Hop Talk blogger Al pointed out today that some new data put out by the Brewers Association places my new home state of Oregon as the third highest number of breweries per capita. Vermont and Montana lead the way. Check his comments and the BA link here:
http://hop-talk.com/2009/04/06/vermont-number-one-in-breweries-per-capita/
While this is great news for the diversity of craft beer in my new home state (Illinois ranks 37th-boo! Thanks overpopulated Chicago and all you Old Style lovers!), I might argue that quality is much more important than quantity. I’d take less GREAT breweries, than an overpopulation of average and worse. Luckily for me, and I gather many of you reading this, we have both quantity AND quality in the state of Oregon. I just can’t wait to start my exploration. Heads up, my fellow brewers, I’m comin’ by.
Tell me what you think about the number of breweries per capita in your state and what it means to you as a craft beer drinker.
Cheers
Matt
3 Comments
And just think – if anyone actually lived in either of those two states, Oregon would easily be #1. Can you even brew over 8.25 abv in Montana yet?
I’d love to see these stats redone by square mile rather than per capita. Wonder who’d win then?
While that’s impressive, I’m much more tickled by the statistic about % of craft beer consumed by Oregonians. Seems we drink 12% craft beer, 3 times times the national average, most of which is Oregon brewed.
Agreed Andy. That’s an impressive number. The actual number of breweries isn’t as important as how much beer they are making and how much those residents are drinking of it. And number of breweries based on size of the state would be an interesting comparison as well.