Top 50 Breweries For 2023

April 17, 2024 By Jay Brooks

The Brewers Association yesterday announced the top 50 breweries and craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2023, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For a number of years now, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. In the past I’ve posted the two lists separately, but last year decided going forward to present them together since the two are increasingly intermingled.

I confess I used to look more forward to this list every year as it represented greater and wider acceptance of craft in the marketplace, but it doesn’t seem to hold the same thrill for me anymore, perhaps I’m getting jaded. Part of my malaise I think comes from the fact that consolidation has become such a part of the current landscape that it’s in a sense how things were before the rise of craft beer. There’s nothing inherently wrong this, it’s a natural part in the evolution of any industry. But as an old-timer in this nascent craft industry, it was the independent spirit of the early brewery pioneers that built the foundation of today’s beer scene. And seeing it contract into mini-conglomerates and empires, however natural, is not very pleasant to watch. Of the top ten, six of them are groups of two or more breweries, and number one is Yuengling, which is an old guard brewery that’s small and independent in name only, not in spirit (that’s not a knock on Yuengling, at least it’s not meant to be). It’s understandable, but no less disheartening, and will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future. Anyway, here is this year’s craft brewery list:

Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies

Rank	Company	City	State
1	D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc	Pottsville	PA
2	Boston Beer Co	Boston, Milton	MA, DE
3	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	Chico	CA
4	Duvel Moortgat USA	Paso Robles, Kansas City, Cooperstown	CA, MO, NY
5	Gambrinus	Shiner, Berkeley	TX, CA
6	Tilray Beer Brands	Atlanta, Montauk, San Diego, Bend, Seattle, Portland, Breckenridge, Patchogue	GA, NY, CA, OR, WA, OR, CO, NY
7	Artisanal Brewing Ventures	Downingtown, Lakewood, Brooklyn	PA, NY, NY
8	Brooklyn Brewery	Brooklyn	NY
9	Monster Brewing	Longmont, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Comstock, Dallas	CO, FL, UT, MI, TX
10	Athletic Brewing Company	Milford	CT
11	New Glarus Brewing Co	New Glarus	WI
12	Deschutes Brewery	Bend	OR
13	Matt Brewing Co	Utica	NY
14	Gordon Biersch Brewing Co	San Jose	CA
15	Allagash Brewing Company	Portland	ME
16	Georgetown Brewing Co	Seattle	WA
17	Great Lakes Brewing Company	Cleveland	OH
18	Harpoon Brewery	Boston	MA
19	Stevens Point Brewery	Stevens Point	WI
20	Three Floyds Brewing	Munster	IN
21	Pittsburgh Brewing Co	Pittsburgh	PA
22	Rhinegeist Brewery	Cincinnati	OH
23	Narragansett Brewing Co	Pawtucket	RI
24	August Schell Brewing Company	New Ulm	MN
25	Odell Brewing Co	Fort Collins	CO
26	Craft ‘Ohana (Maui/Modern Times)	Kihei, San Diego	HI, CA
27	Troegs Brewing Co	Hershey	PA
28	Fiddlehead Brewing	Shelburne	VT
29	Minhas Craft Brewery	Monroe	WI
30	Kings & Convicts Brewing	San Diego	CA
31	Alaskan Brewing Co.	Juneau	AK
32	Kona Brewing Hawaii	Kailua-Kona	HI
33	Abita Brewing Co	Covington	LA
34	Creature Comforts Brewing Co.	Athens	GA
35	Great Frontier Holdings	Eugene, Portland	OR, OR
36	BrewDog Brewing Co	Canal Winchester	OH
37	Summit Brewing Co	St. Paul	MN
38	Jack’s Abby Brewing, LLC	Framingham	MA
39	Revolution Brewing	Chicago	IL
40	Montucky Cold Snacks	Bozeman	MT
41	Saint Arnold Brewing Co	Houston	TX
42	Lost Coast Brewery	Eureka	CA
43	Surly Brewing Company	Minneapolis	MN
44	Rogue Ales Brewery	Newport	OR
45	United States Beverage LLC	Salt Lake City, Elmsford	UT, NY
46	Shipyard Brewing Co	Portland	ME
47	Pizza Port	Carlsbad	CA
48	Coronado Brewing Co	Coronado	CA
49	Drake’s Brewing Co	San Leandro	CA
50	IndieBrew	Atlanta, Nashville	GA, TN

The data was also accompanied by the following press release:

Boulder, Colo. — The Brewers Association (BA)—the trade association representing small and independent American craft brewers—today released annual production figures for the U.S. craft brewing industry.
The number of operating craft breweries continued to climb in 2023, reaching an all-time high of 9,683, including 2,071 microbreweries, 3,467 brewpubs, 3,900 taproom breweries, and 245 regional craft breweries. The total U.S. operating brewery count was 9,812, up from 9,730 in 2022. Throughout the year, there were 495 new brewery openings and 418 closings. Openings decreased for a second consecutive year, with the trend reflecting a more mature market. The closing rate increased in 2023 but continued to remain relatively low, at approximately 4%.
Driven by the growing number of breweries and a continued shift to hospitality-focused business models, craft brewers directly employed 191,421 people in 2023, a 1.1% increase from 2022.
“2023 was another competitive and challenging year for small and independent brewers,” said Bart Watson, vice president of strategy and chief economist of the Brewers Association. “Nevertheless, even as growth has downshifted, small brewers have proved quite resilient, as seen in the increase in number of breweries, relatively low closing rates, and gains in onsite sales and jobs.”
Collectively, small and independent brewers produced 23.4 million barrels of beer in 2023, a decline of 1.0% from 2022³, though craft’s overall beer market share by volume grew to 13.3%, up from 13.1% in 2022 as craft’s declines were smaller than overall beer volume losses.
The overall beer market shrank 5.1% by volume in 2023. Retail dollar value was estimated at $28.6 billion, representing a 24.5% market share and 3% growth over a comparable value in 2022. Sales growth was stronger than volume primarily due to pricing but also due to slightly stronger onsite sales growth versus distribution.
“As always, the beverage alcohol market and consumer demand continue to evolve,” added Watson. ”Many brewers are accordingly updating their operations to match those changes, focusing on their business models, go-to-market strategies, and brand strategies to help their businesses match those shifts.”

