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Top 50 Breweries For 2017

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The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries and craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2017, 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 the tenth year, 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. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:

Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies

Rank Brewery Name City State
1 D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc Pottsville PA
2 Boston Beer Co Boston MA
3 Sierra Nevada Brewing Chico CA
4 New Belgium Brewing Fort Collins CO
5 Duvel Moortgat Paso Robles/Kansas City/Cooperstown CA/MO/NY
6 Gambrinus San Antonio/Berkeley/Portland TX/CA/OR
7 Bell’s Brewery, Inc Comstock MI
8 Stone Brewing Escondido CA
9 CANarchy Longmont/Tampa/Salt Lake City/
Comstock Park		 CO/FL/UT/MI
10 Deschutes Brewery Bend OR
11 Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn NY
12 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Milton DE
13 Minhas Craft Brewery Monroe WI
14 Artisanal Brewing Ventures Downingtown/Lakewood PA/NY
15 SweetWater Brewing Atlanta GA
16 New Glarus Brewing New Glarus WI
17 Matt Brewing Utica NY
18 Harpoon Brewery Boston MA
19 Alaskan Brewing Juneau AK
20 Great Lakes Brewing Cleveland OH
21 Abita Brewing Abita Springs LA
22 Odell Brewing Fort Collins CO
23 Stevens Point Brewery Stevens Point WI
24 August Schell Brewing New Ulm MN
25 Summit Brewing Saint Paul MN
26 21st Amendment Brewery Bay Area CA
27 Shipyard Brewing Portland ME
28 Flying Dog Brewery Frederick MD
29 Full Sail Brewing Hood River OR
30 Troëgs Brewing Hershey PA
31 Long Trail Brewing Bridgewater Corners VT
32 Rogue Ales Newport OR
33 Rhinegeist Brewery Cincinnati OH
34 Narragansett Brewing Providence RI
35 Gordon Biersch Brewing San Jose CA
36 Allagash Brewing Portland ME
37 Uinta Brewing Salt Lake City UT
38 Ninkasi Brewing Eugene OR
39 Surly Brewing Minneapolis MN
40 Revolution Brewing Chicago IL
41 Karl Strauss Brewing San Diego CA
42 Bear Republic Brewing Cloverdale CA
43 Green Flash Brewing San Diego CA
44 Left Hand Brewing Longmont CO
45 Three Floyds Brewing Munster IN
46 Saint Arnold Brewing Houston TX
47 Lost Coast Brewery Eureka CA
48 North Coast Brewing Fort Bragg CA
49 Wachusett Brewing Westminster MA
50 Avery Brewing Boulder CO

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This list, by contrast, is the Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2017. This includes all breweries, regardless of size or any other definitions or parameters.

Breweries in bold are considered to be “small and independent craft brewers” under the BA’s current definition. That there are so many footnotes (23 in total, or almost half of the list) explaining exceptions or reasons for the specific entry, seems illustrative of a growing problem with the definition of what is a craft brewery. I certainly understand the need for a trade group to have a clearly defined set of criteria for membership, but I think the current one is getting increasingly outdated again, and it’s only been a few years since the contentious debate that resulted in the current BA one. But it may be time to revisit that again. This is the same number of footnotes as last year, so this is a problem that is not resolving itself.

