I think it’s safe to say that the United States is in the midst of a gold age in craft beer.  As of July 1, 2012 the Brewer’s Association counted 2075 craft breweries in operation, and I’m guessing since then at least a hundred more have opened.  During the diminutive tenure of my craft beer journey, I have managed to make a small dent in that two thousand some brewery sample.

Throughout those beerventures I’ve come to the conclusion that an unfortunate number of breweries still exist that make terrible beer.  It’s not necessary to identify those shortcomings because it’s very possible that I may have coincidentally tried a few bad batches.  It’s also possible for those breweries to grow and improve their recipes.  More frequent are the breweries who have perfected one or two fantastic offerings or knock it out of the park with some experimental styles with the rest being just mediocre or decent.    There’s absolutely nothing wrong with those calibre of breweries, it’s impossible for every brewery to absolutely amazing up and down.  There are also several up and coming breweries that are still relatively young and are trying to discover their true identities.

And then there’s the elite.  The breweries where 90 percent of their lineup consists of quality brews.  These are the 85′ Chicago Bears, the 96′ Bulls, the 71′ Lakers, the 01′ Miami Hurricanes football team, the 2012 Kentucky Wildcats Men’s Basketball team and of course the 92′ Dream Team.  These are breweries with lineups that offer almost no flaws, no blemishes, basically little to no subpar beers.  Here’s your elite of the elite when it comes to great beer lineups.

• Avery
• Cigar City
• DogFish Head
• Jolly Pumpkin
• Destihl
• Bells
• The Bruery
• Firestone Walker
• Stone Brewing
• Founders
• Surly
• Sun King
• Great Divide
• Lost Abbey
• New Glarus
• New Belgium
• Oskar Blues
• Pizza Port
• Russian River
• Rogue
• Three Floyds

Now just because your favorite brewery wasn’t listed doesn’t mean they aren’t solid.  Again there are over 2000 breweries in the U.S. so there’s no way I’ve been able to explore every single one.  I do however encourage you to share any breweries you feel should have made the list, and why!