Inside Ipswich Ale Brewery's taproom. Photo courtesy of John Phelan / CCSA 4.0

When Jeremy Goldberg and his partner opened Cape Ann Brewing Co. in Gloucester in 2004, it was the only microbrewery on Cape Ann, and one of a few in the region.

The current taphouse, located on Rogers Street in what was an appliance store, was a $1 million investment in 2008 that allowed Cape Ann Brewing to expand its brewing and pub. The pub looks out on the harbor and seats 150.

Soon Agape Brewing Community will join the neighborhood at 10 Blackburn Center in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Center, and the Great Marsh Brewing Co. in Essex, slated to open later in 2019 at the former site of the Fortune Palace on the Main Street Causeway. And that’s just on Cape Ann.

The new breweries would join well-established ones such as Ipswich Ale, the granddaddy of craft breweries in New England, and Notch Brewing in Salem. Notch may soon be joined in Salem by a microbrewery, called East Regiment Beer Co., that is under construction on Church Street.

Katie Stinchon, executive director of the nonprofit Massachusetts Brewers Guild, said there are more than 160 breweries in the state, with 30 slated to open next year. When the association started in 2007, there were 34.

“Beverly, within the next year, is going to have four or five breweries in their downtown,” said Rob Dunn of Lynn, who is trying to open Granite Coast Brewing Co. in Peabody. “You have got to have a way to do tourism between the locations that just helps each other out.”

Great Marsh Brewing owner John Collins, a former software executive who lives in Hamilton, said there is so much quality craft beer out there, that the days of a brewery trying to distinguish itself as a “marquis beer” are over. He said breweries are better off trying to create an environment and a destination.

“Create a cool vibe, create a reason to hang out there,” he said. Consumers also like variety, so the more breweries there are, the better.