Musings on the 2012 World Beer Cup

This morning upon reviewing my Twitter feed I found Brewpublic's link to the Oregon and Washington winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup and subsequently the complete list. Reviewing the list I only came across one winner from Minnesota, Summit Brewing for their Extra Pale Ale, the silver medal winner in Category 67: English-Style Pale Ale. Oregon breweries claimed 12 medals, Washington 10 and just for a Midwest perspective, Wisconsin took nine. So I'm wondering, what's up with Minnesota?

I see two possibilities. 1) There simply weren't that many entries from Minnesota breweries. Although the winners list seems huge (they did present 284 awards), there were 3,921 beers entered from 799 breweries. 2) Minnesota got snubbed. I have a hard time believing this to be the case because although there is a lot of good beer coming out of Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, there's a lot of good beer coming out of Minnesota, too.

So what do you think or what do you know? If you have another theory, let me know. Also, if you are in The Know I'd be interested to hear which other Minnesota breweries entered.