Brewers Association Releases Annual Craft Brewing Industry Production Report for 2021

So, wonder what the grey/blue color-coding on the map means. Both Iowa and New Jersey are blue, but no Top 50 breweries are listed for either state.

 

I was wondering the same thing.

 

I see the U.S. divided into blue & gray and I start to worry.

 

"The overall beer market* grew 1% by volume in 2021.
* Does not include FMBs/FSBs. With those included, total taxed-as-beer products increased 2%."

Interesting...

 

As I say every year when these numbers drop; New Glarus continues to amaze me. Single state distro, top quality beers, and they out produce some very big names. Amazing.

Also, watching Rogue drop like a rock every year is amazing too, in a different way.

 

Cheeseheads love their beer.

 

Amazing to see a brewery (Athletic Brewing) that produces strictly NA beer land in the top 50 craft breweries. I would not have thought they did enough volume to be placed that high.

 

Like border hoppers don't help. Yeah I'm lookin' at you!

Oh... wait.

 

Yuengling also got relocated from Pottsville to Scranton.

 

This made me take a closer look--I am amazed they are ranked so high. (Now why hasn't the economies of scale brought their price down?!)

 

That was the first thing I thought of. I was working on some smart aleck quip. Oh well..

 

Looks like they may have forgotten to update Iowa from last year as Toppling Goliath was in the top 50 in 2020. No idea on NJ.

 

Biggest movers (+/- four or more spots) year over year:

2020 link

Top 50 Craft List Rising:

• Athletic +24 (Out of the Top 50 in 2020 vs. 27 in 2021)
• Gordon Biersch +12 (27 in 2020 vs. 15 in 2021) -
• Creature Comforts +7 (48 vs. 41)
• Allagash +6 (29 vs. 23)
• Scofflaw +6 (Out of Top 50 vs. 45)
• Rogue +4 (37 vs. 33) @BBThunderbolt

Top 50 Craft List Declining:

• BrewDog -10 (41 in 2020, out of the Top 50 in 2021)
• 21st Amendment -8 (34 vs. 42)
• Modern Times -8 (40 vs. 48)
• Toppling Goliath -8 (43 vs. out of the Top 50)
• August Schell -7 (23 vs. 30)
• Ninkasi -7 (33 vs. 40)
• Two Roads -7 (44 vs. out)
• Harpoon -6 (15 vs. 21)
• Fremont -6 (45 vs. out)
• Alaskan -5 (26 vs. 31)
• Long Trail -5 (31 vs. 36)
• Troegs -4 (20 vs. 24)
• Kings & Convicts (Ballast Point) -4 (30 vs. 34)

Top 50 Overall U.S. Brewing Companies Rising:

• Athletic +15 (Out of the Top 50 vs. 36)
• Gordon Biersch +12 (36 vs. 24)
• Allagash +6 (38 vs. 32)
• Rogue +4 (46 vs. 42)

Top 50 Overall U.S. Brewing Companies Declining:

• Ninkasi -8 (42 vs. 50)
• August Schell -7 (32 vs. 39)
  
• Harpoon -6 (24 vs. 30)
• Alaskan -5 (35 vs. 40)
• Long Trail -5 (40 vs. 45)
• Troegs -4 (29 vs. 22)
• Kings & Convicts -4 (39 vs. 43)

 

They must also love Minhas. Oh my!

 

Didn't surprise me. Lot of people getting more heath conscious, especially older craft beer drinkers.
But in reality it's not a healthy drink. Unless you were drinking dozens of real beers a week.

 

What makes you say that? The calories?

 

Carbs/sugar. It would be healthier for me to drink 6 pack of Deschutes Wowza..at 4.2% and 4carbs
per can.

 

Seems like the old standby brewers from 2010-2015 timeframe are hard to move out of the top 50, but more current brewers that entered the list in last 10 years are more likely to move out. Not sure who’s still buying the older craft stuff in such volume to keep them so high on the list (brewers like Harpoon, Matts/Saranac etc). Then there are the usual suspect “head scratchers” that make this list every year like Minhaus and Gordon Biersh.

