BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — According to a new study, Somerville is the best city in the nation to open a brewery. Two other Massachusetts cities made the top-25: Boston in 11th place, Worcester in 23rd place. The full ranking and analysis can be seen here.
Craft beer's popularity has skyrocketed over the past decade, which means starting a brewery can be a potentially profitable enterprise. But which cities are best for that opportunity? To find out, researchers analyzed data from more than 180 U.S. cities and identified the 25 best places to open a brewery based on their business environments and expenses. According to the Brewer's Association, U-S craft breweries have grown from just under 1,500 in 2007, to more than 7,000 as of July 2018.
The study's methodology to determine the rankings looked at census-defined places with at least 50,000 people in the 2017 5-Year Census Survey. The study compared those cities across two key categories: 'Business Environment' and 'Business Costs.' With a population of less than 100,000 people, the small but densely populated city of Somerville tops the list due in large part to the highest percentage of residents 21-years or older, a low state excise tax on barrels of beer, and one of the lowest brewery license fees in the country.
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