Sour beer breweries are the better Swiss breweries – according to Untappd Top 50

According to the Untappd Top 50 list of Swiss breweries, none of them are world-class, German-speaking Switzerland is underrepresented in the list, and again, sour beers help with good ratings. Here is our analysis of the Untappd list of the best 50 Swiss breweries.

We have already discussed which Swiss beers are the best according to Untappd and whether Switzerland has a world-class beer (see here). Are Untappd ratings relevant? Not for everyone, but not for anyone either.

On Untappd, you can also view the top-rated breweries. Untappd’s list of the top 50 breweries is “based on our weighted average formula, which effectively rates all breweries against each other and weights the beers with higher rating numbers. A brewery must have at least 1,000 ratings and at least 5 beers in its portfolio to qualify for this list.”

(Disclaimer: everything here is based on the top 50 – if the entire list could be evaluated, the results potentially look different.)

Perhaps the sad news first. None of the Swiss breweries achieve a world-class rating: to get into the top-50 worldwide, you need a 4.27 and the Swiss number 1 Nine Brothers has a 3.97. At the same time, this means that no Swiss brewery has a rating above 4 and on Untappd a 4 and more is roughly equivalent to considered “good”.

What do we notice when we look at the list?

Sour beer producers have it easier

Analogous to the best beers, sour beers lead to good ratings – the top 3 breweries are known primarily or only for their sour beers, and more than half in the top 10 produce sour beers at least sometimes.

Lager beer producers hardly in the top 50

Unsurprisingly, Feldschlösschen or Calanda are not on this list. But why not Locher or Schützengarten? After all, they have an infinite number of fans.

Lager can’t be considered an exclusion criterion here, because the Rathaus Brauerei Luzern ranks 18th (yes, they’ve also brewed an IPA and stout at some point, but still). However, it is certainly the case that breweries that brew mostly lagers and wheats have little chance of making the list. This could be related to the fact that drinkers of standard beers are less likely to be on Untapped than beernerds, and beernerds tend to turn their noses up at lagers.

German-speaking Switzerland is underrepresented

The list of best Swiss beers is dominated by breweries from French-speaking Switzerland. On the best breweries list there are 29 from the German-speaking region (58%), 18 from French-speaking Switzerland (36%) and 3 (6%) from Italian-speaking Switzerland.

This finding is put into perspective somewhat, as seven breweries in the top 10 come from French-speaking Switzerland. And according to our own evaluation, 73% of all CH breweries are in German-speaking Switzerland, 24% from French-speaking Switzerland and 3% from Italian-speaking Switzerland. German-speaking Switzerland is therefore underrepresented – or in other words: 36 breweries should come from German-speaking Switzerland in order to correspond to the proportion of the basic population of all breweries.

Je mehr Ratings pro Bier je weiter unten auf der Liste

We already voiced this hypothesis in our last post on the best Swiss beers. To evaluate this, we formed groups and compared the average of ratings per group. And indeed, the more ratings per beer a brewery has, the lower the rating. But the average rating then rises, falls again, rises, falls and then shoots through the roof.

What do we learn from this?

• In order to answer this question conclusively, we would have to get all the data from Untappd.
• Among the best breweries are some with many ratings.
• The lowest ratings per beer of the breweries in the top 50 are Burgbier Ringgenberg (17.76), Barbière (19.59), Echec & Malt (20.07), Cinq 4000 (21.01) and Brasserie du Virage (29.82). Is that because a few of these sell their beers primarily locally in their own establishments?
• The highest ratings per beer of the breweries in the top 50 are BFM (969.08), Trois Dames (622.16), Brasserie Docteur Gab’s (435.76), WhiteFrontier (413.68) and A tue-tête (330.00).
  If we now assume that special and rare beers get the better ratings and this has an even greater effect abroad, then this list is not surprising, all except Docteur Gab’s also have beers in the top 50.
• The number 1 brewery averages 38 ratings per beer and no beer has more than 50 checkins. Two beers have no checkins and one has 3. Their highest rated beer has 11 ratings.
  These are Homebrewer’s numbers, not those of a nanobrewery.But because Nine Brothers is registered as a nano brewery (as are Blackwell, St.Laurentius, or Virage), they appear on the Top 50 list.

Even with just a few beers, you make it into the top 50 breweries

In fact, breweries with very few different beers also make it into the top 50 breweries: BLZ Company with 8, FMR – Federation of Malted Republics with 11 and Burgdorfer Gasthausbrauerei with 35. However, the breweries with few different beers are mainly found in the lower ranks – the big exception here is A tue-tête in 3rd place with 22 different beers.

Does this refute our hypothesis that the fewer the ratings, the better the rating (assuming that a brewery with few beers achieves more ratings per beer)? At first glance, these beers of breweries with few beers listed on Untappd do indeed seem to tend to achieve more ratings – so a correlation is possible, but cannot be tested with this data.

Conclusion

This is another playing with data – which we as Beernerds nevertheless found exciting. So, what do you think about this list and the evaluation? Do you notice anything else in the Top 50 list of breweries we missed?

