Skip to content
Food
Link copied to clipboard

Pittsburgh tops Philadelphia on list of ‘best cities for beer lovers’

As the Philly Beer Week tagline says, we consider ourselves “America’s best beer-drinking city.” But according to a new study, Philadelphia might not even be the best city for beer-lovers in Pennsylvania.

As the Philly Beer Week tagline says, we consider ourselves "America's best beer-drinking city." But according to a new study, Philadelphia might not even be the best city for beer-lovers in Pennsylvania.

Real estate brokerage firm Redfin recently teamed up with the Beer Institute to crunch the numbers to find the "15 Best Cities for Beer Lovers." Ultimately, Pittsburgh topped the list at number one, while Philadelphia slid in at number five.

Factors in ranking cities included the number of active brewery permits in the state, the number of breweries per 100,000 adults, state beer taxes, city home sale price, and city walk scores. These factors also resulted in the high placement of cities such as Buffalo, New York, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, all of which out-ranked Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh, for its part, owes its top placement to its "relative affordability, low tax on beer and plentitude of breweries," according to Redfin. The city's scores are as follows:

  1. Breweries per 100,000 Adults 21+ in the State: 3

  2. Active Brewery Permits: 256

  3. State Beer Tax: $.08 per gallon

  4. Walk Score: 61

  5. Median Home Sale Price: $150,200

Coming in just behind Philadelphia in the list were fellow beer cities Portland, Oregon, and Denver, Colorado, which both feature higher median home sale prices and lower walkability scores compared with Philly.