The small brewer
is on the rise in the United
States
10 Biggest Small Beer Brewers in the U.S.
This list was created in November of 2013 and may be incomplete or outdated
There were roughly
80 brewers in the U.S. in
the early 1980s and about 1,600 breweries in America United
States
The Brewers
Association craft beer group credits most of that growth to "craft"
brewers, who saw sales grow 15% in volume and 17% in dollars last year even as
the entire beer industry grew by less than 1.5% after years of post-recession
losses. Meanwhile, "craft" beer's retail value hit $10 billion for
the first time in 2012.
Yet that includes
only the breweries the Brewers Association considers "craft" under
its pedantic and ever-changing definition of
the term. Of the nation's 2,538 breweries, the association says only 2,480 are
"craft." That leaves 58 brewers who fall outside that definition.
The nation's
two largest brewers -- Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller/MolsonCoors joint
venture MillerCoors -- are obviously out. Just as well: A-B has seen sales
slump since the start of the recession and ended its string of bad luck last
year with a scant 0.7% sales uptick. MillerCoors, meanwhile, saw U.S.
That leaves 56
breweries the Brewers Association doesn't feel are part of the gang. There's a little list to
consult just in case you're curious about who's "craft" and who's
"crafty." That list includes brewers such as
Minnesota-based August Schell, which
was not only founded in the late 1800s and persevered through prohibition
without selling out or changing its recipe, but saw demand increase from 89,000
barrels in 2008 to 132,000 barrels this year.
In fact, there are
more than a few brewers on the Brewers Association's list that produce fewer
than 3 million barrels a year and have shown remarkable growth over the past
five years or so. But the definition of "craft" is too narrow to
accommodate them and, to small brewers' detriment, discounts the true growth of
the small brewing industry here in the United States
Tax-related beer legislation in
Congress would change beer brewing categories and, ultimately, kill the term "craft beer," but
lawmakers have shown as little will to pass those bills as they have to do much
of anything lately.
Instead, it falls on
industry observers to take a closer look at the numbers and see which brewers
are really driving growth in the industry. The folks at Beer Marketer's Insights play no
favorites and focus primarily on the industry as a business made up of several
segments.
They've come up with
a category known solely as "small/specialty brewers" that separates
small U.S.
Consulting their
data -- and only their data -- we've come up with a list of the 10 most
successful small breweries in the country. Regional brewers, "craft"
brewers and brewers who fell from craft grace all make the cut. Feel free to
debate the merits over a can, bottle or pint, but just realize that all of the
brewers below are making the bar and beer cooler more diverse, fun places for
beer drinkers to be:
Petaluma,
2012 production: 235,000 barrels
It's been one wild
ride for Lagunitas founder Tony Magee since he opened his first brewer in 1993
in Lagunitas , Calif. Marin County
surroundings quickly and moved the whole works to Petaluma Chicago
2012 production: 253,000 barrels
A member of the
fabled "Class of '88" that included Fort Bragg ,
Calif. 's North
Coast , Chicago 's
Goose Island ,
Cleveland 's Great Lakes and Deschutes' Oregon neighbor Rogue Ales, Deschutes
has grown into the largest of all of them -- at least the ones not owned by
A-B. It's still growing, opening a brewpub and small-batch brewhouse in
Portland's Pearl District in 2008 and adding an extra 105,000 barrels of
production capacity to its Bend facility just last year. Though Deschutes still
distributes to only 21 states -- and in Philadelphia
Shiner, Texas
2012 production: 524,000 barrels
Do not discount Texas Austin ,
Houston , Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio Texas country musicians,
South By Southwest and Austin City Limits attendees and Texas BridgePort , the California-based production facility of Austria 's Trumer Pils and the defunct Pete's
Wicked craft beer label -- Shiner is available in 40 states and still spreading
the Texas
2012 production: 675,000 barrels
Brothers Kurt and
Rob Widmer founded Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland , Ore. Seattle Goose Island Corona
2012 production: 765,000 barrels
Co-founder and
brewery head Kim Jordan just finished selling the company's shares to her
employees to ensure its longevity and independence. Its growth from 495,000
barrels in 2008 will only increase further once the brewery's new facility in Asheville , N.C. Western
U.S. brewing techniques remains intact. If its recent series of
commercials on Hulu are any
indication, expect to see a lot more of New Belgium in the near future.
2012 production: 966,000 barrels
Ken Grossman started
this brewery nearly 35 years ago and has watched it expand into a nationwide
brand with a sprawling lineup. Tastes may have shifted from its Pale Ale to its
Torpedo IPA and the company itself is spreading its California
roots to a second brewing facility in Asheville ,
N.C. , in the near future, but Sierra Nevada has managed to flirt with the 1 million
barrel mark while keeping its independent spirit intact. The company is still
committed to its pioneering environmental initiatives, is still pushing
boundaries with new specialty brands and will still be in Grossman family hands
when the next generation begins running the Asheville location. Sierra Nevada has been around long enough to be the craft
beer of choice for some new drinkers' dads. It's remained relevant enough to
become one of that new generation's favorites as well.
