Top Three Small Breweries
(15K bbl or less)
Block 15 Brewing Company (Corvallis, Oregon)
This unassuming little brewery in downtown Corvallis is routinely overlooked by aficionados, even in Oregon. And yet it may be the best brewery in the state and one of the best in the country. The brewery’s range is remarkable, including classic European lagers, trend-setting saturated-hops IPAs, immensely complex saisons, and even spontaneously fermented beers that begin life in the brewery’s coolship. It’s not just that Block 15 makes all these types of beers, either, but that it consistently makes some of the best examples across the categories.
Union Craft Brewing (Baltimore, Maryland)
Breweries exist to make beer, but for millennia, they have also functioned as community gathering places. Union Craft Brewing is one of Baltimore’s best breweries, but it’s the way they’ve integrated into neighborhoods that’s really special. When they were founded seven years ago, they accelerated the revitalization of the Woodbury neighborhood. This year, the brewery moved production to an old Sears building and created the Union Collective, which will house small artisanal makers and act as a hub for the community to gather. Craft breweries often talk about making the world a better place; Union is committed to doing it.
Dwinell Country Ales (Goldendale, Washington)
The town of Goldendale (population 3,500) is on the dry side of Washington State, two hours from Portland and more than three from Seattle. It’s not the kind of town where you expect to find an incredibly ambitious brewery making mixed-fermentation beer, but that’s exactly what Jocelyn and Justin Leigh have created in Dwinell. When locals come in and ask what tastes closest to Coors, they may be handed a Brett pale ale (a scene I witnessed). The beers are complex yet delicate, and many take advantage of the local fruit that grows in abundance around the valley.