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

Rank Brewery Name City State
Bold = small and independent craft brewery
1 Anheuser-Busch, Inc (a) Saint Louis MO
2 MillerCoors (b) Chicago IL
3 Constellation (c) Chicago IL
4 Heineken (d) White Plains NY
5 Pabst Brewing (e) Los Angeles CA
6 D. G. Yuengling & Son Pottsville PA
7 North Amer. Breweries (f) Rochester NY
8 Diageo (g) Norwalk CT
9 Boston Beer Co (h) Boston MA
10 Sierra Nevada Brewing Chico CA
11 New Belgium Brewing (i) Fort Collins CO
12 Craft Brew Alliance (j) Portland OR
13 Duvel Moortgat (k) Paso Robles/Kansas City/Cooperstown CA/MO/NY
14 Gambrinus (l) San Antonio/Berkeley/Portland TX/CA/OR
15 Founders Brewing (m) Grand Rapids MI
16 Bell’s Brewery, Inc (n) Comstock MI
17 Sapporo USA (o) La Crosse WI
18 Stone Brewing Escondido CA
19 CANarchy (p) Longmont/Tampa/Salt Lake City/Comstock Park CO/FL/UT/MI
20 Deschutes Brewery Bend OR
21 Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn NY
22 Dogfish Head Milton DE
23 Minhas Craft Brewery (q) Monroe WI
24 Artisanal Brewing Ventures (r) Downingtown/Lakewood PA/NY
25 SweetWater Brewing Atlanta GA
26 New Glarus Brewing New Glarus WI
27 Matt Brewing (s) Utica NY
28 Harpoon Brewery Boston MA
29 Alaskan Brewing Juneau AK
30 Great Lakes Brewing Cleveland OH
31 Abita Brewing Abita Springs LA
32 Odell Brewing Fort Collins CO
33 Stevens Point (t) Stevens Point WI
34 August Schell (u) New Ulm MN
35 Summit Brewing Saint Paul MN
36 21st Amendment Bay Area CA
37 Shipyard Brewing (v) Portland ME
38 Flying Dog Brewery Frederick MD
39 Full Sail Brewing Hood River OR
40 Troëgs Brewing Hershey PA
41 Long Trail Brewing (w) Bridgewater Corners VT
42 Rogue Ales Newport OR
43 Rhinegeist Brewery Cincinnati OH
44 Narragansett Brewing Providence RI
45 Gordon Biersch Brewing San Jose CA
46 Allagash Brewing Co Portland ME
47 Uinta Brewing Salt Lake City UT
48 Ninkasi Brewing Eugene OR
49 Surly Brewing Minneapolis MN
50 Revolution Brewing Chicago IL

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2017 Top 50 Overall U.S.
Brewing Companies Notes

Footnotes from brand lists are illustrative, and may not be exhaustive – ownership stakes
reflect greater than 25% ownership:

(a) Anheuser-Busch, Inc includes 10 Barrel, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Point, Bud Light,
Budweiser, Breckenridge, Busch, Devils Backbone, Elysian, Four Peaks, Golden
Road, Goose Island, Karbach, King Cobra, Landshark, Michelob, Natural Rolling
Rock, Shock Top, Wicked Weed, Wild Series brands and Ziegenbock brands.
Does not include partially owned Coastal, Craft Brew Alliance, Fordham, Kona,
Old Dominion, Omission, Red Hook, and Widmer Brothers brands;
(b) MillerCoors includes A.C. Golden, 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, Saint Archer, Steel
Reserve, Tenth & Blake, and Terrapin brands;
(c) Constellation Brewing Co includes domestic brands Ballast Point, 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 and Tecate;
(e) Pabst Brewing Co includes Ballantine, Lone Star, Pabst, Pearl, Primo, Rainier,
Schlitz and Small Town brands;
(f) North American Breweries includes Dundee, Genesee, Labatt Lime,
Mactarnahan’s, Magic Hat, Portland and Pyramid brands as well as import
volume;
(g) Diageo Brewing Co includes both domestically produced and imported Guinness
brands;
(h) Boston Beer Co includes Alchemy & Science and Sam Adams brands. Does not
include Twisted Tea or Angry Orchard brands;
(i) New Belgium Brewing Co includes Magnolia Brewing Brands (partial year);
(j) Craft Brew Alliance includes Kona, Omission, Red Hook and Widmer Brothers
brands;
(k) Duvel Moortgat includes Boulevard, Firestone Walker, and Ommegang brands;
(l) Gambrinus includes BridgePort, Shiner and Trumer brands;
(m)Founders ownership stake by Mahou San Miguel;
(n) Bell’s Brewery, Inc includes Bell’s and Upper Hand brands;
(o) Sapporo USA includes Anchor Brewing Co (partial year), Sapporo and Sleeman
brands as well as export volume;
(p) CANarchy includes Cigar City, Oskar Blues Brewing Co, Perrin and Utah
Brewers Cooperative brands;
(q) Minhas Craft Brewery includes Huber, Mountain Crest and Rhinelander brands as
well as export volume;
(r) Artisanal Brewing Ventures includes Victory and Southern Tier brands;
(s) Matt Brewing Co includes Flying Bison, Saranac and Utica Club brands;
(t) Stevens Point Brewery includes James Page and Point brands;
(u) August Schell Brewing Co includes Grain Belt and Schell’s brands;
(v) Shipyard Brewing Co includes Casco Bay, Sea Dog and Shipyard brands;
(w)Long Trail Brewing Co includes Long Trail, Otter Creek and The Shed brands;