 

It's probably their contract brewing that increases their volume/sales.

 

I was under the impression that Cape May Brewing was going to be in the top 50 ln 2021.

 

Nah, you're thinking of Canadians. (I guess that was a long time ago now. I seem to remember that when Minhas was first added to "craft" list [along with other adjunct brewers] when the B.A. eliminated the all-malt flagship/majority requirement - wasn't the general belief was that their barrelage included the beer they export to Canada, which typically isn't listed as US "sales". I think? I should research that...)

Yeah, besides the B.A. listing the brewers' sales based on their self-reported figures and, in some cases, not publishing actual quantity at the request of the companies yet will still puts them between two other brewers' total there's also some fine print/footnotes that is missing from the published list, like:

On the contrary, tho', sometimes the figure...

I think when looking at these lists, especially the Top 50, it should be remember that the percentage share of "craft segment" of all but the Top 10 craft brewers in under 1%. Again, that's under 1% of the 13.1% of the total US beer market that is craft (according to the B.A., of course), so most are pretty small. And half of the Top 10 are combinations of breweries - BBC/DFH, DM, CANarchy, Gambrinus and ABV.

Seems I read they were estimating breaking the 50k bbl. mark, so pretty close to the Top 50 but I imagine a lot of that is seltzer, and might not be counted by the B.A.? Until the entire list is published in the New Brewer May/June edition, who knows. But NJ was "blue" in the 2020 list noted above by @Jaycase, too...

 

“ the Brewers Association also released its annual list of the top 50 producing craft brewing companies and overall brewing companies in the U.S., based on beer sales volume. Of the top 50 overall brewing companies in 2021, 40 were small”

This statement hurts my brain.

 

I'm still amused at how they continue to use the term "Regional" for breweries with "... annual beer production of between 15,000 and 6,000,000 barrels". Even with many of the larger ones with coast-to-coast distribution or, at least, multi-regional, some times nearly half the country.

 

Ah yes, the days when a 12 pack was a single serving.

 

I suspect the source of sales figures are the brewers themselves who may be including hard seltzer and similar stuff in their "beer sales".

 

What is the nutritional value of barley malt? From what I recall, the source of carbs in beer (malt) has a fairly decent nutritional profile.

It's not like you're drinking high fructose corn syrup.

 

I really don't get Stevens Point. I lived in Wisconsin for six years and they seemed as big as Tyranena or Capital. What am I missing?

 

As in you are not a fan of their beers?

Have you ever had Yuengling Traditional Lager? Do you "get" that beer?

Cheers!

 

Oh no!

Minhas isn't Wisconsin only, they contract brew shit for other suckers.

Sorry, turned my filter off.

 

Some of their specialty beers are well done. But yeah, they have a "following."

 

Even though, a lot of GB's contract labels to Trader Joe's has really diminished.

Who else do they contract for? I really like their German styles.

 

The North Coast canned beers around here are from GB (maybe all of their cans are?)- they even do it without using a 'dba' name.


I'd buy 'em if they were dated. (Maybe the cans are but not the 12 pk cartons).

Looks like they've also done Kirkland-branded beer for Costco (I guess it is?) and a brand called Hopsy - not sure who owns that one.

 

Trader Joe's is what came to my mind too, but I'm almost certain that I've read about others.

 

Interesting -- I didn't even look at the last six-pack of NC beer I bought.

I'll also have to look at Old Rasputin!

 

Good riddance!

 

These statistics got me thinking... @Todd are you gonna post the 2021 states for the site like you've done the past few years? I always look forward to that

 

Anything you've tried, either way, that you liked?

 

From Minhas?

Not.A.Thing.

Seriously, I've gone back to "give them a chance" now and again, but they've done something awful to the brewery in Monroe that churns out butter bombs with everything.

I haven't taken a chance on any of their labels in a couple years, so someone educate me -- but I tried them often over a period of about 6 years and finally gave up.