stories).

  3. Indeed. I’d like to see the Guild get a list of recommended draft line cleaners together, sorted by territory they operate in, so that we can all have a website or flyer to point to and say “No worries, just call one of these guys here and they’ll get your lines right as rain and up to proper beer quality standards.”

Comments are closed.