Who's Number One?

A wonderful discussion broke out on that lively Brew Crew listserve I mentioned some time back. At issue was which state had bragging rights for being the most breweried. Of course, this is easy to ascertain--it's California by a mile. But wait! Surely there's a way to calculate it so Oregon's number one? David Cato submitted the following list, which is a pretty nice bit of work. It shows that Vermont actually gets bragging rights. (Though there was an extended debate about whether to include the multiple McMenamins and Lucky Labs in the count. Conclusion: depends.)

There is a related, if slightly sideways look at beer and states over at Champagne of Blogs, where Dave is trying, in this election year, to determine which states brew better beer, red or blue? If number of breweries is any indication, blue's killing red. But per capita consumption even things out a bit.

Personally, I think the fact that people were having this debate and putting together statistical measures for proving Oregon's superiority is itself all the evidence we need. But for those who wish to see the numbers, here you go (columns are state, population, number of breweries, and people per breweries):

         State                 Pop.   Brew.    Ppl/brew
                                          
1 Vermont ...............     621,254     19     32,698
2 Oregon ................   3,747,455     90     41,638
3 Montana ...............     957,861     23     41,646
4 Maine .................   1,317,207     28     47,043
5 Alaska ................     683,478     14     48,820
6 Colorado ..............   4,861,515     96     50,641
7 Wyoming ...............     522,830      9     58,092
8 Washington ............   6,468,424     93     69,553
9 Wisconsin .............   5,601,640     64     87,526
10 New Hampshire .........  1,315,828     15     87,722
11 Idaho .................  1,499,402     16     93,713
12 Delaware ..............    864,764      8    108,096
13 Nebraska ..............  1,774,571     16    110,911
14 New Mexico ............  1,969,915     17    115,877
15 South Dakota ..........    796,214      6    132,702
16 Hawaii ................  1,283,388      9    142,599
17 Michigan .............. 10,071,822     70    143,883
18 Nevada ................  2,565,382     16    160,336
19 California ............ 36,553,215    218    167,675
20 Kansas ................  2,775,997     16    173,500
21 Massachusetts .........  6,449,755     37    174,318
22 Iowa ..................  2,988,046     17    175,767
23 Rhode Island ..........  1,057,832      6    176,305
24 Pennsylvania .......... 12,432,792     67    185,564
25 District of Columbia ..    588,292      3    196,097
26 Utah ..................  2,645,330     13    203,487
27 Connecticut ...........  3,502,309     16    218,894
28 Missouri ..............  5,878,415     25    235,137
29 Minnesota .............  5,197,621     22    236,256
30 Indiana ...............  6,345,289     26    244,050
31 Arizona ...............  6,338,755     24    264,115
32 Virginia ..............  7,712,091     29    265,934
33 North Carolina ........  9,061,032     31    292,291
34 West Virginia .........  1,812,035      6    302,006
35 Ohio .................. 11,466,917     37    309,917
36 Maryland ..............  5,618,344     18    312,130
37 Illinois .............. 12,852,548     40    321,314
38 South Carolina ........  4,407,709     13    339,055
39 New York .............. 19,297,729     51    378,387
40 Tennessee .............  6,156,719     15    410,448
41 New Jersey ............  8,685,920     19    457,154
42 Florida ............... 18,251,243     36    506,979
43 Oklahoma ..............  3,617,316      7    516,759
44 Georgia ...............  9,544,750     17    561,456
45 Kentucky ..............  4,241,474      7    605,925
46 North Dakota ..........    639,715      1    639,715
47 Arkansas ..............  2,834,797      4    708,699
48 Texas ................. 23,904,380     33    724,375
49 Louisiana .............  4,293,204      5    858,641
50 Alabama ...............  4,627,851      3   1,542,617
51 Mississippi ...........  2,918,785      1   2,918,785
    Total .................301,621,157   1,472   204,906

Notes:
1. BA lists 85 breweries in Oregon but Brewer's Guild
Director Brian Butenschoen said we have 90 breweries
so I used Brian's number instead.  (The BA's number
drops Oregon to 3rd place.)
2. There's at least one brewery in Texas, Southern Star,
that I'm aware of that is not included in the BA's list so
I included them, but their inclusion doesn't change Texas'
rank, nor does it make it any harder for Louisiana to
overtake them.

All I have to add is: poor Mississippi.