As a Canadian, I feel it to be my patriotic duty to express my outright disgust at the thought that the USA has the richest brewing culture in the world.

poo-poo.

I will, however nominate Southern Ontario as having one of the richest brewing cultures in the world (and, I'm an Albertan). There are some really, really fantastic ales being made there, even with the evil, foreign controlled legislated-monopoly that is "the beer store"

The upside of having liquor so tightly regulated by the crown, is that craft brewers have a RIGHT to be in the marketplace, beyond sales volumes, and profit margains. This means that a lot of really good beers make it to market, which wouldn't be sold someplace with private liquor (like say, Alberta).