And here’s the second list, which is the Top 50 Brewing Companies Overall, which means all companies, not just the ones eligible for membership in the Brewers Association, which excludes from membership breweries that are too large or with large ownership structures, among other specific qualifications.

In this list, the top ten are either a group of brewery businesses or quite larger and/or old enough to predate the 1980s. Number 11, Sierra Nevada, is the first actual craft brewery on the list. But overall the list is so filled with complicated business arrangements that there are 26 footnotes for 50 entries.

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

Rank	Company	City	State
1	Anheuser-Busch Inc	St. Louis	MO
2	MolsonCoors	Chicago	IL
3	Constellation	Chicago	IL
4	Heineken USA	White Plains	NY
5	Pabst Brewing Co	Los Angeles	CA
6	Diageo	Norwalk	CT
7	D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc	Pottsville	PA
8	FIFCO USA	Rochester	NY
9	Kirin-Lion	Fort Collins, Comstock	CO, MI
10	Boston Beer Co	Boston, Milton	MA, DE
11	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	Chico	CA
12	Sapporo-Stone Brewing	Escondido	CA
13	Duvel Moortgat USA	Paso Robles, Kansas City, Cooperstown	CA, MO, NY
14	Gambrinus	Shiner, Berkeley	TX, CA
15	Mahou San Miguel	Grand Rapids, Boulder	MI, CO
16	Tilray Beer Brands	Atlanta, Montauk, San Diego, Bend, Seattle, Portland, Breckenridge, Patchogue	GA, NY, CA, OR, WA, OR, CO, NY
17	Artisanal Brewing Ventures	Downingtown, Lakewood, Brooklyn	PA, NY, NY
18	Brooklyn Brewery	Brooklyn	NY
19	Monster Brewing	Longmont, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Comstock, Dallas	CO, FL, UT, MI, TX
20	Athletic Brewing Company	Milford	CT
21	New Glarus Brewing Co	New Glarus	WI
22	Deschutes Brewery	Bend	OR
23	Matt Brewing Co	Utica	NY
24	Gordon Biersch Brewing Co	San Jose	CA
25	Allagash Brewing Company	Portland	ME
26	Georgetown Brewing Co	Seattle	WA
27	Great Lakes Brewing Company	Cleveland	OH
28	Harpoon Brewery	Boston	MA
29	Stevens Point Brewery	Stevens Point	WI
30	Three Floyds Brewing	Munster	IN
31	Pittsburgh Brewing Co	Pittsburgh	PA
32	Rhinegeist Brewery	Cincinnati	OH
33	Narragansett Brewing Co	Pawtucket	RI
34	August Schell Brewing Company	New Ulm	MN
35	Odell Brewing Co	Fort Collins	CO
36	Craft ‘Ohana (Maui/Modern Times)	Kihei, San Diego	HI, CA
37	Troegs Brewing Co	Hershey	PA
38	Fiddlehead Brewing	Shelburne	VT
39	Minhas Craft Brewery	Monroe	WI
40	Kings & Convicts Brewing	San Diego	CA
41	Alaskan Brewing Co.	Juneau	AK
42	Kona Brewing Hawaii	Kailua-Kona	HI
43	Abita Brewing Co	Covington	LA
44	Creature Comforts Brewing Co.	Athens	GA
45	Great Frontier Holdings	Eugene, Portland	OR, OR
46	BrewDog Brewing Co	Canal Winchester	OH
47	Summit Brewing Co	St. Paul	MN
48	Jack’s Abby Brewing, LLC	Framingham	MA
49	Revolution Brewing	Chicago	IL
50	Montucky Cold Snacks	Bozeman	MT

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2023

November 11, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Today was the 25th annual IPA Festival at the Bistro. It was another lovely sunny day in Hayward, making it perfect beer festival weather, although we’d returned to being sequestered in the basement for judging. The full list of winners is below.

Judging today at the Bistro for their IPA Festival.

IPAs

1st Place: Tenma Beer Project Infinite Self: Freestyle Nelson IPA
2nd Place: Goal Brewing. Salzburg Red
3rd Place: Faction Brewing Hop Salad IPA

And Tenma also won People’s Choice for favorite IPA at the festival.

Anchor Steam Interview

June 14, 2023 By Jay Brooks

With all the changes recently announced at Anchor Brewing Co., Stephen Beaumont sent me the interview I did a couple of years ago with longtime Anchor brewer Mark Carpenter, now retired, and Tom
Riley, who at the time of the interview was the head brewer (although he’s also since retired, after over 38 years). I did the virtual phone interview for Flagship February, a fun project I did with Stephen Beaumont for a few years, with the goal of shining a light on a lot of mainstay beers that helped build the craft beer industry into the juggernaut it is today.

This year there are a lot of anniversaries you can celebrate if you love craft beer, and especially if you love Anchor beer. First of all, it was 125 years ago when the Anchor Brewing Company was founded, and the 125 th anniversary of when Anchor Steam Beer was first brewed. Then there’s the 150 th anniversary of when Gottlieb Brekle, on September 18, 1871, bought a San Francisco beer and billiards saloon and renamed it the Golden City Brewery. Twenty-five years later it had another new owner and became
Anchor Brewing.

