Bragging rights

Articles - September 2012

BY BRANDON SAWYER

Oregon brewers are not just kicking back sipping a top-quality pint. They have an economic impact of about $2.44 billion and employ about 5,650 workers in breweries and pubs, according to the Oregon Brewers Guild. Oregon comes in a close second behind Vermont in capita per brewery, and third behind California and Washington for total number of breweries in 2010. Portland remains the epicenter of the state’s craft-brewing empire with 51 operating breweries at the Guild’s last count, more than any other city in the world. However, the Rose City is easily beaten in capita per brewery by other renowned Oregon brew towns — Hood River, Bend and Eugene. Many U.S. cities and states claim to be the Saudi Arabia of beer, but Oregon — and Portland, especially — remain solid contenders for the title.

Oregon cities with the most brewery locations
RANK 2010	CITY	BREWERY LOCATIONS	2010 CAPITA PER BREWERY
1	PORTLAND	66	8.845
2	BEND	12	6,387
3	EUGENE	7	7,023
4	CORVALLIS	5	10,892
5	SALEM	5	30,927

Top 5 states for number of breweries, 2010
RANK 2010	STATE	BREWERIES
1	CALIFORNIA	245
2	WASHINGTON	123
3	OREGON	121
4	COLORADO	118
5	MICHIGAN	85

Top 5 states for capita per brewery, 2010
RANK 2010	STATE	2010 CAPITA PER BREWERY
1	VERMONT	29,797
2	OREGON	31,662
3	MONTANA	36,645
4	COLORADO	42,620
5	MAINE	42,850

Comments

0 #1 RE: Bragging rights — Guest 2012-08-29 18:12:42

Hey Brandon, I think there might be an error on these tables where it says "2010 PER CAPITA".

If there are 30,927 Breweries per capita in Salem (pop 150,000) then there should be 46 billion breweries in Salem which seems highly unlikely unless you count all forms of biological fermentation ;)

-Eric

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0 #2 RE: Bragging rights — Guest 2012-08-29 18:34:41

Ashland boasts 2 excellent breweries, Standing Stone and Caldera. Standing Stone brews in there excellent restaurant on Oak St. Caldera serves in the Caldera Tap House on Water St. and is to move into their new brewery/restaur ant near Exit 14 this fall.

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0 #3 Research editor — Guest 2012-08-29 18:52:38

Eric,

Thanks for pointing out the improper wording. Upon further research, I see that I should have used the term "capita per brewery" as the Brewers Association is now using, though it used "breweries per capita" in the past and many other sources are still doing so. Obviously, what I meant was population divided by number of breweries, not the other way around. I will correct the online article.

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0 #4 Correction — Guest 2012-08-29 22:23:18

Correcting spelling error in Ashland Comment

Quoting Guest:

Ashland boasts 2 excellent breweries, Standing Stone and Caldera. Standing Stone brews in their excellent restaurant on Oak St. Caldera serves in the Caldera Tap House on Water St. and is to move into their new brewery/restaurant near Exit 14 this fall.

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