Portland is still considered Brewvana, but there are tons of good craft breweries all over the place now. There are about 5 here in my little Willamette Valley burg. Agree with Dr. Chicago about Mac & Jacks African Amber. Mighty fine ale. If you get to the south end of the valley check out Hop Valley, Oakshire, and Ninkasi. You will not be disappointed. Steelhead’s great too.
Also, within a few hours of Portland, there’s Rogue Ale in Newport, the Deshutes Brewery in Bend, and the aforementioned Full Sail in Hood River.
Are you referring to their location? Most of the good breweries in SD, outside of Ballast Point, are in North County. Pretty much the only reason for me to head up into boring ol’ suburbia.
You clearly have not enjoyed an Alesmith My Bloody Valentine or Horny Devil. I would actually put Stone even further down the list as far as beer quality (not that they’re bad but SD has some greats), but I do give them credit for really kicking off the craft brewing revolution in San Diego and establishing a national market for their beers.
Alesmith is a good brewery, but Stone has them beat hands down. Not even a contest.
Aren’t arguments over personal tastes fun? 
Sorry, that turns out not to be the case:
Population of Vermont July 2009 = 621,760
Breweries (listed above) = 8
ratio: one brewery per 77,720 citizens
Population of Oregon July 2009 = 3,825,657
Breweries (listed below) = 62
ratio: one brewery per 61,704 citizens
4th Street Brewing Co.
10 Barrel Brewing Co.
Alameda Brewhouse
Ambacht Brewing Co.
Amnesia Brewing Company
Astoria Brewing Company / Wet Dog Café
Barley Brown’s Brewpub
Beer Valley Brewing Co.
Bend Brewing Co.
Big Horse Brewery
Bill’s Tavern & Brewhouse
Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery
Bridgeport Brewpub
Calapooia Brewing Co.
Caldera Brewing Co
Cascade Lakes Brewing
Deschutes Brewery
Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom
Elliot Glacier Public House
Eugene City Brewery
Fanno Creek Brewpub
Fort George Brewery + Public House
Full Sail Brewing Company
Golden Valley Brewery and Pub
Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Heater Allen Brewery
Hop Valley Brewing
Hopworks Urban Brewery
Laurelwood Brewing Co.
Lompoc Brewing
Lucky Labrador Brewing
MacTarnahan’s
The Mash Tun Brewpub
McMenamins
Mia and Pia’s Pizzeria & Brewhouse
Mt. Hood Brewing
Ninkasi Brewing Co
Oakshire Brewing
Old Market Pub & Brewery
Oregon Trail Brewing
Pelican Pub & Brewery
Raccoon Lodge and Brewpub
Pale Horse Brewing
Rock Bottom Brewery
Rogue Ales
Roots Organic Brewing Co.
Seven Brides Brewing
Siletz Ales
Silver Moon Brewing
Southern Oregon Brewing Co.
Standing Stone Brewing Co.
Steelhead Brewing
Terminal Gravity Brewery
The Creamery Brewpub and Grill
The Ram Restaurant & Brewery
Three Creeks Brewing Co.
Upright Brewing
Vertigo Brewing
Wakonda Brewing Co.
Walkabout Brewery
Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
Wild River Brewing & Pizza
It’s to the point in Oregon that towns like Hood River (population 2009 6,925) have three breweries within walking distance downtown: Full Sail, Double Mountain and Big Horse. Towns as small as Enterprise (pop. 1,975) and Parkdale (pop. 400) have their own brewpubs. (Terminal Gravity and Elliot Glacier, respectively.)
Let me call your attention to the Oregon Brewer’s Festival an absolute must if you’re planning a trip here in the summer. A tent city springs up on the grass along the Willamette River in the heart of downtown Portland and much good fun is had by all.
I will agree with many posters above that the microbrewery movement has spread to just about every corner of the country, and there are wonderful surprises to be had in small brewpubs everywhere.
MY FAV!!! 
IIRC, British beer guru Michael Jackson enjoyed beer from the NW. He commented that there are places that can match the quality but rarely can they match the quality among such a wide variety of beers than in the Pacific Northwest.
