Dedicated beer drinkers can often rattle off a brew's ABV (alcohol by volume) and IBU (international bittering units). Breweries obviously think about those percentages, too, but the most important numbers are kept by the Boulder-based Brewer's Association [2], which tracks the sales of craft brewers across the country.

Five Colorado brewers have made the latest list of the country's Top 50 Craft Breweries: Fort Collins' New Belgium (3) and Odell Brewing Co. (33); Louisville's Rock Bottom Brewery (35); Longmont's Oskar Blues Brewery (36); and Denver's Breckenridge Brewery (45). The state also claims four brewers on the Top 50 Overall list: New Belgium (7), Odell (45), Rock Bottom (48), and Oskar Blues (49). MillerCoors, which is now based in Chicago, lands in the No. 2 spot.

Colorado ties for second in the number of breweries represented, with Oskar Blues hitting the list for the first time and Boulder Beer notably falling off (Denver Business Journal [3]).

Meanwhile, out-of-state brewers are desperately trying to break into the Colorado beer market, and some liquor stores are bumping out wine bottles in order to make room for them (Westword [4]). No doubt some of it will get picked up by the hardcore partiers at CU Boulder, which Playboy ranks as the nation's top party school (Daily Camera [5]). More, ahem, mature beer swillers can test their mettle with Colorado Beer Man Jonathan Shikes' top 10 manly beers challenge [6].