Yeah I wouldn't go that far. The bottom 6 States are the heart of the bible belt plus Utah. These states have probably been a lot slower than most at removing regressive alcohol laws from the books. Utah just has half the population that won't drink at all.
The reason NY NJ, CA, and IL are middle of the pack probably has a lot to do with how much of their populations are in mega cities where its really hard to find/afford the space for microbreweries. That and the competition from crack.**
Nevada is interesting, but I think 95% of their population is in LV and Reno and I can't imagine those cities having a big brewpub scene, or at least not without someone getting whacked for taking business from the casinos and strip clubs.
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The correlation is very high. The bottom 16 is made up of 12 bible belt states plus HI, NJ, NV, and Utah. The only outliers in the bible belt are NC, VA, and MO... Not exactly surprising those three would be the ones either.