Craft Beer & Brewing released its 2025 Best in Beer lists this week, and if you drink local, you might feel a little proud. Or a little smug. Or both. Because once again, St. Louis and the surrounding Midwest are showing up exactly where they belong.
Let’s start in Maplewood, where Side Project Brewing continues to be the brewery that refuses to slow down. After winning gold at the Great American Beer Festival with Marble Lions and piling up more honors this fall, Craft Beer & Brewing readers ranked them at number nine among their Favorite Saison Brewers. That list includes Dupont, Hill Farmstead, Sante Adairius and Allagash. Seeing Side Project in that company feels more like confirmation than surprise.
The sour and wild-ale rankings might be even stronger. Side Project lands at number four, right behind Jester King, de Garde and Cantillon. That is rare company. That kind of placement signals that Side Project is not only participating in the style. It is helping define it.
Then there is the stout category. Side Project comes in at number three, sitting between Guinness and Burial. That is an old world classic, a modern heavyweight and a St. Louis brewery in one line. It is a surreal moment when Beer: Barrel Time is being mentioned in the same breath as Guinness.
The Midwest shows up elsewhere too. Destihl Brewery, based in Normal, Illinois, earns two spots this year. Normal sits roughly 155 short miles from St. Louis, which makes the brewery a popular destination for locals who like to combine a weekend getaway with serious sour beer. Destihl comes in at number fourteen among Favorite Sour or Wild-Ale Brewers and again at number fourteen in the midsize regional Readers’ Choice rankings. Their spontaneous and sour program has always deserved more spotlight. Now it is getting it.
St. Louis appears again in the beer bar rankings. Little Lager in South City lands at number fourteen among the Best Beer Bars Around the World. The list features some of the most respected beer bars anywhere. Not bad for a small room built on clean pours, Czech technique and a warm neighborhood pulse. With expansion underway, the timing could not be better. National praise arrives just as Little Lager prepares for its next chapter.
Taken together, the 2025 Best in Beer lists tell a familiar story. The coasts often claim the spotlight, but the Midwest, and especially St. Louis, continues to show that great beer is not about geography. It comes from intention, patience and the kind of stubborn creativity that thrives here.
