So which region of America has the highest concentration of top class breweries?

Cascadia. From Bend on the East edge of the Cascades to Pelican on the coast, from Ninkasi in Eugene to Boundary Bay near the Canadian border, Cascadia makes plenty of great brews.

 

Michigan without question!

 

Midwest!

 

New England- Hill Farmstead, Lawsons, Alchemist, Allagash, Maine Beer Co, Smuttynose/Portsmouth, New England Brewing Co, Pretty Things etc..... and then theres the smaller up and coming places that are doing great things too.

 

I thought brooklyn brewery just broke into that market?

 

I'm from Michigan and my love for her beer is unconditional. San Diego though wins this award, hands down.

 

Midwest certainly has an argument, Bell's, Founders, 3 Floyd's to name a few. West coast is very hard to beat though, they are far and above the top 2, no matter what the order!

 

somewhere in california, however you want to carve it up. oregon is competitive, florida and colorado are on the rise, but cali is still king.

many of my opinions have changed since i first started posting on BA, or started reading it a few years before that, but on this issue things have pretty much remained the same. we have great stuff up here in the northeast, michigan has great stuff, but #1 is cali, #2 is oregon, and #3+ are all a decent way down from #2.

 

The West.

 

San Diego, hands down

Cheers!

 

Great list. You could pick a point in the middle somewhere and get to any of those places in an hour or less, seems like a much tighter "region" than CA/OR

 

SoCal is going to be the top of most lists and rightfully so. On the east cost, Vermont puts out a lot of great things, particularly for a state with a total population that is smaller than most major cities.

 

Region? It's Colorado. California is also great, but Colorado has them beat in quantity of great breweries.

 

I think it is a toss up between Colorado and New Jersey.

 

Colorado has 140 breweries.
California has 345 breweries.

Even assuming the average California brewery is not quite as "great" as the average Colorado brewery (a dubious assertion), you've got a statistical mountain to climb to support your statement.

Not taking anything away from Colorado, it's one of my favorite beer states, but I just don't see the math working out in Colorado's favor on this one.

 

A brief glance at Beer Advocate's top beers per style has a respectable amount of Wisconsin beers listed. New Glarus, Capital Brewery, Sprecher, Central Waters, Tyrannena, Hinterland, etc. Throw in Goose Island, Surly and Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, which are on the border, and you have a very strong region. Perhaps it doesn't dominate the top 100, but it covers most all the bases for reasonably priced micros.

 

I did a quick rip of the Top Beers - Popular list. The breakdown by state/country is below. I'm curious what it would be like for the Beers of Fame or New lists, but not curious enough to figure it out right now.

Two things to note:
1) The top of the list is heavy with California and especially midwestern (MI, IN, IL) beers
2) There are 0 beers from Colorado breweries on there (though there are at least 6 on the Beers of Fame list).

CA 29 (I know, CA is a big state, but that's a big number)
Belgium 14
MI 8
VT 7
MN 6
IN 5
Fl 4
IL 4
OR 4
Germany 3
Canada 2
Sweden 2
NY 2
PA 2
WI 2
AK 1
MA 1
NH 1
OH 1
SC 1
TX 1

 

ad Breckenridge to the list also

 

Population of Calif: 37 million
Population of colorado: 5 million.

Per capita, Colorado crushes Calif

 

Definitely North America. I mean the brews coming out of Central and South America are good and all, but come on, North America's got it by a mile.