A year ago, we put together a list of the Top 5 Breweries in the St. Cloud area according to Google Reviews.

The results were interesting; Milk & Honey Ciders in St. Joseph -- technically not a brewery but a cidery -- led the pack as the most highly-rated drinking hot spot of its kind. Granite City Food & Brewery -- technically not an independent brewery and taproom like the others on the list -- rounded out the Top 5. Here's the full list dated October 2020:

1. Milk & Honey Ciders, St. Joe
2. Bad Habit Brewing Co., St. Joe
3. Beaver Island Brewing Co.
4. Pantown Brewing Co.
5. Granite City Food & Brewery

Well, the scene has changed a bit in the past year with the addition of Back Shed Brewing Company. So we've returned to Google Reviews to update our list of Top 5 Breweries. Here they are:

Adam Rozanas / Townsquare Staff

#1 (Tied) Bad Habit Brewing Company, St. Joseph
4.9 out of 5 Stars
300 Total Reviews

This time last year, Bad Habit Brewing Company was just two reviews shy of the number one spot on the list of top-rated local breweries. They've since earned an additional 76 Google Reviews and enough 5-star ratings to push them into a tie for top contender. With beers like Boat Drinks Pina Colada Milkshake IPA, Bangarang Raspberry Pineapple Sour and Double Dark Addiction Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout, Bad Habit is leading the way in creatively delicious craft beer creations in the St. Cloud area.

#1 (Tied) Back Shed Brewing Co., Waite Park
4.9 out of 5 Stars
40 Total Reviews

They may be the new kid on the block, but Back Shed Brewing Company has come out with a bang! In the couple months since they opened, they've already earned themselves 40 Google Reviews, almost all of them overwhelmingly positive. Besides a wide selection of drinks, Back Shed Brewing also hosts a wide variety of events and entertainment including live music, food trucks, holiday events and more.

Milk and Honey Ciders, photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice

#3 (Tied) Milk & Honey Ciders, St. Joe
4.8 out of 5 Stars
282 Total Reviews

Slipping from a 4.9 star rating to 4.8 is hardly a fall from grace for Milk & Honey Ciders. In fact, earlier this year they were named USA Today's Best Cidery in a national contest. Focusing on dry, aromatic and tannic ciders from heirloom and traditional cider apples, Milk & Honey Ciders doesn't just deserve national recognition for its ciders -- they've also got one of the best taprooms and concert lineups in the area.

Adam Rozanas

#3 (Tied) Beaver Island Brewing Co., St. Cloud
4.8 Star
261 total reviews

Open since 2015, BIBCO is the OG of modern microbreweries in St. Cloud (post-Prohibition, anyways). Well-established and one of the largest production/distribution breweries in the St. Cloud area, its 4.8 star rating and plethora of Google Reviews speaks to its well-earned respect within the local community.

#3 (Tied) Pantown Brewing Co., St. Cloud
4.8 Stars
173 total Reviews

Up until Back Shed Brewing opened, Pantown Brewing Company in the old Pantown Neighborhood of St. Cloud was the new kid on the block. In the past year, they've continued earning the support and favor of the community, earning an additional 50+ reviews and sliding up from a 4.7 star review to 4.8 to tie for the second most-popular brewery in the St. Cloud area. With a great selection of year-round and seasonal offerings and their own full schedule of events and activities, Pantown Brewing Co. has definitely proven it's a place to be.

Do you have a favorite local brewery/taproom space in St. Cloud?

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To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.