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The Top 50 Annotated 2009

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This is my fourth 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 year, no surprises
  2. MillerCoors; ditto for #2
  3. Pabst Brewing; ditto for #3
  4. D. G. Yuengling and Son; Moved up 1, over Boston Beer again
  5. Boston Beer Co.; Moved down 1 to behind Yuengling, where they’d been the 2 years prior to 2008
  6. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Same as last year
  7. New Belgium Brewing; Moved up 1
  8. Craft Brewers Alliance; Moved down 1
  9. Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Moved up 1
  10. High Falls Brewing; Moved down 1
  11. Minhas Craft Brewery; Up 3 over last year
  12. Pyramid Breweries (IBU); Down 1, after two years moving up
  13. Deschutes Brewery; Down 1
  14. F.X. Matt Brewing; Moved up 1, after dropping down 1 last year
  15. Magic Hat Brewing (IBU); Up 3 from #18 last year
  16. Boulevard Brewing; Same as last year, as others move all around them
  17. Harpoon Brewery; Up 3 from #20 last year
  18. Alaskan Brewing; Up 1 from #19 last year
  19. Bell’s Brewery; Up 2 from #21 last year
  20. Goose Island Beer; Up 2 from #22 last year
  21. Kona Brewing; Up 2 from #23 last year, after Shooting up 14 the previous year
  22. Full Sail Brewing; Down 5, primarily from removing contract beers from their total to give a more accurate figure of their own brands
  23. Stone Brewing; Up 5 again this year from 28, same jump as last year
  24. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Shot up 9 from #33, after being up 5 and 4 the two previous years
  25. Iron City Brewing; Plummeted 12, after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and moving production out of Pittsburgh
  26. August Schell Brewing; Down 1 from last year
  27. Brooklyn Brewery; Up 4 from #31 last year
  28. Abita Brewing; Up 2 from #30 last year
  29. Summit Brewing; Down 2 from #27 last year
  30. Anchor Brewing; Down 6 from #24
  31. Shipyard Brewing; Down 5 from #26 last year
  32. New Glarus Brewing; Same as last year
  33. Great Lakes Brewing; Up 4 from #37 last year
  34. Rogue Ales/Oregon Brewing; Up 2 from #36, canceling being Down 2 last year, and Up 2 the year before that
  35. Long Trail Brewing; Down 1 from #34 last year
  36. Lagunitas Brewing; Up 2 from #38 last year, after being up 3 for the prior 2 years
  37. Mendocino Brewing; Down 8 from #29 last year
  38. Gordon Biersch Brewing; Down 3 from #35
  39. Sweetwater Brewing; Up 1 from #40 last year
  40. Firestone Walker Brewing; Down 1 from #39 last year
  41. Victory Brewing; Up 5 from #46 last year
  42. Flying Dog Brewery; Down 1 from #41 last year
  43. BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Down 1 from #42 last year
  44. Odell Brewing; Up 1 from #45 last year
  45. Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants; Down 2 from #43 last year, a reversal of the year before
  46. Straub Brewery; Up 1 from #47 last year
  47. BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus); Down 3 from #44 last year
  48. Lost Coast Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
  49. Big Sky Brewing; Up 1 from #50 last year
  50. Stevens Point Brewery; Not in Top 50 last year

Two breweries are new to the list this year, Lost Coast and Stevens Point (who’ve transitioned to primarily all-malt brewing), while two dropped off the list; Cold Springs Brewery (fka Gluek Brewing) and Mac and Jack’s Brewery.

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



Comments

      • I have always wondered why they publish this list without including the sales volume information. Is this publicly available somewhere that I am unaware of? It would be nice to know what the gaps are between each position and how those change over time.

        • They do it the same way every year, or at least for a number of years now. First they publish the rankings online and the full list with the next issue of New Brewer, the BA’s trade magazine for the membership. If you’re not a member of the BA and in the industry, you should consider joining, though I believe subscriptions may be available for non-members, too.

          It’s stated right in the press release, as follows:

          The Association’s full 2009 industry analysis, which shows regional trends and sales by individual breweries, will be published in the May/June issue of The New Brewer, available on May 18.

          • Thanks J, I guess I skipped the press release and went straight to the raw numbers. My only complaint then would be that it would be nice to have access to production numbers online (maybe in a members only section) as well as numbers for breweries outside of the top 50. I have tried to research this information in the past and living in Oregon, the closest thing I have found locally is OLCC numbers for volume produced AND sold in Oregon.

  2. Had no idea D. G. Yuengling and Son was as large as it was.

    When my brother and I were collecting beer cans in the early 70’s, I thought for sure it would wind up like Schmidt’s of Philadelphia and scores of other breweries as they produced an awful lager and packaged it in a hideous white, red and gold can.

    Minhas’s numbers have to include their contract brewing figures. Surprised The Lion Company out of Wilkes-Barre, PA didn’t make the list.

  3. It amazes me a brewery like New Glarus that doesn’t even distribute outside of the state of Wisconsin is halfway up that list. Ahead of breweries that distribute to large swathes of the nation. Pretty awesome! Personally, I am very happy to see Yuengling jump past Boston Beer.. but’s that just my personal bias talking 🙂

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