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.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev; #1 last six years, no surprises
- MillerCoors; ditto for #2
- Pabst Brewing; ditto for #3
- D. G. Yuengling and Son; Same as last year
- Boston Beer Co.; Same as last year
- North American Breweries; 2nd year on the list, up 2 from #8 last year
- Sierra Nevada Brewing; Down 1 from #6 last year
- New Belgium Brewing; Down 1 from #7 last year
- Craft Brewers Alliance; Same as last year, after dipping down 1 the previous two years
- Gambrinus Company; Same as last year, though now listed as Gambrinus instead of Spoetzl
- Deschutes Brewery; Same as last year
- Matt Brewing; Up 1, after moving down 1 last year
- Bell’s Brewery; Up 2 from #15 last year
- Minhas Craft Brewery; Same as last year, after dropping 2 the prior year
- Harpoon Brewery; Up 1 from #16 last year
- Lagunitas Brewing; Jumped up 10 from #26 last year, their second such jump in 2 years, having been at #36 two years back
- Boulevard Brewing; Same as last year
- Stone Brewing; Up 5 from #23 last year
- 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
- Brooklyn Brewery; Up 5 from #25 last year
- Alaskan Brewing; Down 1 from #20 last year
- Long Trail Brewing; Down 1 from #21 last year, after leaping up 14 from #35 the previous year
- August Schell Brewing; Down 1 from last year
- Shipyard Brewing; Up 4 from #28 last year
- Abita Brewing; Down 1 from last year
- World Brew/Winery Exchange; Up 11 from #37 last year
- Great Lakes Brewing; Up 4 from #31 last year
- New Glarus Brewing; Up 2 from #30 last year
- Full Sail Brewing; Down 2 from #27 last year
- Pittsburgh Brewing (fka Iron City); Up 3 from #33 last year
- Summit Brewing; Down 2 from #29
- Anchor Brewing; Same as last year
- Firestone Walker Brewing; Up 3 from #36 last year
- Cold Spring Brewing; Jumped up 13 from #47 last year
- SweetWater Brewing; Up 3 from #38 last year
- Rogue Ales Brewery; Down 1 from #35 last year
- Mendocino Brewing; Up 2 from #39 last year
- Flying Dog Brewery; Up 2 from #40 last year
- Victory Brewing; Up 2 from #41 last year
- CraftWorks Breweries & Restaurants (Gordon Biersch/Rock Bottom); Now combined, last year Gordon Biersch brewpubs were #42 and Rock Bottom was #48
- Oskar Blues Brewing; Up 8 from #49 last year
- Odell Brewing; Up 3 from #45 last year
- Stevens Point Brewery; Up 1 from #44 last year
- Ninkasi Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
- BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Down 2 from #45 last year
- Blue Point Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
- Bear Republic Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
- Goose Island Beer; Plummeted 30 from #18 last year, after selling their production brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev
- Lost Coast Brewery; Not in Top 50 last year
- 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.