BEER-generic

Here is this year’s press release. For a few years, the BA had helpfully annotated the list, saving me lots of time, since I’d been annotating the list for nearly a decade, but they abandoned that practice three years ago. And I’ve also given up on annotating, too. It used to be fun to see who was doing well and rising and who was slipping, but it’s as much about business dealings as hard work and brewing, so I give up.

And similar to the last couple of years, the BA created a map showing the relative location of each of the breweries that made the list.

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California Brewery Count Hits 900

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Today the California Craft Brewers Association announced another milestone in California breweries has been reached. There are now 900 breweries in the Golden State, which means that over 9 out of 10 California resident now lives within 10 miles of a brewery.

Here’s the press release:

“The craft beer industry has tripled over the last five years, up from 300 breweries in 2012 to just over 900 breweries in operation today, according to data released by the nonprofit trade association representing the industry, the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA). California is home to more craft breweries than any state in the nation, with nearly 92 percent of the state’s 39.5 million residents living within 10 miles of a brewery.

’11 percent of the craft brewing industry’s total $67.8 billion economic impact comes from California,’ said Bart Watson, Chief Economist at the Brewers Association. ‘These data highlight the powerful economic impact craft brewers have in California and across the nation.’

According to the CCBA report, the total economic impact of craft breweries in California exceeds $7.3 billion. This figure is derived from the total impact of beer brewed by craft brewers as it moves from breweries to distributors to retailers as well as non-beer merchandise sold at breweries and tasting rooms.

By the Numbers:

  • Craft breweries in California supported nearly 50,000 full-time jobs with an average wage of $55,000 a year.
  • California’s craft breweries paid $1.49 billion in taxes in 2016, including $868 million in state and local taxes and $617 million in federal taxes.
  • California’s craft breweries produced 3,295,221 barrels of beer in 2016. Breweries exported 1.17 million barrels, which is greater than the total craft production in all but five states in the nation.
  • The number of licensed breweries grew by more than 100 in the last year – more than any state in the country and an increase that was greater than the total licensed number of breweries in 34 states.

‘The positive impact of craft breweries on the state of California goes far beyond just the benefits of tax revenue, manufacturing jobs and tourism,’ said CCBA executive director, Tom McCormick. ‘Craft breweries also have a tangible influence on the growth and development of their region, investing in their community, employing their neighbors and supporting local nonprofits. Craft breweries are the living room, the town hall and the gathering place for their community.’”

CCBS_economy14

GABF Awards 2017

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I’m a little late on this post, but since I got home from GABF last week, we’ve had a bit of turmoil here in Sonoma County, with over 5,700 homes and buildings destroyed by wildfires and a current death toll of at least 36. It’s now officially the worst disaster in California history. So please forgive my tardiness. So let’s return to the day before the fires began, when things were still calm and worry-free. On Saturday, October 7, the winners of the 36th Great American Beer Festival were announced. A record 7,923 beers were judged in 98 categories by 276 judges, of which I was again privileged to be one. First, here are some statistics about the festival:

  • 36th anniversary of the festival; 31st edition of the GABF competition
  • 800 breweries in the festival hall
  • 3,900+ beers served at the festival
  • 60,000 attendees
  • 4,308 volunteers (festival and competition combined)
  • 2,217 breweries in the competition from 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
  • 266 medal-winning breweries
  • 293 total medals awarded
  • 7,923 beers judged (not including 88 Pro-Am competition entries), a nearly 9 percent increase over 2015
  • 98 style categories judged, plus the Pro-Am competition
  • 276 judges from 13 different countries
  • Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 81 (excludes Pro-Am beers)
  • Category with highest number of entries: American-Style India Pale Ale: 408

