I know, I know. I’m sick of these “best cities for this that and the other thing” lists, too.
But, still, I was pleased to see that Wisconsin has three cities in the top 20 of SmartAsset’s Best Cities for Beer Drinkers 2020 rankings.
The financial website compared the number of breweries, breweries per 100,000 residents, average number of brews made at each brewery, bars for 100,000 and the average cost of pint of beer across 384 cities.
In addition to interesting facts – like the average cost of a pint in San Francisco is a whopping $10! – the rankings place three Badger State cities in the top 10: Madison, Green Bay and Milwaukee.
No other state can say that. A few other states have two: Ohio, Oregon, Colorado.
Madison finished eighth with 17 breweries, or 6.5 per 100,000 residents, and the average pint is $4.
Green Bay’s eight breweries (7.7 per 100k, $3.50 average pints) were good for 11th, and Milwaukee, where the average pint will cost you $4, came in 16th with 31 breweries, or 5.3 per 100,000 residents.
Madison’s breweries average 69.5 beers each, while Green Bay’s average 68 and Milwaukee’s average 48.6.
Some other interesting data:
Cincinnati finished first with the same number of breweries as Milwaukee, but with a smaller population, that means 10.2 breweries – or nearly double Milwaukee – per 100,000 residents.
Cincy is also tops in the average number of brews per brewery at 112.4, and the average price there, as in Brew City, is $4 a pint.
When this is all done, what do you say ... road trip to Cincinnati?
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
