Richmond, VA named the best craft beer city in the Northeast!

The travel booking site Wanderu, has named Richmond, VA the best craft beer city in the Northeast – and the 9th best in the country!

Wanderu analyzed the 100 biggest cities in the US and ranked them based on the total number of high-quality breweries and total number of high-quality craft beer bars per capita, the average price for a pint of craft beer, and the city’s BeerAdvocate score.  “High-quality” was defined as having 4 or more stars and a minimum of 10 reviews on Yelp.

When all these factors were taken into consideration, they determined that RVA is the #1 craft beer city in the Northeast, and  the 9^th  best in the country with a total number of 21 high-quality breweries, 13 high-quality beer bars, and a BeerAdvocate score of 3.94!

The #1 craft beer city in the country was San Diego, CA with a total number of 115 high-quality breweries and 83 high-quality beer bars, with the city’s BeerAdvocate score of 4.172.

Now before we congratulate San Diego on their prodigious number of craft breweries, I think there is something you should take into account:

With a population of about 1,419,000 and 115 breweries, there are well over 12 thousand people per brewery in San Diego.  However with a population of about 204,200 and 21 breweries, there are less than 9,800 people per brewery in Richmond Virginia.

What this tells me is that there are over FOUR THOUSAND more people per brewery in San Diego than in Richmond. That means that it’s a lot easier for me to find a seat in a brewery serving high quality craft beer in RVA than San Diego!

So I would say that if you love craft beer, Richmond, VA is probably the better place to get it.

And by the way, the #2 craft beer city in the Northeast? That would be the city of Chesapeake, VA!

Seems like Virginia really is for lovers- of craft beer!

Cheers!