Count me as a fan of the Beer Bloggers Conference. (Now if only I had a Bruce Wayne / Oliver Queen backer to get me to Asheville this year.) One of the fun services they provide is a list of Influential Beer Websites that they base on:
Alexa Rating: While this is not a perfect indicator of a website’s popularity, it is easy to access and relatively accurate.
Facebook Likes: Given the influence of social media, we considered the number of Facebook likes.
Twitter Followers: The same goes for Twitter.
Considering the wildness of the web, those tools are fine if influence is measured by traffic alone. What it doesn’t, and possibly can’t measure, is the cultural impact of a website. You are going to see your local brewery or beer bar on this list but they may have an outsize impact on the community relative to size. I would posit that the Brewers Association website may not have the Twitter following of Coors but they are a bigger player who affect and cause discussions around the country. Same with home brewers and home brewing clubs. They generate talk. Which is a different type of social minus the media.
So take this list with a grain of salt or a glass of Gose.
1 Heineken 63
2 Beer Advocate 57
3 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery 52
4 New Belgium Brewing 50
5 Stone Brewing Company 48
6 Bud Light 45
7 tie Budweiser 42
7 tie Coors Light 42
9 Miller Lite 41
10 Untapped 29
11 Sierra Nevada Brewing Company 28
12 Rogue Ales 26
13 Samuel Adams 25
14 tie Drink Craft Beer 24
14 tie BJ’s Brewhouse 24
14 tie Dos Equis 24
14 tie BrewDog 24
14 tie RateBeer.com 24
19 tie Guinness 22
19 tie More Beer! 22