Texas had 96 craft breweries in 2013 trailing only Washington (201), Penn (108), Oregon (181), NY (165), Michigan (131), Colorado (175), and Cal (381). I'm sure that gap has closed even more since then.
It's brewing beer, not rocket surgery. I'd say the Texas breweries are doing just fine in their ability to produce quality:
Regarded as the Super Bowl of Beer, the Great American Beer Festival, which wrapped up its thirty-second iteration in Denver the first weekend in October this year, offers a chance for brewers to showcase their stuff at the nation's largest tasting competition. On the floor of the convention hall, however, GABF-which hosts more than 700 brewers and nearly 50,000 visitors annually-the competition devolves into a mutual admiration society a la the Academy Awards, and there's no question that Texas brewers were on the receiving end of a lot of that love.
Fourteen breweries were awarded sixteen medals (last year, Texas brought home ten medals), including six golds. There were surprises aplenty, with many of the winners clustered around North Texas-as opposed to Austin, which is in danger of losing some of its luster as Texas' craft-brewing capital. Moreover, of the six gold-medal winners, nary a one conformed to the hop-heavy, alcohol bombs that have been dominating beer sales nationwide the past couple of years. In fact, five of the six MVPs that won gold this year show the heavy influence of British brewing traditions. That was enough to make Texas the fourth-winningest state behind only California, Oregon, and Colorado.
Great American Beer Festival
