I travel around a lot for breweries and beer bars. I continue to think the Midwest and NW is where it's at.
San Diego had 17 new breweries open in 2012 and 17-18 under construction and planned to open in 2013. 63 currently operational by Jan 1, 2013, possibly 81 by Dec 31st. That's incredible. http://www.westcoastersd.com/sd-brewing-industry-watch/ In terms of quality? The beer is B+ for Helm's, Rough Draft, Lat 33, and low A's for Monkey Paw, Societe, Rip Current, Belching Beaver...none are making bad beer and with time...they'll become even better. There's actually too many options these days. Suxs to be us.
The number of Rhode Island owned breweries has increased 33% in the last year!. We've gone from from 6 to 8 .
The Brewers Association lists closures in their annual Press Release that comes out in the spring, and remains on their website's Number of Breweries page.
In the last year we have seen the following places open: River North, Black Shirt, Our Mutual Friend, Crooked Stave, Prost, Caution, Hogshead, Rickoli, West Flanders, Verboten, J. Wells, High Hops, Big Beaver, Black Bottle, Hall, Lone Tree, TRVE, Gravity, Bootstrap, BRU, Echo, Very Nice, Vine Street, Wild Woods, & Great Storm. That's 26, and I did say "seemingly." That's an average of one every other week.
Having lived in Germany, I do seek those out. If a brewery can brew a good German or Czech Pilsner, they can brew anything.
I know exactly what you mean, we definatly don't need any more Fretzy or Watermelon Wheat Ale! But, we do have a couple of breweries kicking out, maybe not all jems, but some good beers like Four Peaks, San Tan, Sonoran and Nimbus. I am curious though, which local are you drinking?
Only care for Four Peaks. And I'm talking on draft at the brewery locations only - Hop Knot, Raj, Hefe-Weizen, plus a few others. Jeremy - you mean you're no fan of Old World Brewing or Grand Canyon? Electric Dave's? Drink local man, drink local!
As a fellow Missourian, I agree. The St. Louis area is exploding. We've gone from a handful of breweries/brewpubs just five years ago to 22 within an hour drive of downtown STL, with two more opening within 3 months (Alpha, Heavy Riff). It's really exciting. The quality is not consistent overall, but Perennial, 4 Hands, Urban Chestnut, Civil Life, 2nd Shift, and several more are very promising, young breweries that cannot keep up with demand. In outstate areas, and across the river in Illinois (STL Metro area), we have some quality small breweries either in operation (Charleville, Mother's) or opening soon (Scratch - totally pumped for them). Anchored by stalwarts Boulevard in KC and Schlafly in STL, the area is poised to continue this growth. There was one true "beer bar" five years ago - Cicero's - and now they exist in most neighborhoods. Flying Saucer is opening downtown, joining Bridge, iTap (3 locations), and a handful of others in the City. Even most restaurants now dedicate a few taps to locals, with many expanding to 10+ craft taps. I can't speak for KC, Columbia, or other areas, but I'm sure there are some great beer bars there as well. One cannot keep up with the beer festivals - Lupulin, Wolpertinger, FestivAle, Microfest, Brewers Heritage Festival, plus too many more to list here. There is a decidedly anti-AB movement sprouting since the Inbev takeover, with many folks turning toward local products as their lifelong AB loyalties wane. The market share is there for the taking, with micros still only accounting for 5-6% by recent estimates. I'm not a homer enough to claim we're on a level of Southern California, Colorado, North Carolina, Michigan, Seattle, Portland, etal, but it's an exciting scene and time to be here.
Georgia is definitely gaining some momentum in the new brewery department. Sweetwater and Terrapin (both fairly well-established breweries) are expanding quite a bit in terms of distribution and lineup. Red Brick, Jailhouse, Red Hare, and Burnt Hickory are also all fairly recent additions to the craft beer scene in Georgia.
Some excellent Pilsners are made in Texas. Live Oak Pilz, Real Ale Hans Pilz, Austin Beer Works Pearl Snap, and Deep Ellum Rye Pilz are all top notch. I wish more breweries would make a good lager that is not just their substitute for macro crap. On that note, Texas has certainly been growling very rapidly. Also, second OK. Some very good breweries there as well.
