The Best Beer Cities In America Also Have The Gloomiest Weather, Data Says

If you live in a city like Portland or Seattle, you may have perpetually gloomy skies, but the chances are your local beer movement is alive and kicking. Perhaps people use craft beer to distract themselves from the constant precipitation and freezing temperatures. New data from Smart Asset, an interactive data tool, has listed the best cities in America for beer-drinkers. A strange coincidence among the top 10 candidates? Many of them are known for particularly dismal weather and harsh winters.

The data was compiled by looking at the number of per-capita bars and breweries in 296 of the largest cities in America and considered the average Yelp rating of these establishments.

Here are the top 10 beer cities in ascending order:

10. Cincinnati, Ohio

9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

8. Missoula, Montana

7. Wilmington, North Carolina

6. Seattle, Washington

5. Denver, Colorado

4. Billings, Montana

3. Portland, Oregon

2. Asheville, North Carolina

1. Portland, Maine

This is what Smart Asset had to say about "the other" Portland, the surprise winner of this ranking:

"The city is home to 17 microbreweries, one for every 4,000 residents – the highest per capita microbrewery rate of any U.S. city. Perhaps the most well-known of Portland's breweries is Allagash Brewing Company, which reintroduced Belgian style brews to America in the mid-90s."