The South Bay's Best Craft Breweries

Previously, I've compiled rankings of the best craft breweries in the U.S. ("Best Craft Breweries in the U.S., 2017"), but let's face it, it's basically impossible for the average craft beer aficionado to visit most of these. Thus, with this post I'm beginning to pull together rankings of Bay Area craft breweries. The rankings are based on Untappd scores, which are probably the most popular app for rating a brewery's different beers. It's not a perfect system since successful breweries are more likely to experiment, which increases the probability that they'll brew a bad beer. Still, Untappd's ratings are probably the best available, so here are the rankings for the top craft breweries in the South Bay (with the Untappd scores in parentheses). I'll be back with rankings from other Bay Area regions (e.g., San Francisco, East Bay, etc.):

1. Floodcraft Brewing Company, San Jose (3.84) (Whole Foods Brewer on the Alameda)
2. Bellpenny Brewing, San Jose (3.77) (a Nano brewer -- you can find their beer at Uproar Brewing)
3. Camino Brewing, San Jose (3.76)
4. Hermitage Brewing, San Jose (3.69) (has ties to the Tied House)
5. Santa Clara Valley Brewing, San Jose (3.68)
6. Hapa’s Brewing, San Jose (3.64) (my favorite, hence the graphic above)
7. Clandestine Brewing, San Jose (3.62)
8. Loma Brewing (3.62) (replaces Los Gatos Brewing Co. and much better)
9. Golden State Brewery, Santa Clara (3.60)
10. Uproar Brewing (3.56) 
11. Rock Bottom, Campbell (3.51)
12. El Toro Brewing, Morgan Hill (3.48)
13. Strike Brewing, San Jose (3.45)
14. Gordon Biersch, San Jose (3.42) (apparently closing soon if it hasn't already)
15. Firehouse Grill & Brewery, Sunnyvale (3.41)
16. Faultline, Sunnyvale (3.40)
17. Campbell Brewing, Campbell (3.36)
18. Tied House, Mountain View (3.35) (has ties to Hermitage Brewing)

On a related note, a friend from church (Patrick Campbell) has just started an excellent blog on Bay Area craft breweries, appropriately called "Bay Area Beers." It's unique in that rather than just writing about breweries, Patrick films (he's a film maker) local brewers making beer and offers commentary along the way. It's worth checking out.