With the scene exploding seemingly everywhere, are we headed for a bubble bursting in a few years? I'm not so sure, yet, though there will come a day when lesser quality breweries will start failing with more regularity as people "vote with their dollars". With micros still only accounting for 6% of the overall beer market, my thought is that the ceiling is much higher, perhaps 10-12% market share? Every 1% of the $100 billion US beer market share can probably fund a 200+ breweries for the long-term, assuming $5 million in average sales, which is on the high end for most craft brewers. Even the larger regional breweries are only in the $15 million - $30 million range.
I was asking the SD guy. Agree on the Live Oak Pils, had 2 at the Gingerman on Saturday. Had an Austin Beer Works Pearl Snap, and that one was not excellent. Diacetyl, high bicarbonates so it had a muddy finish that was not crisp, and it seemed underattenuated as it was sweet. Claimed 45 IBUs, those were not evident.
Wow, that must of been a really off batch of Pearl Snap. I have never had any of that, no diacetyl (of which I seem to be able to sniff out a mile away for some reason), always supper crisp and plenty of hops.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas seem to have a burgeoning brew culture. I notice more and more brew pubs and breweries popping up locally. While Pennsylvania boasts greats like Tröegs, Victory, Stoudts and Weyerbacher, newbies like Spring House and Mudhook definitely deserve a taste.
You must not be visiting the right parts of NH. Last year the legislature loosened licensing restrictions to encourage nano-breweries to open...and open they have. About 6 in the last 6 months. The most recent is Henniker Brewing. Other new and exciting nanos include Blue Lobster, Earth Eagle, Candia Road, Canterbury Ale Works, and 603 Brewing.
That's not including all the little ones popping up in the mountains either. The crazy thing is that most of the new breweries we're getting are making good brew. I can't get over the volume of good to great beer being made in Colorado these days.
Definitely noticed a lot of new local breweries (and excitement surrounding them) when I took a trip to Durham, NC recently. A friend from Asheville was also noting the large number of new breweries in his parts. So I'd have to imagine NC is pretty high up on the growth chart.
Just to add here, the craft beer scene in Miami is definitely blowing up. A few WOB's have opened up within the past year and they've been doing well. The one I'm really looking forward to is J Wakefield Brewing in Miami (opening this year). Even though most dig the Passionfruit Dragonfruit Berliner, their entire lineup is pretty awesome.
Also, a lot more California breweries export their beers to other states, whereas most Washington breweries seem to brew for Washington only. So the per capita ratio of breweries to population is skewed even more dramatically in Washington's favor.
You must have had a bad can of Pearl Snap, because it is an outstanding pilsner that is nothing like what you are describing. (In fact I'm in Austin this week and will be bringing several six packs back home with me.) I'm not a big fan of Texas beer in general, but I absolutely agree with Champ's list. Texas can at least hang a flag on making excellent pilsners and other German styles. When I lived in San Diego about the only good localish pilsner available was Trumer. (Draft, not bottles.) Now as to anything hoppy here, forget about it. They have the whole east coast "balanced" thing going on. And for some reason have a hard time producing drinkable farmhouse and barrel aged varietals. (And don't give me Jester King. They are far more miss than hit when it comes to their bottled product. See my Bonnie the Rare review for one of their more spectacular failures.)
On Draft at Bangers, which is a new place the niece wanted to check out. Would think the lines were in good shape. I will try the Pearl Snap again next time.
Keep an eye out for Virginia breweries in 2013. A number of them are popping up in Richmond, a few in the Shenandoah, perhaps a few in Northern Virginia. Virginians are getting behind the craft beer movement.
That's how CO. tends to be, too. Of the 25-30 places that have opened near Denver in the last year, only 5-6 bottle or can and almost none of them distribute outside of the area.
In Minnesota they changed the law for breweries to sell on site, so the breweries exploded in the state esp. in the Twin Cities metro. Too many beers so little time.