Fast forward to 1965, and recent Stanford graduate, Fritz Maytag, was having dinner at his favorite restaurant, the Old Spaghetti Factory in North Beach, where his usual was an Anchor Steam Beer. Owner Fred Kuh, who knew of Maytag’s affection for the beer, casually asked him if he’d ever been to the brewery. “No,” was Fritz’s reply and Kuh slyly remarked that he should go see it while he still could, because it would probably be closing in a day or two.

The next day, August 2, 1965, Fritz Maytag walked into the Anchor brewery and spoke to owner Lawrence Steese. When he left, he owned 51% of the business, having written a check for a few thousand dollars to secure a controlling interest. And that’s when things started to get really interesting….

To get the real backstory of Anchor Steam Beer, I sat down (virtually) with the past, present and future of Anchor: their former brewmaster Mark Carpenter, who started with the brewery in 1971 and only recently retired after 45 years; current brewmaster Tom Riley, who started with the brewery in 1983; and Anchor historian Dave Burkhart, who has just turned in the manuscript for his forthcoming book, The Anchor Brewing Story. The first thing Maytag did when he took over the brewery, after paying off its debts and trying to learn everything he could about brewing as quickly as possible, was to stabilize the beer. As Anchor’s fortunes were falling, its previous owner had cut corners on the beer when he had to, using corn syrup or buying cheaper hops. That had led to the beer being somewhat uneven in quality, so Maytag returned to using all barley malt and consistently using the same hop variety, Northern Brewer.

He also brought in his microscope from home and read Pasteur’s Studies on Fermentation. Initially, they were selling around one hundred kegs of beer each week, which managed to keep them afloat, but only barely. If the Old Spaghetti Factory didn’t order ten per week, it might have been a different story. In 1969, he bought the remaining 49% of the brewery, and by 1971, he had figured out how to make the beer consistently good but needed to turn around their fortunes. So Maytag decided that it was time to start bottling Anchor Steam for the first time in the modern era, which up until that point — at least after Prohibition — had been draft only. Which is yet another anniversary this year, a 50th for that bottling, which took place on April 23, 1971 when 200 cases were bottled.

Speaking of 50th anniversaries, just a few months later, longtime brewmaster Mark Carpenter was hired, beginning work on September 30, 1971. His understanding of the history of Steam Beer is that it was made by a number of breweries in San Francisco and throughout parts of the West Coast out of necessity, since with ice and other methods of refrigeration unavailable, brewers found a lager yeast strain that would ferment at warmer temperatures and could easily, and perhaps more importantly, cheaply make steam beer. The style proliferated until Prohibition, when it all but died out. By the time of repeal, refrigeration was available and affordable so most brewers saw no need to continue making steam beer, especially when popular tastes had shifted towards pilsners and other lager beer.

But as Carpenter remembers, “When Fritz bought the brewery, he really bought an 18th century brewery. There was no refrigeration anywhere in the building, only one pump that pumped the hot wort up to the coolship; that was it. Everything else was done by gravity. Fritz really modernized it. We never had refrigeration in our fermenting rooms at the old brewery. We just took advantage of San Francisco’s cool
weather.” So for the time being, at least, it just made sense to continue brewing Steam Beer. But it was bottling it that made the difference. As Mark explains, at the time “the average bar had 2, 3, or at most, 4 tap handles; usually Bud, Miller, Coors and a light beer. “I’ll bet that close to 80 or 90% of beer was sold in bottles and cans. People weren’t going out as much. There was no variety. I remember telling one of our distributors that bars would be putting in a lot more tap handles, and he laughed — told me I was crazy. So with that situation, [we] had to have bottles to be successful.”

It’s hard to remember, or even fathom, now, but Steam Beer at that time was quite hoppy compared to the majority of largely interchangeable lagers. It was very distinctive and a category unto itself because nobody else was making it. And that made for some unique stories! I asked Mark if he remembered the first time he had an Anchor Steam Beer. “The first time I had Steam Beer was in 1963. I had just met a girl I liked at a friend’s house and I asked her if she wanted to go out for a beer. She said ‘Yes,’ and so we went to Leroy’s Hooch House in Napa, owned by a guy who worked at the Mare Island Shipyard. He opened at 6:00 am for the guys getting off the night shift, and had Steam on draft. I’d seen signs for Steam Beer growing up in Sausalito, but I’d never tried it and I didn’t know anything about it. “So we’re sitting in this bar and the girl asked, ‘Well, what’s this Steam Beer?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, we had better try it.’ So we called Leroy over and he said, ‘Never had it, huh. Well, we got two: we got the light and the dark. If you’ve never had it before you better start with the light.’ So we did. It would have been real popular today, because it was hazy as hell. You couldn’t see through it at all. We drank it, and I remember it tasting kind of fruity (they probably had some bacteria in there) and if anything it tasted kind of like an English mild to me. Years later, when I started working at Anchor, I discovered that the dark beer was just regular Steam with caramel coloring added in the keg – somebody before Fritz thought of the idea, and it was popular in some accounts. That’s in part why Fritz started making Porter, because he wanted to make a real dark beer, not a fake one.”

