Update: Please see update from Jay Brooks in the comments with corrections on how these week-long beer fests got started. Also, added Louisville. Thanks, Jedi.

In September of 2008, I wrote about how “Beer Week” was starting to pick up steam in the U.S. with prime examples being Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York City. 18 months later there are nearly 20 cities that host Beer Week.

That’s right. There are enough week-long beer events scattered over 2010 to cover over 1/3 of the calendar year.

How did it all start? American Beer Month. Stan Hieronymus reported on Real Beer a few years back, “The Brewers Association conducted the promotion for six years, the last in 2005.” The BA then whittled it down to American Craft Beer Week.

Oregon was the only state to continue the tradition with its own Beer Month. Philadelphia then got the whole thing beer week thing going on a city-level in March of 2008. Indiana followed with a beer week of its own in July 2008 but appears to have dropped the week-long fest in 2009. New York City joined Philadelphia as the second city in September 2008 and the rest is history.

Update 2: To clarify, Oregon started Oregon Beer Week in 2005 and upped it to Oregon Beer Week in 2006.

Update 1: Ohio was among the first states with its own beer week. I was able to track down references for Ohio Beer Week dating back to 2006 though it may have started earlier. San Francisco was the first city with a beer week-esque schedule of events with its Beerapalooza dating back to 2003. [Thanks, Jay!]

San Francisco Beer Week is now in the books as the first week-long festival to take place this year. Up next is Sacramento Beer Week. Here is the rest of the 2010 schedule (w/ a few major events tossed in):

2010 Schedule

San Francisco: 2/5 to 2/14

Sacramento: 2/22 to 2/28

Charlotte: 3/18 to 3/28

Craft Brewers Conference (Chicago): 4/7 to 4/10

St. Louis: 4/24 to 5/2

Seattle: 5/13 to 5/23

Chicago: 5/17 to 5/23

American Craft Beer Week: 5/17 to 5/23

Philadelphia: 6/4 to 6/13

Savor Craft Beer/Food Experience (Washington D.C.): 6/5

Boston: 6/11 to 6/20

Oregon Craft Beer Month (Portland): 7/1 to 7/31

Ohio Brew Week (Athens): 7/11 to 7/17

Milwaukee: 9/12 to 9/18 (competing with GABF and what will likely be Denver Beer Week. Really??)

Denver: 9/16 to 9/18

Baltimore: 10/7 to 10/17

Louisville: 10/16 to 10/23

San Diego: 11/5 to 11/14

Not Yet Scheduled

Washington D.C.: 8/16/09 to 8/21/09

New York City: 9/11/09 to 9/20/09

Denver: 9/18/09 to 9/27/09

Los Angeles: 10/15/09 to 10/25/09

Detroit: 10/16/09 to 10/24/09

Syracuse: 11/1/09 to 11/7/09

Planning appears to be underway for Atlanta Beer Week and Raleigh Beer Week. Asheville was named Co-Beer City USA with Portland last year. I wonder if we will hear of Asheville Beer Week before the end of 2010?

Largest Cities without Beer Week (followed by U.S. size rank per City-data.com)

Houston (4)
Phoenix (5)
San Antonio (7)
Dallas (9)

Lots of South/Southwest (or Texas) representation here. Maybe if no one city in Texas has the resources or enough interest to pull it off, beer people from the three or four cities above could help coordinate Texas Beer Week? There is no doubt that it would give craft beer great exposure in the Lonestar State.