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

Midwest, all the way

 

Then you realized theres barely enough people in Vermont to even bother doing a census and how many highly rated beers/breweries they have and dominate the per capita arguement.

 

Sonoma County: Lagunitas, Russian River, Moonlight, and Bear Republic.

 

Population of Colorado (5 million)/breweries in Colorado (140): 35,714:1 (people per brewery)
Population of Vermont (625,000)/breweries in Vermont (23): 27,173:1 (people per brewery)
Per capita, Vermont crushes Colorado.

 

Speaking for California:

-Russian River
-Firestone Walker
-Sierra Nevada
-Stone
-Alpine
-The Bruery
-Lost Abbey
-Ballast Point
-Green Flash
-Kern River
-North Coast
-Fifty Fifty
-Alesmith
-21st Amendment
-Anchor

You'd be hard pressed to find someone who would pick the first list over that one, just sayin.

But for a more concentrated area, Colorado is spectacular. It's unfair to put the whole state of Cali against any other state. If it was just SoCal against Colorado it would be really tight, almost too hard to choose.

 

Ergo: Vermont really crushes California.

 

From my experience, San Diego. Alesmith, Alpine, Stone, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Lost Abbey and Pizza Port in one day, just insane. The sad part is I probably left something obvious out.

I hate to leave out my local New England but there are only a few breweries here that I would truly consider great, most of them are just good.

 

So getting back to New Jersey...

 

Don't forget Coors

 

All the homers say TX!



Except its creeping on a come up; just like every other state that hasn't been listed...

 

I'll take Colorado over SoCal or Vermont because I can ski in the morning, raft in the afternoon, and play golf late afternoon after filling a growler at Odell and New Belgium.

Although, you might be able to do that in Vermont, not sure about the rafting or late spring ski season scene up there.

 

Yea but they also classify New England as a region. It is a much smaller area has much less people but it gets its own region ...having live/worked all over the country I fine new England had the most diverse and interesting beer scene. Beer in NE is a culturaally different and more then breweries. It is beer bars events and community. I would put MI and Colorado second. I lived in Cali and found it somewhat lackluster.

 

I hadn't actually looked up the numbers. That's far more than I thought were out there. Well played, sir.

Perhaps it's the fact that while California has numerous "claims to fame", Colorado is really only known for the skiing, the beer, and the hiking.

 

I realize that New Jersey is the obvious choice for number 1. That is why no one else is mentioning it. Really the arguement is over which region is # 2.

Now, have you ever tried our wine?

 

Colorado is obviously at a disadvantage when it comes to size, especially since most of our breweries are located in a concentrated corridor along I-25. The concentration of the beer is the thing that makes it special though. Like was previously mentioned, you can pretty much drive from the furthest brewery to the closest in less than an hour.

Colorado is such a great destination spot for beer because you can visit so many without having to change hotels, and kill yourself on drive time. The density of the breweries is amazing. You can walk from New Belgium to Odell and then to Ft Collins Brewery while stopping at some nanos on the way and having lunch at Coopersmiths (who makes beer too). The same thing can be done with Great Divide, Wynkoop, Denver Beer Company and soon to be Prost Brewing. The point is the huge amount in a small square mile.

I love the beers from the breweries you mentioned in CA. But there is something to be said when all of these great Colorado ones are so damn close together.

 

Population of Montana (1,000,000)/breweries in Montana (28 with two more coming): 35,714:1 (people per brewery). Plus at least two of the breweries have taprooms in other cities. No, nothing on the level of Hill Farmstead but worth mentioning.

 

If this topic can be considered reasonable at all, then define region. You say "North East," and responses come with "Colorado" and "California." Oh the California region, how I love that region. Not as much as the region of Rhode Island! (A state is not a region. It is a state.)

 

Yeah, California has earthquakes, race riots, the death penalty, indentured servitude, a vacuous commercial culture, the busiest roads in America, awful smog, the highest taxes in the country. Oh, and beer, baseball, a good deal of natural beauty before the bastards pave the whole state.

Colorado just has the Rockies, comparatively untouched compared to California, beer, and a shitty baseball team.

In Montana we have lots and lots of decent but not great beer, cattle, and Californians who buy all the land, erect fences, and then live here for one month a year.

 

Regional borders are more natural than the political borders of a state. Think about it in terms of a place not dear to you, like Ontario. Torontoans have almost nothing in common with people living on the James Bay. And geographically they're not closely related either.

Culturally and climate-wise, California could probably be two regions, just like Alaska (the urban archipelago from Juneau to Fairbanks / the bush) and Texas (east / desert).

It seems to me California should be split into two states. Maybe we can reunite the Dakotas so they don't have to make new flags.

 

Anyone who argues against Oregon just doesn't know what they're missing...