Over on one of my favorite blogs – Beervana, Jeff posed the question – “Who’s Number One?” I have always knew we were a focal point for microbreweries and were at the head of the class when it came to innovation and creativity. Heck, we now have 2 major organic breweries and now everyone is jumping on that bandwagon. As I drove across America and back in May, I tasted a number of microbrews. It seemed that the further we got east, the more Belgians we tasted and the less hops they used. The only saving grace is that Philadelphia has Victory Brewing with their Hopdevil IPA. But I digress….
Beervana has some metrics- based on population, Oregon has the second most microbreweries per capita in the nation. I can’t believe Vermont beat us with 14 breweries. Then again, there are only 12 people in Vermont right? I couldn’t believe Oregon has 90 microbreweries. Wow! And California has 293? Holy shit!
It proved it to me though that we can be proud and boastful of our microbrews here. While they are everywhere in the nation (except for like North Dakota (1) and Mississippi (1)) we have many to choose from. Just in Portland city center I can count 12 and I think I’m missing something.
So, raise your glass to the Widmer Brothers, the Ponzi family (Bridgeport), the McMenamins and Art Larrance (formerly of Portland Brewing) who went to Salem oh so many years ago and changed the laws. Without them, we wouldn’t have Roots or Hopworks or TG or Laurelwood. Here’s to you!
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I moved back to the NW after spending the last decade in Vermont. Sure they have more breweries “per capita” BUT one could never, ever, spend a day in VT traveling by bike visiting a handful of brewpubs all within a 5 mile radius.
Portland rules the beer world!
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