“Here is that number, as this magazine goes to press: 1,528.

That’s how many breweries were in the planning stages in the United States at the start of May, according to the Brewers Association, craft beer’s industry trade group. To put that number in perspective, there were 2,403 working craft breweries—“small, independent and traditional,” per the BA’s definition—at the end of 2012. While not all of those in planning will open, they represent a potential 60 percent jump in the number of existing U.S. breweries. There are reasons people in the industry fret about that number.”

Joe Stange
Will It Fall? A look at America’s brewery boom
Draft Magazine