Depends on what you like. Mac & Jack’s is okay but not superlative IMHO. Although, after I relocate to Seattle, I will have to try the brewery.
Anchor Steam is still the Amber by which all Ambers must be judged. 
And Longmont is on the way to Ft. Collins if you’re heading from Boulder, and they have the most excellent Left Hand Brewery. Make sure you’re going to the brewery itself - there’s also a brew pub called Left Hand (at least there used to be, 5-6 years ago) and it’s not the same as the brewery.
I agree with all the Fat Tire dislike. It was never all that good, but it got really popular.
On a completely different note, I was prepared to be disappointed beer-wise when we moved from Colorado to Michigan, but as it turns out, there’s a lot of excellent beers here in the northern midwest as well. Bell’s, Dark Horse, Jolly Pumpkin, Short’s, New Glarus, and many more definitely hold up or exceed the quality of beer we got in the west.
Let’s not forget the other Portland. Some say Portland, Maine is actually the better Portland for beer, which is debatable but it gives Oregon a run for its money. Maine has (I believe) the longest established microbrew scene outside of the west coast, and it’s fantastic. Shipyard, Geary’s, Allegash, Casco Bay, to name a few, all great breweries, and a good number of Maine beers never make it outside of New England.
The brewery scene there grew up in relative isolation, so they tend to buck a lot of the trends found in other brewing cities, eschewing the dry citrusy grapefruity hops finish that characterizes so many west coast beers in favor of a more subtle, balanced English approach. Shipyard, Geary’s, and Maine Beer Co, and probably some others, were founded with help from Alan Pugsley, the head brewer at the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, England, which was the UK’s first modern microbrewery. So if you like English beer, and especially if you prefer beers with a stronger malt backbone than most American micros, Portland, ME is where it’s at.
The recent Australian International Beer Awards has a PDF of all the beers entered. The majority of US beers are from Oregon, Colorado and California but there are others. Several were prize winners.
Yeah, and some people put catsup on their hot dogs.
Not to turn this into a pissing contest, but if you had done a quick google search on VT breweries as I’m sure you did for Oregon breweries, you’d find very quickly that there are 21 breweries that are members of the VT brewers Association, which puts VT at one brewery per 29,607 citizens. bouv was listing breweries in and immediately near Burlington, VT, which is the population center of the state.
At any rate, on the East coast, you can’t do much better than Burlington, and if you’re willing to drive an hour and a half, almost every brewery in the state is accessible from here. I’ve also heard good things about Portland, ME, though I’ve never been.
If anyone does come to VT for beer, getting tickets to the VT Brewers Festival in July is highly recommended. Scads of VT and other regional brewers.
I will at least give the “other Portland” props for Shipyard Brewing. Their Chamberlain Pale Ale is outstanding! One of my “must keep stocked” beers.
And that’s not even close to being an exhaustive list. There are new independent brewpubs cropping up overnight like chanterelles after a rainstorm.
While the east coast still lags a bit behind the west, it has a vibrant craft brew scene. There are hubs in Boston, Maine, and Vermont, with lots of breweries scattered throughout PA and upstate NY.
That being said, the vast majority of the rare, expensive, good brews that many beer fanatics love (cask aged beers, sours, wild ales, etc) are produced on the west coast, but I’ll give it 5-10 years before the east catches up with that.
It looks like OR is 3 and VT is 1 as of 2008 (Click for pdf, I didn’t link directly).
You don’t like Fat Tire, but Sierra Nevada Heartburn Ale is good to you? Some people…
…have tastebuds? 
Also in Redmond, WA is Black Raven Brewing Company. They have a nice array and do a tasting tray of 4 or 5 that is a great way to find the one you want a pint or two of They don’t offer food, but a pizza company has their menus there and will deliver.
The Elysian on Capitol Hill (Seattle) has a nice menu and their Dragons Tooth Porter is quite nice.
I’m on board with those who are underwhelmed by Fat Tire. It’s fine, and I’ll certainly drink it in preference to many other beers, but it’s not very exciting. I do like many of the other things that New Belgium does, though.
What about Florida? When I lived in Orlando, there was only one craft brewery, on the grounds of Walt Disney World.