That uniqueness was still true twenty years later when the current brewmaster, Tom Riley, had his first Anchor Steam. He grew up in San Francisco, just off of Potrero Hill, and “remembers the smells of the neighborhood. There was a coffee roastery nearby, and the smell of the brewery when the wind blew a certain way, plus the sound of the foghorn. Those are the things that were ingrained in me growing up there. I had my first Steam Beer shortly before I started working there and I just thought it was an interesting beer that didn’t taste like anything else. My friends were drinking Budweiser and Miller, and with Steam you could only have a couple as far as we were concerned. It was so different. What has not changed in those fifty years, or 125 years, is how the beer is made. The same basic recipe they use today is astonishingly similar to how it used to be made. As Riley can attest, “nothing has changed now. Any area that we can improve it – not change it! – if that means better shelf stabilization so it gets to the customer as intended, great. But the raw ingredients or the basic process, no.”

Mark remembers visiting a brewpub with Fritz Maytag in Cincinnati, or possibly across the river in Kentucky, where a man had loaned his extensive breweriana collection to the brewpub and it was displayed as a beer museum. Among the items there was an old recipe book from the 1940s that had belonged to a former Anchor brewer. This was in the days before everybody carried a camera in their phone, but they were able to take a good look at the steam beer recipe, and confirm it was “basically the same recipe” they still make.

And that’s just one more thing that makes Anchor Steam Beer special. As brewmaster Tom Riley put it when I asked what he’d want someone to know about the beer if they’d never heard of it: “It’s history in a bottle. If you’re starting from ground zero, we want people to know the history and the story. It’s a big part of the reason it’s so important to keep the beer the same, so you have that story in a bottle. There’s a real connection there. It’s my responsibility now to keep the beer the same. You can have history in a bottle, and you can have it anywhere. You can have San Francisco sourdough and San Francisco beer in
New York City and you can really make a connection with that experience and make it real.”

My wife, Sarah, and me at the annual Anchor Christmas party in 2010.

As we’re winding down our conversation, which is making me thirstier by the minute, Mark sums it all up. “Steam quite honestly is one the world’s great beers. I really believe that. If I’ve been out of town and I come home and I have a Steam beer, and man, it just tastes so good. I just think it’s a great beer.”

It’s hard to argue with that. But I think it’s best to open up another bottle of Steam Beer just to be sure.

Top 50 Breweries For 2022

April 18, 2023 By Jay Brooks

The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries and craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2022, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For a number of years now, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. In the past I’ve posted the two lists separately, but have decided going forward to present them together since the two are getting increasingly intermingled. I confess I used to look more forward to this list every year as it represented greater and wider acceptance of craft in the marketplace, but it doesn’t seem to hold the same thrill for me anymore, perhaps I’m getting jaded. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:

Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies

Rank	Company	City	State
1	D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc	Pottsville	PA
2	Boston Beer Co	Boston, Milton	MA, DE
3	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	Chico	CA
4	Duvel Moortgat USA	Paso Robles, Kansas City, Cooperstown	CA, MO, NY
5	Gambrinus Company	Shiner, Berkeley	TX, CA
6	Artisanal Brewing Ventures	Dowingtown, Lakewood, Brooklyn	PA, NY, NY
7	Stone Brewing*	Escondido	CA
8	CANarchy	Longmont, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Comstock, Dallas	CO, FL, UT, MI, TX
9	Tilray Beer Brands	Atlanta, Montauk, San Diego	GA, NY, CA
10	Brooklyn Brewery	Brooklyn	NY
11	Deschutes Brewery	Bend	OR
12	New Glarus Brewing Co	New Glarus	WI
13	Athletic Brewing Company	Milford	CT
14	Matt Brewing Co	Utica	NY
15	Minhas Craft Brewery	Monroe	WI
16	Harpoon Brewery	Boston	MA
17	Gordon Biersch Brewing Co	San Jose	CA
18	Great Lakes Brewing Company	Cleveland	OH
19	Stevens Point Brewery	Stevens Point	WI
20	Allagash Brewing Company	Portland	ME
21	Georgetown Brewing Co	Seattle	WA
22	Odell Brewing Co	Fort Collins	CO
23	Rhinegeist Brewery	Cincinnati	OH
24	Three Floyds Brewing	Munster	IN
25	Troegs Brewing Co	Hershey	PA
26	Summit Brewing Co	Saint Paul	MN
27	Narragansett Brewing Co	Providence	RI
28	Craft Ohana	Kihei, San Diego	HI, CA
29	August Schell Brewing Company	New Ulm	MN
30	Kings & Convicts Brewing	San Diego	CA
31	Pittsburgh Brewing Co	Pittsburgh	PA
32	Alaskan Brewing Co	Juneau	AK
33	Kona Brewing Co	Kailua-Kona	HI
34	Flying Dog Brewery	Frederick	MD
35	Abita Brewing Co	Covington	LA
36	Fiddlehead Brewing	Shelburne	VT
37	Creature Comforts Brewing Co	Athens	GA
38	BrewDog Brewing Company	Canal Winchester	OH
39	Revolution Brewing	Chicago	IL
40	Lost Coast Brewery	Eureka	CA
41	Rogue Ales Brewery	Newport	OR
42	Surly Brewing Company	Minneapolis	MN
43	Ninkasi Brewing Co	Eugene	OR
44	Saint Arnold Brewing Co	Houston	TX
45	IndieBrew	Atlanta, Nashville	GA, TN
46	Shipyard Brewing Co	Portland	ME
47	Jack’s Abby Brewing	Framingham	MA
48	North Coast Brewing Co	Fort Bragg	CA
49	Pizza Port Brewing Company	Carlsbad	CA
50	Made by the Water	New Orleans, Apalachicola, Asheville, Charleston	LA, FL, NC, SC

The data was also accompanied by the following press release:

“The Brewers Association (BA)—the trade association representing small and independent American craft brewers—today released annual production figures for the U.S. craft brewing industry. In 2022, small and independent brewers collectively produced 24.3 million barrels of beer, on par with 2021’s numbers, and craft’s overall beer market share by volume grew to 13.2%, up from 13.1% the previous year.