List of the top 50 Swiss breweries according to Untappd

Rank	Name	Location	# of beers	# of ratings	# ratings per beer	Rating
1	nine brothers	Bern, Bern/Berne Switzerland	34	1299	38.21	3.97
2	Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes (BFM)	Saignelégier, Jura Switzerland	153	148270	969.08	3.965
3	À tue-tête	Aigle, Vaud Switzerland	22	7260	330.00	3.946
4	Brasserie L’Apaisée	Switzerland	91	3204	35.21	3.9
5	Cinq 4000	Niouc, Valais/Wallis Switzerland	188	3950	21.01	3.856
6	Cayon’s	Aigle, Vaud Switzerland	64	2075	32.42	3.792
7	S&A Brewing	Kyburg, Zürich Switzerland	136	11671	85.82	3.752
8	Trois Dames	Sainte-Croix, Vaud Switzerland	96	59727	622.16	3.718
9	Chien Bleu	Geneva, Genève Switzerland	48	2284	47.58	3.714
10	Haarige Kuh Brauerei	Interlaken, Bern/Berne Switzerland	26	4680	180.00	3.711
11	Hoppy People	Sierre, Valais/Wallis Switzerland	32	10494	327.94	3.698
12	DEGENBIER	Zofingen, Aargau Switzerland	51	2593	50.84	3.684
13	Barbière	Bern, Bern/Berne Switzerland	193	3781	19.59	3.683
14	Echec & Malt	Carrouge, Vaud Switzerland	75	1505	20.07	3.682
15	CôteWest Brewing	Lausanne, Vaud Switzerland	24	1880	78.33	3.674
16	Burgbier Ringgenberg	Ringgenberg, Bern/Berne Switzerland	70	1243	17.76	3.649
17	Broken City Brewing	Switzerland	55	2274	41.35	3.619
18	Rathaus Brauerei Luzern	Lucerne, Luzern Switzerland	19	3546	186.63	3.613
19	WhiteFrontier	Martigny, Valais/Wallis Switzerland	134	55433	413.68	3.607
20	St. Laurentius	Buelach, Zürich Switzerland	63	3704	58.79	3.603
21	Brau Rebel	Basel, Basel-Stadt Switzerland	18	1080	60.00	3.6
22	Blackwell Brewery	Burgdorf, Bern/Berne Switzerland	50	9322	186.44	3.597
23	Chen Van Loon	Kleindöttingen, Aargau Switzerland	17	1377	81.00	3.593
24	Brasserie du Virage	Saconnex-d’Arve-Dessus, Genève Switzerland	110	3280	29.82	3.591
25	Bachweg Brewing	Altstadt, Zug Switzerland	16	1790	111.88	3.587
26	FMR – Federation of Malted Republics	Switzerland	11	1354	123.09	3.587
27	Altes Tramdepot	Bern, Bern/Berne Switzerland	174	8509	48.90	3.587
28	BIERlab	Zurich, Zürich Switzerland	66	3592	54.42	3.585
29	La Nébuleuse	Renens, Vaud Switzerland	101	20170	199.70	3.584
30	BLZ Company	Orvin, Bern/Berne Switzerland	8	1612	201.50	3.581
31	Brausyndikat	Dietikon, Zürich Switzerland	49	3677	75.04	3.581
32	Ahoi Bier	Schlieren, Zürich Switzerland	68	2608	38.35	3.576
33	Schuum	Bern, Bern/Berne Switzerland	23	1276	55.48	3.565
34	Cap’taine Mousse	Switzerland	22	1137	51.68	3.556
35	Burgdorfer Gasthausbrauerei	Burgdorf, Bern/Berne Switzerland	12	3095	257.92	3.554
36	Braumanufaktur Schlachthuus	Lufingen, Zürich Switzerland	19	2288	120.42	3.549
37	Tonnebière	Saint-Ursanne, Jura Switzerland	19	1370	72.11	3.548
38	Kloster Fischingen	Fischingen, Thurgau Switzerland	34	6770	199.12	3.547
39	LA PIÈCE	Meyrin, Genève Switzerland	19	1034	54.42	3.542
40	Simmentaler Braumanufaktur	Lenk, Bern/Berne Switzerland	24	3849	160.38	3.511
41	Officina Della Birra	Bioggio, Ticino Switzerland	32	5961	186.28	3.509
42	dear.beer brewing company	Lyss, Bern/Berne Switzerland	24	1763	73.46	3.502
43	Bier Factory BREWERY & TAPROOM	Rapperswil-Jona, Sankt Gallen Switzerland	49	13559	276.71	3.499
44	Brasserie Docteur Gab’s	Puidoux, Vaud Switzerland	42	18302	435.76	3.499
45	Brauerei St. Johann	Neu Sankt Johann, Sankt Gallen Switzerland	29	1311	45.21	3.491
46	Engadiner Bier	Pontresina, Graubünden/Grigioni/Grischun Switzerland	14	2251	160.79	3.489
47	Birrificio Sottobisio	Balerna, Ticino Switzerland	29	3190	110.00	3.487
48	BlackPig Brewing Co	Delémont, Jura Switzerland	15	1457	97.13	3.486
49	Kitchen Brew	Basel, Basel-Stadt Switzerland	38	9375	246.71	3.481
50	Freiburger Biermanufaktur	Fribourg, Fribourg/Freiburg Switzerland	19	1380	72.63	3.477