Which Cities Have the Most Craft Breweries

Filed Under: Best Practices, Market Research, Alcohol, Quantitative Research

Published:

It’s no secret that craft beer’s popularity has grown in recent years. Breweries have been popping up in cities across the country as drinkers seek out a cold glass of IPA, stout, or pale ale. But where is the mecca of breweries? We analyzed data from more than 500 cities to find out which city has the most breweries per 50,000 people.   

Whether you’re a Millennial, Baby Boomer or a Gen Xer, craft beer fans alike might want to visit Portland, Maine. The city is just shy of 70,000 people, but it is home to the most craft breweries in America with 18 breweries per 50,000 people. Asheville, North Carolina and Bend, Oregon rank No. 2 and 3, respectively. Boulder, Colorado and Kalamazoo, Michigan round out the top 5 ranking at No. 4 and 5, respectively. 

It’s also interesting to note that large cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles don’t appear on this list. In fact, the only cities with a population of 250,000 or more on the list include Denver, Madison, Portland and Cincinnati.

Most Popular Craft Breweries

With so many options, how do craft beer drinkers choose which brewery to visit? Sure, you could try to visit them all, but you might end up with a pretty big headache the next morning if you did. To make things a little easier, we determined the most popular brewery in each city based on Google search data. In order to find the most up-to-date list of breweries within every city, we used brewery data from the BreweryDB database.  

As craft beer continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how this list of cities changes in the coming years. Will Portland, Maine hold onto its thrown, or will another city claim the title of “craft beer capital of the U.S.?” 

Methodology

How we ranked cities with the most breweries:
Using SteadyServ Technologies’ BreweryDB database, we analyzed the number of breweries in more than 500 cities across the U.S. From there, we ranked each city by the number of breweries per capita. For readability and comparison purposes, we calculated the number of breweries in each city per 50,000 residents.

How we determined the most popular breweries:
Using SteadyServ Technologies’ BreweryDB database, we compiled a list of every brewery in more than 500 cities across the U.S. From there, we analyzed Google search volume of those breweries within each city to determine the most popular brewery. 

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