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May 13, 2009
Rankings:
Vote In The 2009 Midwest Brewery Power Rankings
We actually pay attention to—albeit only once a year—what other people think.by Eddie Glick
Nothing all that noteworthy happened in the last year out in the “real” world. At least, I didn’t notice anything interesting happening, but then again there’s only one window in my parents’ basement, and somebody painted it black. But out in the beer world, the world that really matters, quite a bit has transpired. So much so that we thought it was a good time to revisit our Midwest Brewer Power Rankings.
If you care about shit beer, Miller merged with Coors (if they’re not careful, somebody’s going to spill the water into the water) and A-B CEO August “not on my watch” Busch IV bent over for the Belgians. At least they left plenty of cash on the dresser.
But we here at BeerDorks.com don’t much give a rat’s ass what Augie and his ilk do in their spare time. We’re far more interested in locally brewed, quality craft beer. And plenty has been happening on that front. Amid a nasty hop shortage, out of control commodity prices, and an economy sitting on the brink of disaster, American craft brewers showed what they were made of. Craft beer sales were up in the double digits in 2008, and so far this year sales are still up. Although the rough economy caused a few brewpubs to shut their doors, a lot of Midwest craft brewers, instead of shutting down, put out some of their most best stuff yet since we held our last voting session. Three Floyds introduced Blackheart and Moloko, New Glarus impressed with the phenomenal Alt, Lakefront cooked with Bridge Burner, Bell’s returned to Illinois, Short’s up in northern Michigan started bottling, several breweries started or completed expansions, and Nigel found a job. And that’s just to name a small fraction of what went down in the brew world in the last year or so.In other words, it’s time to reassess the BeerDorks.com Midwest Brewery Power Rankings. And, once again, we want to hear from readers and craft beer drinkers who they see at the top of the list and why they think that way.
What exactly does a “power” ranking mean? It’s not simply the best brewery, but instead the brewery that most impacts the craft beer industry here in the Midwest. Which is why a brewery’s distribution, it’s reach, is as important as other criteria in determining its ranking.
So head over and vote. You’ll need to sign in so we can limit the voting to one per person, and if you don’t already have an account, it’s ridiculously easy to set one up. And, yes, we need your email address. We won’t spam you, nor will we ever sell your email to asshole spammers. Besides, email spam is so 2008. Twitter spam is where the money’s at.