The overall beer market* shrank 3% by volume in 2022. Retail dollar value was estimated at $28.46 billion, representing a 24.6% market share and 6% growth over 2021. Sales growth was stronger than volume due to pricing, share shift to smaller brewers—who are more likely to sell onsite and via distributed draught—as well as the continued channel shift back to on-premise, which has a higher average retail value. Craft brewers provided 189,413 direct jobs, a 9% increase from 2021, driven both by growth in the number of breweries and a continued shift to hospitality-focused business models.

“2022 presented small brewers with a number of challenges, including rising operating and material costs and increasing competition, particularly in distribution,” said Bart Watson, chief economist, Brewers Association. “In this maturing and competitive market, collective growth for the category is hard to come by.”

The number of operating craft breweries continued to climb in 2022, reaching an all-time high of 9,552, including 2,035 microbreweries, 3,418 brewpubs, 3,838 taproom breweries, and 261 regional craft breweries. The total U.S. operating brewery count was 9,709, up from 9,384 in 2021. Throughout the year, there were 549 new brewery openings and 319 closings. Openings decreased for a second consecutive year, with the continued decline reflecting a more mature market. The closing rate increased in 2022 but continued to remain relatively low, at approximately 3%.

“The relatively low closure rate reflects both the solid demand for fuller flavored local beer as well as the versatility and flexibility of small brewers,” added Watson.”

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

Rank	Company	City	State
1	Anheuser-Busch Inc (a)	St. Louis	MO
2	MolsonCoors (b)	Chicago	IL
3	Constellation (c)	Chicago	IL
4	Heineken USA (d)	White Plains	NY
5	Pabst Brewing Co (e)	Los Angeles	CA
6	Diageo (f)	Norwalk	CT
7	D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc	Pottsville	PA
8	FIFCO USA (g)	Rochester	NY
9	Boston Beer Co (h)	Boston, Milton	MA, DE
10	Kirin-Lion / New Belgium Brewing (i)	Fort Collins, Comstock	CO, MI
11	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	Chico	CA
12	Duvel Moortgat USA (j)	Paso Robles, Kansas City, Cooperstown	CA, MO, NY
13	Founders Brewing / Mahou San Miguel (k)	Grand Rapids, Boulder	MI, CO
14	Gambrinus (l)	Berkeley, Shiner	CA, TX
15	Artisanal Brewing Ventures (m)	Downingtown, Lakewood, Brooklyn	PA, NY, NY
16	Stone Brewing (n)	Escondido	CA
17	CANarchy (o)	Longmont, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Comstock, Dallas	CO, FL, UT, MI, TX
18	Tilray Beer Brands (p)	Atlanta, Montauk, San Diego	GA, NY, CA
19	Sapporo USA (q)	San Francisco	CA
20	Brooklyn Brewery	Brooklyn	NY
21	Deschutes Brewery	Bend	OR
22	New Glarus Brewing Co	New Glarus	WI
23	Athletic Brewing Company	Stratford	CT
24	Matt Brewing Co (r)	Utica	NY
25	Minhas Craft Brewery (s)	Monroe	WI
26	Harpoon Brewery	Boston	MA
27	Gordon Biersch Brewing Co	San Jose	CA
28	Great Lakes Brewing Company	Cleveland	OH
29	Stevens Point Brewery (t)	Stevens Point	WI
30	Allagash Brewing Company	Portland	ME
31	Georgetown Brewing Co	Seattle	WA
32	Odell Brewing Co	Fort Collins	CO
33	Rhinegeist Brewery	Cincinnati	OH
34	Three Floyds Brewing (u)	Munster	IN
35	Troegs Brewing Co	Hershey	PA
36	Summit Brewing Co	Saint Paul	MN
37	Narragansett Brewing Co	Pawtucket	RI
38	Craft Ohana (v)	Kihei, San Diego	HI/CA
39	August Schell Brewing Company (w)	New Ulm	MN
40	Kings & Convicts Brewing/Ballast Point	San Diego	CA
41	Pittsburgh Brewing (x)	Pittsburgh	PA
42	Alaskan Brewing Co	Juneau	AK
43	Kona Brewing Co (y)	Kailua-Kona	HI
44	Flying Dog Brewery	Frederick	MD
45	Abita Brewing Co	Covington	LA
46	Fiddlehead Brewing	Shelburne	VT
47	Creature Comforts	Athens	GA
48	BrewDog Brewing Co	Canal Winchester	OH
49	Revolution Brewing	Chicago	IL
50	Lost Coast Brewing Co	Eureka	CA

But this second list requires quite a few footnotes, which tells you a lot, honestly.

Footnote notes from brand lists are illustrative and may not be exhaustive.

Volumes reflected are of beer brands only and do not include flavored malt beverages or hard seltzers. Ownership stakes reflect greater than 25% ownership. Consequently, Mark Anthony Brands, owner of White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade as well as other brand families, does not appear in these rankings.

