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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Best Beer Towns

I'm back from my Asian jaunt, tired and off-cycle (Hong Kong, my last stop, is 16 hours in front of Portland), but I couldn't help passing along this tidbit discovered in my pile of email: MSNBC's absurd best-ten beer cities list:
1. Amsterdam
2. Berlin
3. Brugge
4. Burlington, VT
5. Dublin
6. Mexico City
7. Montreal
8. Portland
9. Prague
10. Sapporo
There's very little to be added to any list that has Mexico City and Burlington Vermont ahead of Portland. This isn't just home-town bias, this is reality speaking. The logic seems to be totally variable--in one case, the presence of a famous brewery and a lot of beer drinking make a city eligible (Mexico City), whereas in others, it's the richness of local culture--Burgge. But if that's the case, then surely Milwaukee deserves to be on the list. And Burlington, a city I've visited a couple times in as many years, isn't even the best New England city; the other Portland is. But some things are so absurd, they're useful as talking points, so here you go00

(As to my travels, there's a bit of beer news to include. More later.)

5 comments:

  1. What does Amsterdam do on the top of that list. If they serve beer, it's Belgian beer or Heineken. Why should the Dutch deserve a topspot, based on importing the only stuff worth drinking from south of the border? They´re on the top as far as other drugs are concerned, but beerwise? No way!

    Bruges definately deserves its spot or even higher.

    And Milwaukee? Are we talking quantity or quality beercities here?

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  2. When I went to Amsterdam I tried to go the Heineken brewery, but it was closed! Someone there told me it's not even brewed in the city anymore (no research here, just relating 5 year old memories). However, both Amsterdam and Berlin are fine places to drink beer, so for aesthetics they are great locales.

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  3. John, I'm saying the boneheads at MSNBC don't seem to have THEIR criteria down. They have quantity and quality and history all mixed together in a unenlightening swill.

    History dictates that Prague, Munich, London, and Munich make the list, while culturally, Portland should be near the top. (But still, we ain't no Brussels, which has history AND culture. They have more pubs and local beers than any city in the world--if by local we can include all Belgian beers.)

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  4. Welcome back, Jeff!

    That list looks almost as though it was formed by someone who doesn't really drink beer but has heard some things around town.

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  5. i find this list offensive in every possible manner.

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