(SFGate) - While many other U.S. metropolitan regions might be known as more obvious beer meccas than the greater San Francisco Bay Area, there's one section of the craft beer landscape where one of our cities apparently thrives: microbreweries.

A researcher named Russell Goldenberg with a visual data website called The Pudding scoured some data from RateBeer.com, a beer rating site, as well as census and map information, and deduced the city with with the best microbrewing culture in the United States: Santa Rosa, California. Santa Rosa beat out such high profile beer hubs as San Diego, Denver, Portland, and Chicago, primarily due to the quality of Santa Rosa area breweries Russian River Brewing, Bear Republic Brewing Co., Shady Oak Barrel House, Moonlight Brewing Company and Cooperage Brewing Company, as scored by RateBeer.com users.