(a) Anheuser-Busch, Inc includes 10 Barrel, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Point, Bud Light,
Budweiser, Breckenridge, Busch, Craft Brew Alliance, Devils Backbone, Elysian, Four
Peaks, Golden Road, Goose Island, Karbach, King Cobra, Landshark, Michelob, Natural,
Platform, Rolling Rock, Shock Top, Veza Sur, Wicked Weed, and Ziegenbock brands, as
well as other brand families and imported brands;
(b) MolsonCoors includes A.C. Golden, Atwater, Batch 19, Blue Moon, Colorado Native,
Coors, Hamms, Hop Valley, Icehouse, Keystone, Killian’s, Leinenkugel’s, Mickey’s,
Milwaukee’s Best, Miller, Olde English, Revolver, Steel Reserve, Tenth & Blake, and
Terrapin brands, as well as other brand families and imported brands;
(c) Constellation Brewing Co includes domestic brands Four Corners, Funky Buddha, and
Tocayo Brands; it also includes imported brands Corona, Modelo, Pacifico, and Victoria;
(d) Heineken Brewing Co includes domestic brand Lagunitas Brewing Co as well as
imported brands Dos Equis, Heineken, and Tecate;
(e) Pabst Brewing Co includes Ballantine, Lone Star, National Bohemian, Pabst, Pearl,
Primo, Rainier, Schlitz, Small Town, and Stroh’s brands, as well as other brand families;
(f) Diageo Brewing Co includes both domestically produced and imported Guinness brands;
(g) FIFCO USA includes Dundee, Genesee, Labatt Lime, Mactarnahan’s, Magic Hat, and
Pyramid brands as well as import volume;
(h) Boston Beer Co includes Alchemy & Science, Angel City, Concrete Beach, Coney Island
Dogfish Head, and Sam Adams brands. Does not include volume from Truly, Twisted
Tea or Angry Orchard brands;
(i) New Belgium Brewing Co includes Bell’s and Magnolia Brewing brands;
(j) Duvel Moortgat includes Firestone Walker and the Duvel Moortgat USA brands of
Boulevard and Ommegang;
(k) Mahou San Miguel includes Founders and Avery Brewing volume;
(l) Gambrinus includes Shiner and Trumer brands;
(m)Artisanal Brewing Ventures includes Sixpoint, Southern Tier, and Victory brands; Does
not include Bold Rock Hard Cider volume;
(n) Stone Brewing was acquired by Sapporo late in 2022. It will be included in the Sapporo
USA volume starting in 2023. See footnote (q);
(o) CANarchy was acquired by Monster Beverage Corporation in 2021. Volume includes
Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Oskar Blues Brewing Co, Perrin, and Utah Brewers Cooperative
brands;
(p) Tilray Beer Brands include Sweetwater, Montauk, Green Flash, and Alpine Beer brands;
(q) Sapporo USA includes Anchor Brewing and imported brands. Stone Brewing (n) will be
included in future years;
(r) Matt Brewing Co includes Flying Bison, Saranac, and Utica Club brands;
(s) Minhas Craft Brewery includes Huber, Mountain Crest, and Rhinelander brands as well
as export volume;
(t) Stevens Point Brewery includes James Page and Point brands;
(u) Three Floyds Brewing also includes volume for the WarPigs USA brand;
(v) Craft Ohana includes Maui Brewing and Modern Times brands;
(w)August Schell Brewing Co includes Grain Belt and Schell’s brands;
(x) Pittsburgh Brewing includes Iron City, IC Light, and other brand families;
(y) Volume is for the independently owned Kona Brewing Co in Hawaii. Does not include Kona volume owned by Anheuser-Busch (a) sold in the mainland USA.

Bear Republic Merges With Drake’s Brewing

February 15, 2023 By Jay Brooks

They’ve been working behind the scenes for some time now, but as of today most of the details have been worked out, so they’re making it official. Rich Norgrove, along with his wife Tami Norgrove, owners of Bear Republic Brewing of Cloverdale are partnering with John Martin and Roy Kirkorian of Drake’s Brewing, headquartered in San Leandro, to effectively merge the two breweries. In official terms, today they “jointly announced the sale and purchase of certain assets of Bear Republic to Artisan Brewers LLC” (which is Drake’s Brewing’s official business name).

What that means in practical terms is that “Racer 5 is shifting gears once again, beginning a new collaborative partnership with The Drake’s Brewing Co. The iconic West Coast IPA, once at the forefront of the California craft beer boom, is merging lanes to accommodate industry-wide challenges, while keeping a firm ‘pedal to the metal,’ moving forward.” The deal means Drake’s will acquire “all of Bear Republic Brewing Company’s recipes, formulas, and intellectual property, and will allow The Drake’s Brewing Company to continue producing the Bear Republic lineup of beers, including its Racer 5 IPA, as well as their other brands, plus new beers in the coming months. The long-time industry friends are aligned in their vision, bringing Bear Republic Brewing Company into new markets, new communities and new opportunities moving forward.

“We have always admired Drake’s Brewing Company’s passion for craft beer, their community as well as their commitment to quality,” said Bear Republic Brewing Company’s CEO Richard Norgrove. “Joining forces with Drake’s will allow us to bring our beers to even more customers, and we’re excited to be a part of the Drake’s family.” Throughout the merger, Norgrove will continue to be a shepherd of the brand, helping to represent the family-owned brewery in the manufacturing, production and sales of BRBC’s recipes.

So it’s not a straight sale, as is often the case, but instead, as Norgrove explains it, it’s more like “not coming in and buying the car, but buying the engine and driver.” Norgrove, as well as his longtime brewmaster, Peter Kruger, will continue to work with the Bear Republic brand. It will continue to be brewed in Cloverdale, but brewing will be transitioning over the coming months to San Leandro.

I spoke to both Martin and Norgrove this afternoon, and they stressed that this deal “makes them both stronger.” Bear Republic’s best-selling beer, accounting for 92-percent of sales, is Racer 5, so that, along with new favorite, Racer 7 (a 7-percent hazy IPA), will be the primary focus during the transition period. Naturally, the two have known one another for decades in the Bay Area brewing community and have even shared some of the same brewers who have worked for both companies. So as Martin described it, there are “so many cool things from a synergistic point of view.” They also share distributors in some key markets, which will help make the transition smoother. The good news here for beer overs is that Bear Republic beer will continue to be brewed in the Bay Area and may lead to it being even easier to find. The two have already started talking about future satellite locations, starting in Sonoma County, similar to Drake’s Dealership in Oakland and The Barn in West Sacramento.

