Today’s infographic is a timely one, and was released just this morning. The Brewers Association today released the preliminary numbers for beer sales last year. Not surprisingly, the 2012 numbers look great, and continue the trend in recent years of forward momentum for craft beer. The big news is simple. “In a year when the total U.S. beer market grew by one percent, craft brewers saw a 15 percent rise in volume and a 17 percent increase in dollar growth.”

But here’s a bit more, from the press release:

With production at 13,235,917 barrels in 2012, craft brewers reached 6.5 percent volume of the total U.S. beer market, up from 5.7 percent the previous year. Additionally, craft dollar share of the total U.S. beer market reached 10.2 percent in 2012, as retail dollar value from craft brewers was estimated at $10.2 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2011.

Also, the number of breweries continues to rise at an amazing pace. The surprising thing to notice is that the growth is almost entirely in production breweries, which increased 44%!

In 2012, there was an 18 percent increase in the number of U.S. operating breweries, with the total count reaching 2,403. The count includes 409 new brewery openings and only 43 closings. Small breweries created an estimated 4,857 more jobs during the year, employing 108,440 workers, compared to 103,583 the year prior.

And here’s all of that good news, distilled into a colorful infographic.