Mapping the Rise of Craft Beer

Very interesting article in the New Yorker on the rise of craft beer in the United States: http://www.newyorker.com/sandbox/business/beer.html.

Virginia was pretty much in the middle on all counts: we're 12th in total number of craft breweries, 28th in total production, 12th in overall increase, and 30th in craft breweries per population.

Most of the data isn't really that surprising.  The biggest states are California, Washington, and Colorado; followed by Oregon, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin.

In terms of growth, however, the order is much different: Alabama leads the pack (not surprising, considering the official stance on craft beer has changed rapidly recently; see the recent legalization of homebrewing there); Minnesota, Connecticut, Nevada and Tennessee round out the tops for growth.  Again, this makes sense: since they started so low there's lots of room for growth.  It is interesting to see craft beer spreading away from the West Coast, however.

Perhaps the most interesting to me was breweries by population: suddenly Vermont was in the lead, with 20 craft breweries for every 500,000 people.  Oregon, not surprisingly, was second, with Montana trailing close behind.  California, surprisingly, had barely a fifth of Vermont's density, with 4.2 craft breweries per 500,000 people.  Perhaps this is a commentary on the vast population of California than anything else, but I found it surprising nonetheless.