Since 2002, the most-entered category has been American-Style India Pale Ale (IPA), which saw 312 entries in 2016 compared to 336 entries in 2015.The top five entered categories were:

  1. American-Style India Pale Ale (408 entries)
  2. Imperial India Pale Ale (221 entries)
  3. American-Style Strong Pale Ale (199 entries)
  4. American-Style Strong Pale Ale (182 entries)
  5. Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer (175 entries)

gabf-medals

Only two breweries won 3 medals (Austin Beer Garden and Saint Arnold), but four won 2 (Melvin, On Tour, Rockford, Sunriver). By ratio, Missouri did best (92 entries and 8 medals) for 8.7%. In second was Pennsylvania (259 entries and 16 medals) with 6.2% and third was Indiana (163 entries and 10 medals) with 6.1%. 584 breweries entered the competition for the first time, and of those, 36 won a medal.

Medals Won by State:

  1. California = 57
  2. Colorado = 37
  3. Texas = 21
  4. Oregon = 17
  5. Pennsylvania = 16
  6. North Carolina = 14
  7. TIE: Illinois / Indiana /Washington = 10
  8. TIE: Michigan / Ohio = 9
  9. TIE: Florida / Missouri = 8
  10. TIE: Georgia / Minnesota / New Mexico = 6

In addition, one state won 5, five states won 4, two won 3, six won 2, and eight states plus DC won a single medal. Ten states did not win a medal.

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The 2017 Great American Beer Festival Winners

Category 1: American-Style Wheat Beer – 39 Entries
Gold: Sweet As Pacific Ale, GoodLife Brewing Co., Bend, OR
Silver: Lemon Rye, 105 West Brewing Co., Castle Rock, CO
Bronze: Fieldhouse Wheat, Triton Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN

Category 2: American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast – 52 Entries
Gold: Fuzztail, Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR
Silver: Miner’s Gold Hefeweizen, Lewis & Clark Brewing Co., Helena, MT
Bronze: Wrangler Wheat, Figueroa Mountain Brewing – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

Category 3: American-Style Fruit Beer – 145 Entries
Gold: Razz Against the Machine, Little Machine, Denver, CO
Silver: The Mesa, Cismontane Brewing Co., Santa Ana, CA
Bronze: Elvis Juice, BrewDog Brewing Co., Canal Winchester, OH

Category 4: Fruit Wheat Beer – 90 Entries
Gold: Sierra Blanca Cherry Wheat, Sierra Blanca Brewing Co., Moriarty, NM
Silver: Purple Line, Smylie Brothers Brewing Co., Evanston, IL
Bronze: Paradise Now, Trim Tab Brewing, Birmingham, AL

Category 5: Belgian-Style Fruit Beer – 58 Entries
Gold: Blood Orange Wit, Refuge Brewery, Temecula, CA
Silver: ZuurPruim, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Hood River, OR
Bronze: Cherry Busey, Sun King Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN

Category 6: Pumpkin/Squash Beer or Pumpkin Spice Beer – 66 Entries
Gold: Saint Arnold Pumpkinator, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Silver: Pumpkin Ale, Schlafly Beer/The Saint Louis Brewery, Saint Louis, MO
Bronze: 5 Phantoms Pumpkin Spice Barleywine, Philipsburg Brewing Co., Philipsburg, MT

Category 7: Field Beer – 87 Entries
Gold: C Porter, LauderAle, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Silver: No Crusts, Funky Buddha Brewery, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Bronze: Spa Water Saison, Ohana Brewing Co., Los Angeles, CA

Category 8: Chili Beer – 98 Entries
Gold: Ghost Pepper Imperial Stout, ZwanzigZ Brewing, Columbus, IN
Silver: Bad Hombre, Eight & Sand Beer Co., Woodbury, NJ
Bronze: Dia de los Mangos, Beachwood Blendery, Long Beach, CA

