

To get a good sense of the NJ beers people are drinking, I could call up each bar and liquor store around and see what their top selling brands are, call the breweries to see which is top grossing, or see what beers are top rated on any of those beer rating websites. A quicker and easier way to achieve this, I believe, is to simply look up Untappd check-ins! The beer rating websites may give you each brewers top-rated beer, but won't give you top selling. Untappd may be a very small sample size compared to the real sales numbers, but I feel it suits this purpose quite well.





First, let's look at breweries (those brewers in the state that send their beer via keg/bottle to liquor stores and bars, and only have a small taproom at the actual brewery). I have listed each NJ brewery and their top 2 most checked in beers on Untappd. Let's see if we can extract some useful information for the chart.





Note: I didn't include any seasonal offerings.





Brewery Beer Style / ABV Untappd Check-ins Boaks Monster Mash Imperial Stout / 10% 513 Two Blind Monks Belgian Dubbel / 7% 439 Bolero Snort Blackhorn Black Lager / 6.5% 627 Ragin' Bull Amber Lager / 5% 564 Cape May Cape May IPA American IPA / 6.1% 532 Honey Porter English Porter / 5.2% 401 Carton Boat Session Ale / 4.2% 5205 077XX Imperial IPA / 7.8% 3052 Climax India Pale Ale American IPA / 6% 553 ESB ESB / 5.5% 358 Cricket Hill Hopnotic American IPA / 5.2% 2292 East Coast Lager Helles Lager / 4.2% 1133 Flying Fish HopFish American IPA / 6.2% 6163 Exit 16 Imperial IPA / 8.2% 4413 High Point Ramstein Double Platinum Blonde Weizenbock / 7% 528 Ramstein Blonde Wheat Beer Hefeweizen / 5.5% 367 Kane Head High American IPA / 6.5% 3403 Overhead Imperial IPA / 8.2% 1722 New Jersey Beer Co. Hudson Pale Ale American Pale Ale 498 Garden State Stout American Stout 391 River Horse Tripel Horse Belgian Tripel / 10% 3562 Hop Hazard American Pale Ale / 6.5% 3231 Tuckahoe Steelmantown Porter Porter 309 Marshallville Wit Belgian Pale Ale 140 Turtle Stone Green Snale Herbed/Spiced / 5.5% 94 American Stout American Stout / 6.5% 87



Of the 13 breweries listed, 6 have an IPA as their most checked in product. 3 breweries (Kane, Carton and Flying Fish) have the top 2 spots dominated by an IPA and an Imperial/Double IPA. I was quite surprised when I saw River Horse's top checked in beer was their Belgian Tripel, Tripel Horse. I would have guessed either Hop Hazard, Hopalotamus or Special Ale. Out of the 26 top checked in beers, 17 are a distinct style (~65%). That's a lot of variability, and I can't wait to see how that changes as more and more breweries open up (as of this writing, 17 breweries are in planning).





Now let's take a look at New Jersey's brewpubs and their top checked in beers.





Note: I did not include Iron Hill or Triumph, as they have also have brewpubs in Pennsylvania.





Brewery Beer Style / ABV Untappd Check-ins Artisan's Brewery and Italian Grill West Coast IPA American IPA / 6.2% 33 Light Ale American Blonde Ale / 4.2% 27 Basil T's Maxwells Dry Stout Stout / 5% 97 Rosie's Tail Waggin Pale Ale American Pale Ale / 5.25% 72 Gaslight Perfect Stout American Stout, 4.8% 42 Eliminator Bock, 8.5% 40 Harvest Moon Full Moon Pale Ale American Pale Ale / 5.6% 170 Jimmy D's Firehouse Red Irish Red Ale / 5.5% 140 JJ Bittings WHALES IPA American IPA / 7% 289 Avenel Amber American Amber / 4.7% 164 Krogh's Alpine Glow Red Ale American Amber 126 Old Krogh Oatmeal Stout American Stout 90 Long Valley German Valley Amber American Amber 161 Lazy Jake Porter American Porter 153 Ship Inn Best Bitter English Bitter 96 ESB ESB 77 Trap Rock Ghost Pony Helles Lager / 4.6% 164 Hathor Red Lager Marzen / 5.3% 150 Tun Tavern All American IPA American IPA / 6.8% 240 Devil Dog Pale Ale American Style Pale Ale 182 Uno Chicago Grille Ike's IPA American IPA 93 Uno Amber Ale American Amber 66





In the brewpubs, the IPA is still quite popular, being the most checked in beer at 4 of the locations. In total, there are 11 different styles of beer out of the 22 top checked in beers (50%). Great diversity, if you ask me.





This is definitely just a small snapshot of the beers offered throughout New Jersey. Driving around the Garden State, you may be surprised what you will find. If you're traveling the Jersey shore in Monmouth County, you can find an wild ale brewed with mulberry at Carton Brewing or an imperial porter brewed with locally roasted coffee at Kane Brewing. Head out west to Milford, and you'll find yourself in a British style pub, and swear you were in Cardiff. Heading down to Cape May? Stop in Tuckahoe Brewing and Cape May Brewing for a smoked porter and a cranberry wheat using Pinelands cranberry.





There's tons of great beer in New Jersey, and it's only getting better. Keep posted, as I will be taking a look at these Untappd stats every 4 months or so. Cheers!





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Just what New Jersey beers are people drinking these days? What are the post popular styles that are coming out of the Garden State? In a previous post , I outlined what 6 bottled Jersey beers I would give to someone to represent New Jersey (kudos to Bryan from This Is Why I'm Drunk for the blog collaboration idea). In this post, I'm going to look at NJ beers a little differently.