idea of the week

Mapping the Rise of Craft Beer

As of March, the United States was home to nearly two thousand four hundred craft breweries, the small producers best known for India pale ales and other decidedly non-Budweiser-esque beers. What’s more, they are rapidly colonizing what one might call the craft-beer frontier: the South, the Southwest, and, really, almost any part of the country that isn’t the West or the Northeast. The interactive map below, based on newly released 2012 data gathered by the Brewers Association, illustrates this phenomenon and offers a detailed overview of the American craft-beer industry.

State data
Brewery data

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North Dakota
RANK
Total craft breweries $35000 50
2012 craft beer
production (barrels)
$2730000 50
Change in production (2011-12) $35000 50
Craft breweries
per 500,000 people
$35000 50
Oskar Blues Brewery & Tasty Weasel Tap Room
Indianapolis, IN

Rank among the fifty largest craft breweries: 10

Rank among the fifty fastest-growing craft breweries: 10

2012 production (barrels): 345,568

2011 production (barrels): 345,568

Growth rate: 12345%

2012 production (barrels): 345,568