The North Bay's Best Breweries

In a recent post, I posted rankings of craft breweries in the South Bay ("The South Bay's Best Craft Breweries") Here, I offer my rankings of the craft breweries in the North Bay. As before, the rankings are based on Untappd scores, which is probably the most popular app for rating a brewery's different beers. It's not a perfect approach since successful breweries are more likely to experiment, which increases the probability that they'll brew a bad beer. Still, Untappd's ratings are the best available, so below are the rankings of the North Bay's craft breweries. That Russian River sits atop of the rankings is no surprise. It's regularly ranked as one of the top breweries in the U.S., and its Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder, and Pliny the Younger are among the best IPAs, DIPAs, and TIPAs in the country. Not too far behind is Lagunitas, which has a great outdoor venue for enjoying good beer and food. And its tour of the facility can be quite entertaining:

1. Russian River Brewing, Santa Rosa (4.19)
2. Mad Fritz, St. Helena (3.96)
3. Cooperage Brewing Company, Santa Rosa (3.89) 
4. Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma (3.86)
5. HenHouse Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.85) 
6. Bear Republic, Healdsburg (3.82)
7. Shady Oak Barrel House, Santa Rosa (3.79) 
8. Barrel Brothers, Windsor (3.77)
9. Grav South Brew Co., Cotati (3.74 )
10. Plow Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.73)
11. Crooked Goat Brewing, Sebastopol (3.72) 
12. Moonlight Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.71) 
13. Baeltane, Novato (3.68)
14. Fogbelt Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.68)
15. Iron Springs, Fairfax (3.68) 
16. Woodfour Brewery, Sebastopol (3.68) 
17. Moylan’s Brewing, Novato (3.67)
18. Sonoma Springs Brewing, Sonoma (3.66)
19. 101 North Brewing, Petaluma (3.65)
20. Mill Valley Beerworks, Mill Valley (3.64)
21. Old Redwood Brewing, Windsor (3.64)
22. Marin Brewing, Larkspur (3.63)
23. Bloodline Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.62) (closed)
24. St. Florians, Windsor (3.56)
25. Petaluma Hills Brewing, Petaluma (3.55)
26. Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa (3.49)
27. Napa Smith Brewing, Vallejo (3.48)
28. Warped Brewing Company, Sebastopol (3.47)
29. 2 Tread Brewing, Santa Rosa (3.46)
30. Dempsey’s, Petaluma (3.46)
31. Napa Point Brewing, Napa (3.45)
32. Calistoga Inn and Brewery, Calistoga (3.44)
33. Carneros Brewing, Sonoma (3.41)
34. Stumptown Brewery, Guerneville (3.38)
35. Right Eye Brewing, Suisun City (3.30)
36. Healdsburg Beer Company, Healdsburg (3.28)
37. Broken Drum, San Rafael (3.25)
38. Pizza Orgamisca, San Rafael (3.22)