Chicago is the top city of the year for beer venues, according to the geosocial networking app Untappd, which ranks beer labels, producers, and venues in 180 countries around the world. The popular mobile app released the list on Saturday as part of its “Untappd Year in Beer,” which also included “The Top 10 Beers of 20201.”
“The Top 10 Cities of 2021” are ranked based on the total number of venue check-ins within each city’s limits. Chicago bars and taprooms garnered over 355 thousand individual check-ins this year, jumping from its third place position in 2020. It ranks almost 20 thousand more venue check-ins than the runner-up, Portland, Ore.
This year’s list looks completely different from its 2020 counterpart. Last year, London came in first place with 1.2 million check-ins, while New York City took second place just shy of 1 million check-ins. The 2020 list also included seven cities located across northern Europe, in particular college towns such as Gothenburg, Sweden and Utrecht, Netherlands.
In 2021, while United States cities dominated the list, just two historic beer cities across the pond also made the cut: London in fourth place and Copenhagen in ninth. Both cities are known for their thriving bar scenes and laissez-faire attitudes toward drinking (anyone else see “Another Round?”) but also have thriving craft beer scenes.
It is interesting to see how the rates of check-ins dropped so dramatically from year to year, especially in cities that were recovering from stricter lockdowns throughout 2021, like New York and those in Europe. Even in the number one spot, Chicago only received one fourth of the number of check-ins that London had in the same position a year before.
It must be noted that this data is not a calibration of quality or quantity of breweries or bars in these individual cities, but is more representative of where Untappd’s user base is concentrated and most active. Untappd is an app for devoted beer drinkers, known for its gamification of beer discovery that encourages users to keep track of what they are drinking, where, and comparing with friends.
The app, launched in 2010, has millions of users across the globe.
Check out Untappd’s list of the top 10 cities in 2021:
- Chicago — 355,671 check-ins
- Portland — 326,607 check-ins
- Denver — 275,657 check-ins
- London — 265,296 check-ins
- San Diego — 237,246 check-ins
- Pittsburgh — 231,871 check-ins
- Charlotte — 226,595 check-ins
- Asheville — 226,466 check-ins.
- Copenhagen — 222,500 check-ins
- Seattle — 221,784 check-ins
