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The number is closer to 100. OTOH,
allagash, oskar blues, rogue, stone,
ommegang, avery, great divide,
southampton, 3 floyds, surly, dogfish head, smuttynose, thomas hooker, victory, and bear republic fill out your list.
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I think we just have different standards for what counts as an excellent brewery, for me an excellent brewery means at least one world class beer and one excellent one. Also I just said 15 off the top of my head. From your list I'd say the excellent breweries are Stone, 3 floyds, DFH. Oskar blues is close but doesn't have enough different beers, nothing rogue has is truly world class, hooker's only good beer is their dopplebock, victory could be in the same class as above if you think storm king is excellent, I'm fairly down on it.
My list for the US would look something like,
Stone
Port/Lost Abbey
Russian River
Hair of the Dog
DFH
3 Floyds
New Glarus
Great Divide
Alesmith (best brewery in the world)
North Coast
Bells
Founders
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Your list is good, Snowden, but the three I bolded above definitely meet your definition. If you don't dig them because you don't like Belgian-style beer, that's fine, but Ommegang, Southampton, and Allagash all meet or exceed your requirements of having one world-class beer and one excellent beer. I think you could debate the presence of Avery, and the somewhat more worthy Rogue on this list. I'm not familiar with Thomas Hooker at all.
Edit: to add,
RDH,
Nice post
OP,
Here's the best source for beer on 2+2.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...e=0&fpart=1
Take some of RDH's advice and peruse the index in there for styles you might like.