Category 9: Herb and Spice Beer – 145 Entries
Gold: Lemon Balm and Beets Wheat, New Sarum Brewing, Salisbury, NC
Silver: 80 Acre Carrot Ale, Humble Farmer Brewing Co., Holtville, CA
Bronze: India Spring Honey Cream Ale, Broken Plow Brewery, Greeley, CO

Category 10: Chocolate Beer – 62 Entries
Gold: Imperial Smoked Porter With Cacao Nibs, Joseph James Brewing Co., Henderson, NV
Silver: Aphrodisiac Chocolate Pomegranate Imperial Stout, Cranker’s Brewery, Big Rapids, MI
Bronze: Tears of My Enemies, Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta, GA

Category 11: Coffee Beer – 89 Entries
Gold: Heritage Coffee Brown Ale, Alaskan Brewing Co., Juneau, AK
Silver: It’s 8 O’clock Somewhere, Torched Hop Brewing Co., Atlanta, GA
Bronze: Stony Joe, Stony Creek Brewery, Branford, CT

Category 12: Coffee Stout or Porter – 114 Entries
Gold: Speargun Coffee Milk Stout, Snake River Brewing Co., Jackson, WY
Silver: Udder Chaos, RAM/Big Horn Brewery – Seattle, Seattle, WA
Bronze: Kawi, Currahee Brewing Co., Franklin, NC

Category 13: Specialty Beer – 42 Entries
Gold: Barrel Aged Sweet Potato SouthNorte Rye, Odd Side Ales, Grand Haven, MI
Silver: Rye Hipster Brunch Stout, Odd Side Ales, Grand Haven, MI
Bronze: Agavamente, SouthNorte Beer Co., San Diego, CA

Category 14: Rye Beer – 49 Entries
Gold: Unite the Clans, Third Space Brewing, Milwaukee, WI
Silver: Nighthawk Rye Pale Ale, Packinghouse Brewing Co., Riverside, CA
Bronze: Breakside Rye Curious?, Breakside Brewery, Portland, OR

Category 15: Honey Beer – 69 Entries
Gold: Orange Blossom Common, Karl Strauss Brewing Co. – Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Silver: Jetty Ale, Great South Bay Brewery, Bay Shore, NY
Bronze: Honey Please, Armadillo Ale Works, Denton, TX

Category 16: Session Beer – 40 Entries
Gold: Guillaume, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA
Silver: Peacekeeper, Launch Pad Brewery, Aurora, CO
Bronze: Stonefly Session Ale, Three Creeks Brewing Co., Sisters, OR

Category 17: Session India Pale Ale – 130 Entries
Gold: Rome City IPA, Brew Hub, Lakeland, FL
Silver: Patio Pounder, Twisted Pine Brewing Co., Boulder, CO
Bronze: Featherweight Session IPA, Boxing Bear Brewing Co., Albuquerque, NM

Category 18: Other Strong Beer – 40 Entries
Gold: Imperial Cream Ale, Nexus Brewery, Albuquerque, NM
Silver: Laissez-Faire, Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta, GA
Bronze: Antwerp’s Placebo, Batch Brewing Co., Detroit, MI

Category 19: Experimental Beer – 94 Entries
Gold: Source Series Opuntia, Carolina Bauernhaus Ales, Anderson, SC
Silver: Roswell: Grudge, Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales, Denver, CO
Bronze: Hot Pink, Four Day Ray Brewing, Fishers, IN

Category 20: Fresh or Wet Hop Ale – 44 Entries
Gold: Wet Hop Melvin, Melvin Brewing, Alpine, WY
Silver: Field to Ferment, Fremont Brewing Co., Seattle, WA
Bronze: Fresh As It Gets, Mother Earth Brew Co. – Nampa, Nampa, ID

Category 21: Historical Beer – 40 Entries
Gold: Waverly Tulip, Square Peg Brewerks, Alamosa, CO
Silver: Hilltopper’s Pride Kentucky Common Ale, Ironworks Brewery & Pub, Lakewood, CO
Bronze: Spring Gruit, The BottleHouse Brewery And Meadery, Cleveland, OH