Seattle
2012 production: 1.425 million barrels
We warned you that Beer Marketer's Insights didn't play
favorites. This is a flavored malt beverage line owned by a Canadian wine
company, but its effects on the beer industry and the alcoholic beverage
industry in general trump its beer credentials. A recent Nielsen survey found that Millennials, women
and just about everyone but white men are more likely to pick up a flavored
malt beverage than they are to knock back a craft beer. Why? Because Mike's
Hard Lemonade doesn't berate its drinkers for enjoying a refreshing beverage
that tastes like fruit. It doesn't imply that they should be having a
"real" drink instead or insist that adding a fruit flavor to a
beverage with alcohol in it is "everything that's wrong with this country."
Instead of
snickering at someone drinking a raspberry wheat beer or muttering about how
brewing blueberries and watermelon into beer are equivalent to putting a lime
on a light lager -- it isn't, at all -- the folks behind Mike's Hard Lemonade
just put out a whole bunch of sweet flavors and watched their production ramp
up from 835,000 barrels just five years ago.
While snooty,
insecure brewers and their sycophants could just laugh off Mike's and the like
a few years ago, now they have to approach it as a real threat. Mike's has
expanded into the hard cider market that is already taking a large,
gender-equitable gulp out of the beer market. It's also getting into the beer
business by experimenting with a line of shandies, which MillerCoors has
already found success with thanks to its Leinenkugel's brand. Mike's Hard
Lemonade is making a large, diverse group of friends that should be making the
brewers below it nervous. That they and their fans would rather insult Mike's
in the slam books than take a lesson from it and offer drinkers something they
might actually want speaks volumes about how long it will take to clear up some
of "craft" beer's demographic difficulties.
Rochester, N.Y.
2012 production: 2.715 barrels
Even if this
umbrella company and its brands were considered craft, it wouldn't do the craft
beer world any favors. This mess of a beer company is the result of Magic Hat's
acquisition of Pyramid Brewing, KPS Capital Partners' acquisition of those
breweries and others and Costa Rican food and beverage company Florida Ice
& Farm's acquisition of all of it last year.
Even if stripped
down to its most craft parts, North American Breweries would still have its
issues. Back in 2008, Magic Hat and Pyramid combined produced 336,000 barrels
of their product. Last year they put out 337,000 barrels. That's only after
production slipped as low as 322,000 barrels in 2009. With Magic Hat and
Pyramid largely stripped of the brands, styles, personalities and owners that
made them beloved in Vermont , the Pacific
Northwest and elsewhere, they've become the equivalent of Costco's generic Kirkland
The sad fact is that
those brands don't even do most of the heavy lifting for NAB. That task falls
to the Genesee, Labatt's and Dundee brands
cherished -- or at least drunk for a reasonable price -- by Western and Central
New Yorkers. Those regional favorites still account for roughly 2.4 million
barrels of production, which is more than double the output of all but one
"craft" brewer in the U.S.
The fact is that
those core brands have more presence and loyalty on their home turf than
Pyramid does in brewery-saturated Washington
Boston
2012 production: 2.727 million barrels
Back in 1984,
founder Jim Koch brewed his first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Nearly 20
years later, the company he founded isn't just about Sam Adams or Boston
The Boston
brewery serves largely as a research-and-development facility, while much of
the production takes place at larger breweries in Cincinnati
and Pennsylvania 's Lehigh County Burlington ,
Vt.
But Boston Beer has
far more interests than its beer-specific name suggests. Back in 2000, it
launched the Twisted Tea line of hard iced teas that continues to boost Boston
Beer's bottom line to this day. Just last year, the company launched its Angry
Orchard line of hard ciders that was successful enough to become the best
selling line of hard ciders in the country less than a year into its existence.
The Brewers
Association still considers Boston Beer "craft" and changed its
definition of that word to accommodate the growing giant, but Beer Marketer's Insights has it
straddling both its small and major supplier categories. Considering its
identity crisis is the crux of the debate between two competing pieces of beer
tax legislation in Congress -- where the 6 million-barrel limit created by BA
for Boston Beer is considered the cutoff for "craft" brewers --
publicly traded Boston Beer will continue to find itself in the tough spot
between its small, kitchen-brewed past and its large-scale future.
Pottsville,
2012 production: 2.79 million barrels
Founded in 1829,
Yuengling is the oldest active brewery in the country. It skated through
Prohibition as a dairy and is still owned by family member Dick Yuengling to
this day.
It is the largest
U.S.-owned brewer in operation and has breweries in Pottsville
and Port Carbon, Pa. , as well as Tampa , Fla.
Despite being a
member of the Brewers Association and despite Dick Yuengling's appearance at
Brewers Association events, though, Yuengling isn't considered craft. BA
doesn't like the fact that Yuengling uses adjuncts such as corn in its beer,
though German and Czech immigrant brewers commonly used maize in their original
recipes in the 1800s to make up for the shortcomings of inferior U.S. barley.
It also doesn't seem to like its use of a light lager as its flagship beer.
For its part,
Yuengling doesn't seem to give a damn. It partners with small Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
That's basically
akin to building Sierra Nevada over a
five-year span in fewer states. When you're that beloved of a regional brewer
and have built your success on your beer alone, who cares what anyone but your
drinkers thinks about you?
ByJason Notte THE STREET
Original Article
ByJason Notte THE STREET
Original Article
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