U.S. Brewery Count = 3,000

  According to the Brewers Association there were 3,040 breweries operating in the country in June 2014, the highest number since the late 19th century. California has over 500 breweries. Sonoma County is home to 23 craft breweries at last count.

  One-third of all breweries are located in four states: California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

  Maybe a better stat is from Vermont with just 29 breweries, but the volume of beer produced puts them at 15 gallons annually per adult (ranked 1st in the country). In case you were wondering Mississippi comes in last with only four craft breweries.

  You just have to go back to the early 1980s to find that there were only about 90 breweries in the whole country (aka, the bad ol' days). At that time small breweries were considered operations like Anchor Steam, Hamm's and Yuengling. Boy, things have gotten better!

Story

One of the little guys in Sonoma
They're expanding!
Image from sonomaspringsbrewery.com