Some businesses place a lot of value in winning these types of accolades, while others do not. Whatever the case, it is easy for you to go vote. Show ’em some love.
A lot of people pooh-pooh these kinds of “Best of” and “Top 10” lists, but the one created each year by USA TODAY 10Best is based on a reader poll and not just one writer’s personal and potentially biased opinion. Voting is now open for the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice contest and there is a best of beer category. Several Northwest businesses are on the ballot. I share them below.
About the Program: To establish a group of nominees, USA TODAY 10Best reaches out to experts across the country and asks for recommendations. Some of the experts are mentioned on the website, but others are not, which is to say the voters do not know exactly who nominated which candidates.
Full disclosure, I am one of those experts. Some of my nominations made the list, others did not. Some things that I did not nominate made the list. The experts mentioned on the site are just one source of nominees. Beyond the input of the experts, I don’t know how the ballot is determined.
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
No poll like this could possibly come up with a definitive answer. “Best of” is always a relative term. It’s a subjective term. There are too many new breweries, beer bars, and beer gardens in the nation for one poll to claim it is the absolute truth. Your favorite beer town or beer festival is likely not on the list. There are some Northwest candidates that I’ve never heard of. All that being said, if we look at this for entertainment value, and also consider what it means to the winners, there’s value in it. Go vote here.
The Northwest’s Candidates
Best Beer Bar – Seattle’s Brouwer’s Cafe made the list, which should surprise no one: it’s a world-class beer bar. Kirkland’s Side Hustle Taproom made the list, which might cause some people to scratch their heads. Nothing personal, but this is really surprising and, curiously, it made the ballot.
Best Beer City – Away from the PNW, the list of nominees is impressive and includes a lot of places I want to visit. People in places like Portland and Bellingham might be miffed their hometowns are not on the ballot. From the PNW, only Bend and Seattle earned nominations.
Best Beer Club – I personally had not heard about either of these beer clubs: Bellingham Brew Box and Kulshan Brewing Beer Box. For my money, pFriem Family Brewers has a significantly bad-ass beer club, but it is not on the ballot.
Best Beer Festival – Hard to argue with Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival making the cut. There’s no better place to celebrate hops. The Oregon Brewers Festival, which really doesn’t exist anymore, is also on the list. Oops.
Best Beer Garden – Talk about picking your favorite child? Three of the Northwest’s best beer gardens made the ballot: Bale Breaker Brewing, Crux Fermentation, and No-Li Brewhouse. Each one has its own charm and I would never complain about spending time at any of the three.
Best Beer Label – Interesting that they don’t show you the label, but use your imagination and vote for either Elysian Brewing or Here Today Brewery (Seattle).
Best Brewery Tour – The good old brewery tour is less common now than it used to be. These days, “brewery touring” typically means visiting brewery taprooms. This, on the other hand, is about actually touring the brewery and learning about the process. Deschutes Brewery in Bend is on the ballot.
Best Brewpub – Again, it’s like asking me to choose a favorite child. I love all three of them, and two of them are very dear to me, but even the third is pretty awesome. On the ballot from the PNW: Big Time Brewing, Boundary Bay Brewery, and Crux Fermentation Project.
Best New Brewery – As I mentioned in a story here on the Washington Beer Blog, 2023 saw a significant number of brewery openings in Washington. “New,” of course, is a relative term, but it is not surprising the PNW has some candidates on the ballot; Bizarre Brewing (Seattle), Duality Brewing (Portland), El Sueñito Brewing (Bellingham), Fast Fashion Brewing (Seattle), Here Today Brewery and Kitchen (Seattle), The Outskirts Brewing (Selah), and Project 9 Brewing (Seattle).
Best Small Town Beer Scene – For this one, they drew the line at towns with a population of 30,000 or less. Three PNW candidates on the ballot are Hood River, Leavenworth, and Poulsbo.
You can view all of the candidates in all of the categories here.
