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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Half full, or half empty?

Rick Bonino

Is Spokane really a better beer city than Seattle? Yes, according to the folks at SmartAsset.com.

The financial website just released its annual “Best Cities for Beer Drinkers” list, based on a formula including the number of craft breweries (both total and per person), their average Yelp scores, the number of bars per person and the average price of a pint.

With all the numbers crunched, Spokane came out No. 11 – one spot ahead of Seattle, and one behind Missoula (Portland was fifth).

Then again, Seattle easily topped Spokane in everything except Yelp score and pint price – which SmartAsset says were the two least important factors, worth only a half-score each – so the calculations might bear more scrutiny.

The two cities' numbers in each category were nearly identical to last year, when Seattle placed sixth and Spokane was 20th in SmartAsset's rankings.