Category 22: Gluten-Free Beer – 33 Entries
Gold: Dark Ale, Ground Breaker Brewing, Portland, OR
Silver: Meteor Shower Blonde Ale, Ghostfish Brewing Co., Seattle, WA
Bronze: Co-Conspirator Apricot Sour, Revelation Craft Brewing Co., Rehoboth Beach, DE

Category 23: American-Belgo-Style Ale – 53 Entries
Gold: Saison Du Bois, Lynnwood Brewing Concern – Production Facility, Raleigh, NC
Silver: Klipspringer, Metazoa Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
Bronze: 5 & 20 IPA, Nedloh Brewing Co., Bloomfield, NY

Category 24: American-Style Sour Ale – 35 Entries
Gold: DAM Wild: Hops and Lemon Verbena, Flat Tail Brewing Co., Corvallis, OR
Silver: Disenchantment Blend #1, Bond Brothers Beer Co., Cary, NC
Bronze: Yeast of Eden – Skeptics & Believers, Alvarado Street Brewery, Salinas, CA

Category 25: Fruited American-Style Sour Ale – 105 Entries
Gold: No medal awarded
Silver: Sour Wench Blackberry Ale, Ballast Point Brewing Co. – Home Brew Mart, San Diego, CA
Bronze: Breakside Passionfruit Sour Ale, Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Milwaukie, OR

Category 26: Brett Beer – 71 Entries
Gold: Fancy Pants, Jessup Farm Barrel House, Fort Collins, CO
Silver: Saison Trystero, Our Mutual Friend Brewing, Denver, CO
Bronze: Touch of Brett Mosaic, Alesong Brewing & Blending, Eugene, OR

Category 27: Mixed-Culture Brett Beer – 65 Entries
Gold: Galaxy Dry Hopped Funk Yo Couch, Wiley Roots Brewing Co., Greeley, CO
Silver: 10 Buck Chuck, Firestone Walker Barrelworks, Buellton, CA
Bronze: CBC & Jester King’s Cor Cordium, Cambridge Brewing Co., Cambridge, MA

Category 28: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer – 70 Entries
Gold: Porter Aged on Palo Santo Wood, Spellbound Brewing, Mount Holly, NJ
Silver: Magpie Muckle, Sun King Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
Bronze: Woody Pils, Bull & Bush Brewery, Denver, CO

Category 29: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer – 175 Entries
Gold: Hurly Burly Port Barrel Aged Barleywine, Out of Bounds Brewing Co., Rocklin, CA
Silver: Woods Monk, Odyssey Beerwerks, Arvada, CO
Bronze: Barrel Aged Barleywine, Charleville Vineyard & Microbrewery, Sainte Genevieve, MO

Category 30: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout – 154 Entries
Gold: Medianoche, WeldWerks Brewing Co., Greeley, CO
Silver: Maman 2017, Perennial Artisan Ales, Saint Louis, MO
Bronze: Barrel-Aged Marfa Light, Big Bend Brewing Co., Alpine, TX

Category 31: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer – 86 Entries
Gold: Plum Creek Sour, Rockyard American Grill & Brewing Co., Castle Rock, CO
Silver: Train to Beersel, Bruery Terreux, Anaheim, CA
Bronze: 5th Anniversary Tequila Sour, Loveland Aleworks, Loveland, CO

Category 32: Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer – 122 Entries
Gold: Zoned AG Apricot, Corralitos Brewing Co., Watsonville, CA
Silver: BA Excommunication, Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery, Atlanta, GA
Bronze: Riserva, Weyerbacher Brewing Co., Easton, PA

Category 33: Aged Beer – 26 Entries
Gold: La Muerta, Freetail Brewing Co., San Antonio, TX
Silver: Solzhenitsyn, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant – Media, Media, PA
Bronze: There is No Quad, The BottleHouse Brewery And Meadery, Cleveland, OH

