This is my fifth annual annotated list of the Top 50 so you can see who moved up and down, who was new to the list and who dropped off. So here is this year’s list again annotated with how they changed compared to last year.

1. Anheuser-Busch InBev; #1 last five years, no surprises
2. MillerCoors; ditto for #2
3. Pabst Brewing; ditto for #3
4. D. G. Yuengling and Son; Same as last year
5. Boston Beer Co.; Same as last year
6. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Same as last year
7. New Belgium Brewing; Same as last year
8. North American Breweries; new entity
9. Craft Brewers Alliance; Moved down 1 for 2nd straight year
10. Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Moved down 1
11. Deschutes Brewery; Up 2
12. Independent Brewers United (IBU); Same as last year, with a new name
13. F.X. Matt Brewing; Moved down 1, after moving up 1 last year
14. Minhas Craft Brewery; Down 2 over last year
15. Bell’s Brewery; Up 4 from #19 last year
16. Harpoon Brewery; Up 1 from #17 last year
17. Boulevard Brewing; Down 1 from #16 last year
18. Goose Island Beer; Up 2, for 2nd straight year, from #20 last year
19. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Shot up 5 from #24, after being up 9, 5 and 4 the three previous years
20. Alaskan Brewing; Down 2 from #18 last year
21. Long Trail Brewing; Leapt up 14 from #35 last year
22. August Schell Brewing; Up 4 from last year
23. Stone Brewing; Same as last year, though they were up 5 each of last two years
24. Abita Brewing; Up 4 from #28 last year
25. Brooklyn Brewery; Up 2 from #27 last year
26. Lagunitas Brewing; Jumped up 10 from #36 last year
27. Full Sail Brewing; Down 5 for the 2nd straight year
28. Shipyard Brewing; Down 3 from #31 last year
29. Summit Brewing; Same as last year
30. New Glarus Brewing; Up 2 from #32 last year
31. Great Lakes Brewing; Up 2 from #31 last year
32. Anchor Brewing; Down 2 from #30
33. Iron City Brewing; Down 8, after dropping 12 last year, after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and moving production out of Pittsburgh
34. Kona Brewing; Fell 13 after being up 2 last year, and 14 the previous year
35. Rogue Ales/Oregon Brewing; Down 1, after being up 2 last year, canceling being down 2 the previous year, and up 2 the year before that, essentially hovering
36. Firestone Walker Brewing; Up 4 from #40 last year
37. Winery Exchange Inc. / World Brew; Novato CA; new to the list this year
38. Sweetwater Brewing; Up 1 from #39 last year
39. Mendocino Brewing; Down 2 from #7 last year, after falling 8 the previous year
40. Flying Dog Brewery; Up 2 from #42 last year
41. Victory Brewing; Same as last year
42. Gordon Biersch Brewing; Down 4 from #38 last year
43. BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Down 1 from #43 last year
44. Stevens Point Brewery; Up 6 from #50 last year
45. Odell Brewing; Down 1 from #44 last year
46. BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus); Up 1 from #47 last year
47. Cold Spring Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
48. Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants; Down 3 from #45 last year
49. Oskar Blues Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
50. Straub Brewery; Down 3 from #46 last year

Some new companies made the list, two from mergers — North American Breweries and Independent Brewers United — along with Winery Exchange Inc. as a result of doing a contract private label beer for the Walgreen’s pharmacy chain, Big Flats.

Two breweries are new to the list this year, Oskar Blues and Cold Spring Brewing again, who fell off last year but had been on the list the year before that under their former name, Gluek Brewing. Two more are off the list, Big Sky Brewing and Lost Coast Brewing, who had just cracked the list last year.

If you want to see the previous annotated lists for comparison, here is 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.