7 Craft Breweries To Watch In 2013 Slideshow

Urban Chestnut Brewing is taking St. Louis by storm. Rated one of the newest breweries to watch by RateBeer, Urban Chestnut is bringing back older European styles of beer, like the Hopfen (a Bavarian IPA) or the Single Hop Trafalgar (an English Pale Ale), with new life as artisanal American beers. The brewery is expanding to a bigger brewery in The Grove and the new location will have a capacity of 15,000 barrels, a huge leap from the 1,800 barrels brewed in its first year of operation, 2011. That will make it the second-largest brewery in the city. We're looking forward to seeing more Urban Chestnut beers in distribution. 

San Diego is buzzing about Societe Brewing and its taproom, and we can see why. With a collection of hop-friendly IPAs and Belgian ales, the brewery (founded by former Russian River and The Bruery brewers Travis Smith and Doug Constantiner) has gained steady traction from California beer drinkers. 

Prost has won over Denver beer drinkers early on with its collection of German-style lagers: a pilsener, a weissbier, a dunkel, and of course, an Oktoberfest marzen. Its taproom in Denver was one of the most anticipated brewery openings in 2012. 

The new Chicago brewery was another one of the top new breweries to watch by RateBeer, just within its first year of opening. Pipeworks immediately exploded onto the beer with a whopping 38 offerings, using some of the most imaginative flavors possible (lemony sumac? Amchoor (Indian sour mango)? Fenugreek seed?). Now, they're building on that success by taking over Chicago's beer scene; as of February, Pipeworks beers could be found in 80 stores across the metropolitan area. 

This new brewery hasn't even been open a full year — and the owners haven't even given up their day jobs. Home-brewers turned craft brewers, Trevor Brown and his sister Heather Bolla, found a space for the Lone Pint, complete with a 30-barrel brewing system, in January 2012 after experimenting with recipes for years and the first brews shipped last November. Since then, Lone Pint beers have been distributed in 70 bars across Texas, and the brewery is quickly gaining fans among lovers of hoppy Texas beer.

Southern Pacific Brewing opened last year in San Francisco's Mission District to much fanfare for a city used to great craft beers. Southern Pacific Brewing does what the state does best: easy-drinking West Coast beers. The India Pale Ale and Extra India Pale Ale have gained steady fans in the city, and even more for the (appropriately named) California Blonde extra pale ale. And with a big tasting room and patio, complete with bar eats and rotating guest beers, Southern Pacific Brewing may just stand out as the next big craft beer destination in the city by the bay. 

Spider Bite Brewing took home the best new brewery award, the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup, at last year's Tap NY craft beer festival. Since then, the Long Island brewery is continuing to gain more speed and praise for its Eight Legged RyePA, White Bite Wheat Ale, and First Bite Pale Ale.