From right to left: Rich Norgrove, Tami Norgrove, John Martin, Laura Norgrove, and Paul Marshall at Judy Ashworth’s place for a beer tasting recently.

About the two companies.

Drake’s originally was founded as Lind Brewing in 1989 by Roger Lind. He sold the brewery to a local coffee company in 1998 and they changed the name to Drake’s, which had been a name used for many of the beers. In 2008, John Martin and Roy Kirkorian bought the brewery. Martin, along with his brother Reid Martin, also started Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, one of the earliest brewpubs in the country when it opened in 1986. After taking the reins, Martin and Kirkorian opened Drake’s Barrel House in 2011, its brewery tasting room and a few years later, in 2016, opened Drake’s Dealership, a beer garden and restaurant in downtown Oakland at the site of a former Dodge automobile dealership. In 2018, they opened another satellite location in West Sacramento known as The Barn.

Me with John Martin at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley a few years ago.

Bear Republic Brewing was founded in 1995 by Ricardo and Tami Norgrove, along with his parents, Richard and Sandy Norgrove. By 1999, they’d won a gold medal at GABF for their Racer 5 IPA, one of the first popular West Coast-style IPAs. The original brewpub was located in downtown Healdsburg, but in 2005 they built a much larger production brewery in Cloverdale. In 2006, they won big at GABF, winning Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year. In 2017, they opened a second brewpub in Rohnert Park, and in 2019 due to issues with the landlord closed the Healdsburg location. But Covid hit them hard, as it did most breweries, and this led to them closing the Rohnert Park location, as well, focusing instead on their package beer and distribution.

Me and Rich Norgrove at the original brewpub several years ago.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Quaffing, Quafftide & Quaffsmanship But Were Afraid To Ask

December 5, 2022 By Jay Brooks

A few weeks ago, an old word resurfaced in the Twitterverse — quafftide — which apparently originated in the 16th century and its resurgence has been attributed to English lexicographer, etymologist, and media personality Susie Dent, although it was Stephen Beaumont sharing a tweet about it that brought it to my attention. The first mention of it by Dent I’ve found is a tweet from 2016.

And at the time I wholly endorsed its acceptance in our everyday language, and I was not the only one. Even fellow beer writer Don Tse changed his Twitter handle to Don Quafftide Tse. I still see it being used on social media and I hope to play some small part in its — fingers crossed — resurrection into common parlance. It’s a beautiful word that definitely does not deserve to be considered obsolete. So in an effort to help it along, I did a little digging.

The definition I first saw for quafftide was as follows:

‘quafftide,’ or ‘quaff-tide,’ a wonderful old word (16th century?) meaning: ‘The single word announcement that this is the time, or season, for a drink.’

I grabbed my O.E.D. (the 1971 compact edition) and found quaff-tide listed.

According to the O.E.D., the first use of the word in print was in 1582, by Richard Stanyhurst in his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. The use of the word came in Book IV:

Fame, the blab vnciuil, fosters her phansye reciting,
That the fleete is strongly furnisht, theire passage apoincted.
Deuoyd of al counsayle scolding through cittye she ploddeth.
Mutch lyke Dame Thyas with great sollemnitye sturred
Of Bacchus third yeers feasting, when quaftyde aproacheth,
And showts in nighttyme doo ringe in loftye Cithoeron.
At last she Aeneas thus, not prouoked, asaulteth.

Curiously, there’s another word with the base ‘quaff’ whose use was also found first in Stanyhurst’s Aeneid. In this case, it was in Book I and the word was “quaffy.”

Theyre panch with venison they franck and quaffye carousing,

The O.E.D. defines it simply as “of the nature of quaffing.” Both words, of course, come from the word “quaff” — ‘to drink deeply; to take a long draught; also, to drink repeatedly in this manner’ — which was first used sometime between 1529 and 1579, not long before quaff-tide appears.

Quaff, of course, is the most common form of the word, which is still in use today, although I would argue it’s not terribly common these days and is likely waning. Other forms of the word include “quaffer” (one that quaffs) and “quaffing.”

But there’s also one more that I recently came across, “quaffsmanship.” I’d actually seen it before, but saw it again fresh from having learned about quafftide. It’s not in the O.E.D., or any other dictionary I’m aware of, for that matter. I’ve only found two instances of it being used online. The first is from Time Magazine, in A Letter From The Publisher, Jul. 4, 1977, in which he describes writer Stefan Kanfer.

Senior Writer Stefan Kanfer, who chronicled the aesthetics of beer, imbibes neither hard liquor nor water — only beer. “If they did an analysis of my blood,” he says, “they’d find 10% red corpuscles, 10% white corpuscles and 80% hops and malt.” Of the 187 varieties of classic beer, Kanfer has sampled about 100. Says he: “That’s not over a weekend or even a year, but over a lifetime of quaffsmanship.”

And the second one I found is from an article by Jeff Simon in the Buffalo Daily News, entitled No Talk Show For You, Bubba, Not At Any Price from May 7, 2002. Simon uses it in describing former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in comparing him to another former president, Bill Clinton.

All I can think of is Ulysses S. Grant. Yes, I know he was a war hero and a deeply devoted family man — neither of which would be the way a conservative would describe you, to put it mildly. Grant was also only 5 feet 8 inches tall and smoked 20 cigars a day (we won’t even talk about his legendary quaffsmanship).

