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Ever since Philadelphia proclaimed itself the Best Beer Drinking City in America earlier this year, the debate has been on.

This issue, it’s Boston’s turn, and who better to run down the beer beauty of Beantown than ASN’s own Ms. Mug, Lauren Clarke.

Well, well, well. So it’s a "best beer city" throwdown, is it?

There have been weigh-ins from Philadelphia, with its rich German- and Belgian-influenced beer culture, and New York, with its "you can get it all here" claim to beer fame. No doubt cities on the West Coast ("Hey, we started this whole microbrew thing") — Portland, Seattle, San Francisco — are having their own battles.

Boston, MA, is where I do my beer drinking. In keeping with the New England temperament, I’m going to be reasonable. I won’t claim that Boston is better than these cities when it comes to beer. But I’d put it in the ring with any of the above and enjoy an inconclusive bout. How is the Hub a heavyweight contender? Let me count the ways.

Early adopters

Boston raised the flag of the microbrew revolution before most East Coast cities did. One of the nation’s first craft beers, Samuel Adams, started here in 1984, with Jim Koch convincing skeptical publicans to sell his amber-colored, generously hopped lager alongside the wan behemoths Bud, Miller and Coors.

It caught on. Now, Koch’s Boston Beer Co. is the biggest craft brewery in the country, and it paved the way for many others, including the Harpoon Brewery, which has been supplying beer to New England and beyond since 1987.

The first brewpub east of the Mississippi opened in Boston in 1986 — the Commonwealth Brewing Co., which made cask-conditioned ale before anyone even called it that. The CBC is now closed, but Boston’s other CBC — the Cambridge Brewing Co. — opened in 1989 and has survived to become one of the country’s oldest brewpubs.

Let’s not forget beer bars. Two of the city’s best, Redbones BBQ and the Sunset Grill & Tap, opened back in ’87. Today, there are at least 10 breweries and brewpubs and almost that many beer bars in metro Boston.

History

You want beer history? We’ve got heaps of it. Where do you think people fomented the radical idea that the American Colonies should form their own government? In Boston taverns, that’s where. A couple of those taverns rooted in the American Revolution are still standing — the Green Dragon in Faneuil Hall and the Warren Tavern in Charlestown.

Later, a whole bunch of Irish immigrants moved here. They dotted their neighborhoods with Irish pubs, a drinking concept that remains wildly popular with Bostonians today. Thankfully, weathered gems like Doyle’s, established in 1882, are still pouring Guinness. Doyle’s also has a decent selection of craft beers, including tasty treats from the Sam Adams pilot brewery down the street.

And lest you think Boston heritage is all Blueblood and Irish, there are some traces of German culture, like the old Haffenreffer Brewery in Jamaica Plain (where that Sam Adams pilot brewery now sits) and, most notably, Jacob Wirth’s. A great-looking old establishment dating from 1868, Jake’s offers several German imports (of course), as well as some good Boston and other American craft brews.

I haven’t even mentioned America’s first party school, Harvard College. "Within the college rules of 1667 were instructions on the operation of the college brewery to furnish both small and strong beer," writes Gregg Smith in Beer in America: The Early Years – 1587-1840. The university’s founder, John Harvard, is the namesake of a chain of brewpubs that started in Harvard Square in the early 1990s.

Quality

OK, milestones and history are neat, but what about the beer itself? High-quality craft beer is found in greater variety and in more bars, restaurants and stores than ever before in Boston, and our local brewers have numerous Great American Beer Festival medals and other honors between them.

Harpoon is truly the local brew, and its Ale, IPA, Dark, Octoberfest and UFO (an American wheat beer) are staples in most bars. Complementing these fine, everyday beers is Harpoon’s 100 Barrel Series of limited-edition beers, which have included a barrel-aged wheat wine, a kellerbier, a saison, an English old ale and a red rye ale.

My faves among the city’s brewpubs are the Cambridge Brewing Co. and the Watch City Brewing Co. They have made their reputations putting out flavorful, adventurous beers that run the gamut from emulating styles to contorting them in interesting ways. I also marvel at the hugeness of Boston Beer Works’ selection whenever I sit down at one of the two locations in town. Those brewpubs and their sister in nearby Salem each have at least 15 beers on tap, so there’s always some good stuff to be had.

For my money, Boston’s beer bars are where the real drinking excitement is. Like the populace of Boston itself, they are cosmopolitan, with top-notch brews from all over the northeast, the US and the world. The nationally known Publick House and its adjoining Monk’s Cell boast roughly 100 Belgian beers on draught and in bottles, plus excellent American craft beers from breweries like Allagash, Sixpoint and Southampton.

Deep Ellum in Allston has built a solid reputation since it opened a little over a year ago, with an ever-changing selection of great stuff like De Ranke XX Bitter from Belgium, Thomas Hooker Doppelbock from Connecticut and Mahr’s Pilsner from Bamberg, Germany. And then there’s Redbones, which, in addition to its usual terrific offerings, has an annual Northwest Fest, tapping Washington and Oregon beers from Elysian, Boundary Bay, Pyramid, Alameda, Siletz and Steelhead, to name only a few.

Events

Big, week-long events like the Mondial de la Biere in Montreal, the Oregon Brewers Fest and, of course, the Great American Beer Festival in Denver are well known. Boston’s beer events, like the city itself, are on the small side. But what they lack in size they make up in quality.

NERAX, or the New England Real Ale Exhibition (nerax.org), is the oldest. It’s held at a VFW post in Somerville that every year gets packed to the rafters with people thirsting for a selection of U.K. and East Coast cask ales not found anywhere else.

BeerAdvocate puts on a few beer events each year in the South End’s unique Cyclorama (the building started out as an exhibition hall for panoramic paintings in the late 1800s), including the Extreme Beer Fest and the Belgian Beer Fest.

Throughout the year, beer dinners and other smaller events happen at Cambridge Common, the Cambridge Brewing Co. the Kinsale, the Publick House and Redbones, among others.

This June, the American Craft Beer Fest looks to revive the tradition of the Boston Brewers Festival, which took place in the World Trade Center in the early 1990s. Three sessions, 75 breweries, 300 craft beers are expected.

Beer Is Everywhere

It took some time, but now Boston’s vibrant beer scene is spilling over into the city’s other, non-beer-oriented bars and restaurants in a big way. As I wrote in "Beer Gets Invited to the Table" a few issues back, fine dining restaurants are putting as much care into their beer menus as their wine and cocktail menus. Their customers demand it.

The fact that I can get a bottle of Dupont Les Bon Voeux at Eastern Standard (near Fenway Park), a Stoudt’s Fat Dog Oatmeal Stout at Green Street (Cambridge), or a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron at the Independent (Somerville) sometimes has me pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. The variety and quality of stuff that Bostonians can get all over the city these days is almost an embarrassment of riches.

It has finally happened — good beer has expanded beyond the microbrewery, the brewpub and the beer bar. It’s being sought out not just by beer geeks but by anyone who appreciates good food and drink. And that’s really what makes Boston a great beer town.