The Top 50 Annotated 2011

This is my sixth 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 six 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. North American Breweries; 2nd year on the list, up 2 from #8 last year
7. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Down 1 from #6 last year
8. New Belgium Brewing; Down 1 from #7 last year
9. Craft Brewers Alliance; Same as last year, after dipping down 1 the previous two years
10. Gambrinus Company; Same as last year, though now listed as Gambrinus instead of Spoetzl
11. Deschutes Brewery; Same as last year
12. Matt Brewing; Up 1, after moving down 1 last year
13. Bell’s Brewery; Up 2 from #15 last year
14. Minhas Craft Brewery; Same as last year, after dropping 2 the prior year
15. Harpoon Brewery; Up 1 from #16 last year
16. Lagunitas Brewing; Jumped up 10 from #26 last year, their second such jump in 2 years, having been at #36 two years back
17. Boulevard Brewing; Same as last year
18. Stone Brewing; Up 5 from #23 last year
19. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Same as last year, after shooting up 5 from #24 last year, being up 9, 5 and 4 the three previous years
20. Brooklyn Brewery; Up 5 from #25 last year
21. Alaskan Brewing; Down 1 from #20 last year
22. Long Trail Brewing; Down 1 from #21 last year, after leaping up 14 from #35 the previous year
23. August Schell Brewing; Down 1 from last year
24. Shipyard Brewing; Up 4 from #28 last year
25. Abita Brewing; Down 1 from last year
26. World Brew/Winery Exchange; Up 11 from #37 last year
27. Great Lakes Brewing; Up 4 from #31 last year
28. New Glarus Brewing; Up 2 from #30 last year
29. Full Sail Brewing; Down 2 from #27 last year
30. Pittsburgh Brewing (fka Iron City); Up 3 from #33 last year
31. Summit Brewing; Down 2 from #29
32. Anchor Brewing; Same as last year
33. Firestone Walker Brewing; Up 3 from #36 last year
34. Cold Spring Brewing; Jumped up 13 from #47 last year
35. SweetWater Brewing; Up 3 from #38 last year
36. Rogue Ales Brewery; Down 1 from #35 last year
37. Mendocino Brewing; Up 2 from #39 last year
38. Flying Dog Brewery; Up 2 from #40 last year
39. Victory Brewing; Up 2 from #41 last year
40. CraftWorks Breweries & Restaurants (Gordon Biersch/Rock Bottom); Now combined, last year Gordon Biersch brewpubs were #42 and Rock Bottom was #48
41. Oskar Blues Brewing; Up 8 from #49 last year
42. Odell Brewing; Up 3 from #45 last year
43. Stevens Point Brewery; Up 1 from #44 last year
44. Ninkasi Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
45. BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Down 2 from #45 last year
46. Blue Point Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
47. Bear Republic Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
48. Goose Island Beer; Plummeted 30 from #18 last year, after selling their production brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev
49. Lost Coast Brewery; Not in Top 50 last year
50. Narragansett Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year

Some new companies made the list, one from a merger — Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom — now CraftWorks Breweries & Restaurants, along with Bear Republic, Blue Point, Lost Coast (which had been on the list two years ago), Narragansett and Ninkasi.

Off the list was Straub, Independent Brewers United (IBU), which was swallowed up by North American Breweries, Kona Brewing, which was folded into the Craft Brewers Alliance, and individually Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom were combined into CraftWorks Breweries & Restaurants.

If you want to see the previous annotated lists for comparison, here is 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.