But then I figured out why it seemed familiar. I had seen, and even shared an old ad prominently using the word quaffsmanship in the late fifties and early sixties. The Carlsberg Brewery used it in a short series of ads from 1959 until 1962, as far as I can tell. The earliest I could find is from 1959 and ran as a two-page advertainment in Sports Illustrated in their June 22, 1959 issue. Its title? “Quaffsmanship.”

The art for this, and in fact all of the art during Carlsberg’s quaffsmanship ad campaign, was created by famed Danish designer Ib Antoni. All of the illustrations in the Carlsberg ads were done by him.

I also discovered a short New York Times article from just before the above Sports Illustrated double-truck. It appeared in the newspaper on May 29, 1959, and details Carlsberg’s plans with the new ad campaign, focused on promoting the brand under the banner of “Quaffsmanship — the joy of drinking beer.” It actually mentions the Sports Illustrated ad and teases other publications that will carry subsequent ads in the same campaign.

But this is the only ad I could find from 1959, but interestingly it makes reference at the bottom to a “handsome Quaffer’s Plaque” which can be ordered for a mere 75-cents from an address in New York. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to discover what that looked like, but I bet it was spectacular.

It wasn’t until 1960 that a series of “Quaffsmanship” ads started to appear. Each ones tells a part of beer’s history that it was 1960 and not all of the stories are completely accurate, but they are all fairly entertaining. They seem very wordy, not just compared to today’s advertising, but even for the time.

And this ad using elements from the the other ads ran in the New York Times on May 8, 1960. It also includes other material, and even coins a new word, referring to collecting beer items from the campaign. That word is “quaffiana,” an obvious play on breweriana, and is yet another new word based on quaffing. The article includes more information on how to acquire your own quaffiana.

And on the same day, the Times also published this article, “Advertising: Fomenting a Beer Revolution,” which provides another report on Carlsberg’s quaffsmanship ad campaign, how it’s going and their plans for the coming year as it continues.

The following year, 1961, saw less ads, and less history, and instead focused on types of modern day quaffers.

But I guess it wasn’t quite as good an ad campaign as their initial reports about it suggested, because by 1962 they abandoned it for something else. I was only able to find one quaffmanship ad for that year, and it’s similar to the ones from 1961.

From there, the trail goes cold, and there’s no more from Carlsberg on the subject. I did, however, find an earlier ad, from 1917, for Rainier. It includes the headline: “Remember— Rainier at ‘Quafftide.'” Curiously, it’s for “The New Rainier,” which is turns out is a non-alcoholic version of their beer (or as they put it, “a non-intoxicating cereal beverage”), which given the year was probably their answer to prohibition coming. But using it in an ad presumably aimed at the general public suggests that the word would have been understood by most people who read it.

Is that it? Nope, I also found a poem entitled “Quaff-Tide” written by a Mac McGovern in May of 2019

Its QUAFF-TIDE, “The season for drinking,” don’t you know?
A time to celebrate; a few pints go down each round.
Then, stagger, fall down, too drunk, crashed on the ground.

So that must be it, right? Not quite, I found out one more interesting tidbit about quafftide. There’s an English band called “The Zen Hussies.” The band’s Twitter feed describes their music succinctly. “Vintage Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Ska, Pre-War Jazz and Soulful Latino – all infused with a feisty Post-Punk attitude and a terribly English sensibility.” They’re based out of Bristol, or at least they used to be. I can’t be sure, but their website isn’t working and on social media there’s nothing newer than 2017. But they have around six albums on Bandcamp. Their most recent album (or their last, depending on how you want to spin it) was “The Charm Account.” And the first track on the album is titled … you guessed it … “Quafftide.” I strongly encourage you to give it a listen below. It’s a jaunty little ditty. It’s also completely wonderful and reminds me a lot of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2022

February 12, 2022 By Jay Brooks

Earlier today, the 22nd annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California, and after a virtual fest last year, this year it was back to a more typical festival, complete with people and sunshine. I got there early for judging again this year, and instead of being sequestered in the dark, dank basement out of the view of the beautiful Bay Area sun — which is where we usually are — we were again outside under a large tent in what was a beautiful, sunny, hot day. We judged Double IPAs and Triple IPAs for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, before choosing our favorites in both categories.

It was hot and sunny throughout the festival this year.

A little after 2:00 PM, Vic announced the winners.

Alice Versary: The Guinness Birthday Book

July 5, 2021 By Jay Brooks

July 5, 1862, Lewis Carroll sat down to start writing the work that would make him famous, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” which began with a story he told to his three girl companions the day before during an outing with the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, where they rowed a boat up the River Isis with the three young girls, and which they called the “golden afternoon.” The three girls were the daughters of scholar Henry Liddell: Lorina Charlotte Liddell, Alice Pleasance Liddell, and Edith Mary Liddell, ages 13, 10, and 8 respectively. The journey began at Folly Bridge, Oxford and ended five miles away in the Oxfordshire village of Godstow. During the trip Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, told the girls a story that featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure. The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Beginning in the 1930s, Guinness began using Alice in Wonderland and the cast of characters from Carroll’s books in a lot of their advertising. That continued until 1959, and in addition to numerous ads, they also produced five booklets, beginning with “The Guinness Alice” in 1933, and finishing up with “Alice Versary: The Guinness Birthday Book,” which was published to coincide with their 200th anniversary in 1959. All of the booklets and advertising was done by their advertising agency, S.H. Benson Ltd., with illustrations by John Gilroy and later Ronald Ferns. A few years ago, I got a copy of Alice Versary, so here is the whole 16-page booklet.