For decades, the world’s no. 1 beer-brewing city was not in Germany or Belgium but in Wisconsin.

That city was Milwaukee, which now ranks #1 in the 2006 Forbes list of America’s Drunkest Cities. To come up with this list, Forbes did a survey on the 35 largest US cities in terms of state laws, drinkers, heavy drinkers, binge drinkers, and alcoholism.

As if you didn’t know, the United States has an undeniable drinking culture. We drink at spring break, over baseball matches, in poker when it’s best to stay sober. Somebody mentions tips on NFL football and we think they mean tipping the bartender during a game. We glug on when our team wins, or loses, or isn’t even playing.

Forbes’ Top 10 America’s Drunkest Cities

#1 Milwaukee *ranked no. 1 in both drinkers and binge drinkers
#2 Minneapolis – St. Paul *no. 3 in binge drinkers
#3 Columbus *no. 2 in heavy drinkers
#4 Boston *no. 1 in state laws
#5 Austin *no. 3 in state laws
#6 Chicago *no. 5 in both state laws and binge drinkers
#7 Cleveland *no. 2 in alcoholism
#8 Pittsburgh *no. 2 in binge drinkers
#9 Philadelphia *no. 4 in both state laws and heavy drinkers
#10 Providence *no. 2 in state laws

Milwaukee, christened as The Brew City and ‘the nation’s watering hole‘, has more bars per capita than any other large US city. It was once home to four of the world’s largest breweries (Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller), out of which Miller remains standing as the second-largest beer maker in the US. It is also dubbed The City of Festivals for its multitude of ethnic and music festivals, like Summerfest, more excuses for Milwaukeeans to revel, bottoms up.

While known as the City of Lakes, those aren’t the only liquids overflowing at Minneapolis, which shares the #2 spot with adjoining Saint Paul; together, they are Minnesota’s Twin Cities. I wonder if alcohol is related to Minneapolitans’ notoriety in violent crime, which earned the city the monicker ‘Murderapolis‘ after a record 97 homicides in 1995. Violent crime here surged 35.5% in 2005.

It seems booze is the preferred way to wash down burgers at #3 ranker Columbus in Ohio, home base to the Wendy’s and White Castle food chains. The Arch City was the setting of Fargo by the Coen brothers, who live here, but does Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle ring any bells?

Proof that inebriation isn’t proportional to poverty or ignorance are #4 placer Boston in Massachusetts and #5 placer Austin in Texas. Boston is labelled The Athens of America for its cultural and intellectual calibre. It is home to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and more breeding grounds of beer-guzzling dorm kids.

The University of Texas at Austin is in the city called Silicon Hills for the presence of major technology corporations like Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems. Having more music venues per capita than any other US city, its official slogan is The Live Music Capital of the World but its unofficial motto is Keep Austin Weird – and we know which one to believe.

Next up: more highlights of America’s Most Drunken Cities. How did Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, and Washington fare?

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