Top 10 States to Open a Brewery

After posting a Map of Per Capita Gallons of Beer Consumed Per Adult By State, it got me thinking, what states have the biggest need for more craft breweries? To figure this out, I took the total barrels of beer consumed per year in each state divided by the number of barrels they produce in craft beer each year to represent the states need for beer in barrels. To attempt to adjust the figure by the state’s general interest in craft breweries, I took the beer need figure multiplied by the states volume in Google search interest for breweries (let’s call it the Bud Light adjustment).

Above is the full mapping of results from light to dark blue, the darker the state the greater the need for a new brewery (the complete rankings are listed in the full data set).

Top 10 States to Open a Brewery

North Dakota South Dakota Iowa Illinois New Jersey Oklahoma Kansas Arkansas Florida South Carolina

Full Data Set:

State Craft Beer Produced in BBLs Consumption in BBLs Google Search Interest # “Brewery” Per Capita

Consumption Consumption / Production * Interest North Dakota 1,866 753,150 16 29.50 6458 South Dakota 4,008 742,952 18 26.70 3337 Iowa 29,417 2,397,885 38 25.50 3098 Illinois 136,999 8,708,195 47 30.00 2988 New Jersey 48,996 4,691,905 28 22.10 2681 Oklahoma 21,029 2,481,159 20 33.60 2360 Kansas 33,051 1,852,707 42 28.30 2354 Arkansas 10,417 1,823,822 13 27.40 2276 Florida 129,946 12,881,385 19 25.70 1883 South Carolina 46,900 3,631,748 24 30.40 1858 Nebraska 24,467 1,487,657 30 27.80 1824 Alabama 32,531 3,405,054 17 29.10 1779 Rhode Island 12,218 661,213 29 25.90 1569 Nevada 46,729 2,302,338 30 33.60 1478 Mississippi 17,560 2,300,737 11 28.30 1441 Arizona 117,457 4,436,917 38 24.40 1435 Indiana 120,828 3,885,980 39 33.90 1254 Tennessee 98,508 3,971,793 31 34.00 1250 Connecticut 51,457 1,883,859 32 23.20 1172 District of Columbia 14,889 445,508 39 26.20 1167 Virginia 129,103 5,144,231 28 26.80 1116 New Hampshire 69,164 1,397,740 55 28.50 1111 New Mexico 58,247 1,551,902 41 33.90 1092 Kentucky 52,639 2,509,430 21 31.00 1001 North Carolina 263,488 6,167,486 42 41.00 983 West Virginia 19,542 1,367,366 14 35.20 980 Washington 333,175 4,029,277 78 30.20 943 Wyoming 15,863 443,659 32 35.80 895 Wisconsin 444,311 4,859,589 75 28.70 820 Georgia 207,257 5,795,422 28 43.90 783 Missouri 299,214 4,362,037 48 22.40 700 Massachusetts 329,413 4,169,574 51 32.40 646 Idaho 43,073 987,314 26 22.40 596 Texas 848,259 19,889,355 24 27.10 563 Michigan 582,909 6,219,773 51 45.80 544 Minnesota 367,681 3,564,936 53 30.10 514 Maryland 171,470 3,216,919 25 28.30 469 Montana 133,465 978,877 61 30.30 447 New York 859,535 10,459,229 34 28.60 414 Louisiana 184,577 3,600,357 19 26.30 371 California 2,948,895 22,317,858 39 32.70 295 Ohio 1,097,955 8,153,103 36 38.90 267 Colorado 1,413,242 3,628,449 100 26.20 257 Pennsylvania 1,788,556 8,734,643 50 34.40 244 Utah 130,790 1,194,026 25 20.20 228 Oregon 877,891 2,824,541 61 35.30 196 Delaware 211,280 727,676 51 26.70 176 Vermont 229,062 534,524 75 24.80 175 Maine 259,654 1,108,492 35 30.30 149 Alaska 182,530 475,298 35 36.20 91 Hawaii 25,082 11,800 16 33.00 8

Source: Beer Institute, Brewers Association, Google Trends

[UPDATE 11.25.2014: A previous ranking had Washington and Wisconsin in the top 10, there was a mistake in the data that has been corrected and they have been bumped]