HOPIQ SCORE
50beers · Ranked by style authenticity & award recognition
American craft brewing spans more styles per capita than any national tradition — a deliberate eclecticism born from a blank slate. When US craft brewers started in earnest in the 1980s, they studied every world tradition simultaneously and produced their own Altbier, Belgian Tripel, Kölsch, English Bitter, and — most famously — a new kind of IPA. The hopIQ Score across all US-brewed beers shows that the most decorated American beers are not always the most famous.
Zipline Brewing's Copper Alt from Nebraska leads — a malt-forward Altbier with strong award recognition that demonstrates American craft's range. Allagash Brewing's Tripel (Maine) places third, a Belgian-style ale that consistently outperforms many Belgian originals at international competitions. Pako's IPA and Night Shift's Santilli represent the home-grown IPA dominance mid-ranking. Schlafly's Kölsch from St. Louis rounds out the top five.
The hopIQ Score measures style authenticity and award recognition within each beer's own style, not across styles. Zipline Brewing's Copper Alt has accumulated competition medals and scores very highly against the Altbier reference — a malt-forward, clean ale with firm bitterness. The ranking does not privilege IPAs over other styles.
No. The hopIQ database covers craft and specialty beers entered in international style competitions. Mass-market American adjunct lagers are a separate category that hopIQ does not currently rank.
No — this ranking covers all styles brewed in the United States. IPAs appear prominently but the top five alone includes Altbier, Belgian Tripel, Kölsch, and American IPA. For the US IPA subset specifically, see the Best American IPA ranking.