US now has 1701 breweries
The count of operating breweries in the US is now at 1,701 according to the Brewers Association.
There are 9 percent more breweries in the U.S. than a year ago. Paul Gatza at the BA has been dusting off the records and said in a statement that there were 1,751 breweries in 1900 and 1,498 in 1910. So we have more breweries than we have since around 1905. The resource he used for the data was the Register of United States Breweries 1876-1976 (compilers Friedrich and Bull).
At the end of March during the general session of the Craft Brewers Conference, Paul will present the number of breweries that operated for some or all of 2010, which will be a higher number than the current count, as it will include breweries that closed in 2010.