Category 34: Kellerbier or Zwickelbier – 54 Entries
Gold: Zwickelbier, Red Rock Brewing Co. – Production, Salt Lake City, UT
Silver: Luchesa Lager, Oasis Texas Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Bronze: Pilsner, Marble Brewery – Production, Albuquerque, NM

Category 35: Smoke Beer – 62 Entries
Gold: So long and thanks for all the (smoked) fish!, The Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field, Denver, CO
Silver: Smoke on the Lager, Chilly Water Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
Bronze: Croydon is Burning, Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co., Croydon, PA

Category 36: American-Style Pilsener or International-Style Pilsener – 98 Entries
Gold: Rocket 100, The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Silver: Sesión Cerveza, Full Sail Brewing Co., Hood River, OR
Bronze: Lemon Pils, Elk Horn Brewery, Eugene, OR

Category 37: Light Lager – 45 Entries
Gold: Super Awesome Lager, Austin Beerworks, Austin, TX
Silver: Pedal Haus Light Lager, Pedal Haus Brewery, Tempe, AZ
Bronze: Sun Grown, Sycamore Brewing, Charlotte, NC

Category 38: American-Style Lager or Malt Liquor – 75 Entries
Gold: Mexican Lager, Lone Tree Brewing Co., Lone Tree, CO
Silver: Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR), Pabst Brewing Co., Los Angeles, CA
Bronze: Sun Grown Fresh Craft Lager, The Sycamore Brewing Cannery, Charlotte, NC

Category 39: American-Style Cream Ale – 92 Entries
Gold: Buckle Bunny, Eureka Heights Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Silver: Canü, Uberbrew, Billings, MT
Bronze: Artifexican, Artifex Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA

Category 40: American-Style Amber Lager – 70 Entries
Gold: Auburn Lager, Mad Anthony Brewing Co., Fort Wayne, IN
Silver: Shiner Bock, Spoetzl Brewery, Shiner, TX
Bronze: Rod’s Steam Bitter, Second Street Brewery, Santa Fe, NM

Category 41: German-Style Pilsener – 145 Entries
Gold: Zoigl-Pils, Zoiglhaus Brewing Co., Portland, OR
Silver: Pilsner, Dry Dock Brewing Co. – South Dock, Aurora, CO
Bronze: Pivo, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA

Category 42: Bohemian-Style Pilsener – 93 Entries
Gold: Velvet Revolution, The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Silver: Bohemian Pilsener, TAPS Fish House and Brewery – Corona, Corona, CA
Bronze: Torch Pilsner, Foothills Brewing Co., Winston-Salem, NC

Category 43: Munich-Style Helles – 105 Entries
Gold: Penn Gold, Pennsylvania Brewing Co., Pittsburgh, PA
Silver: Solar, Sanctum Brewing Co., Pomona, CA
Bronze: Munich Light, Emmett’s Brewing Co. – Wheaton, Wheaton, IL

Category 44: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest – 56 Entries
Gold: Dortmunder, Lupulin Brewing, Big Lake, MN
Silver: Longboard Island Lager, Kona Brewing Co., Kailua-Kona, HI
Bronze: Northtown Native, Cinder Block Brewery, North Kansas City, MO

Category 45: Vienna-Style Lager – 87 Entries
Gold: Gustav, Taft’s Ale House, Cincinnati, OH
Silver: Vienna Lager, Lost Forty Brewing, Little Rock, AR
Bronze: Dock Time, Stony Creek Brewery, Branford, CT

Category 46: German-Style Maerzen – 122 Entries
Gold: Asheville Lager, Wedge Brewing Co., Asheville, NC
Silver: Oktoberfest, Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., Fort Worth, TX
Bronze: Oktoberfest, Beaver Island Brewing Co., Saint Cloud, MN

Category 47: Munich-Style Dunkel or European-Style Dark Lager – 47 Entries
Gold: Chuckanut Dunkel, Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA
Silver: Moondoor Dunkel, Wibby Brewing, Longmont, CO
Bronze: Dunkel, Pug Ryan’s Brewing Co., Dillon, CO

Category 48: Dark Lager – 74 Entries
Gold: Mischievous Black, Six Ten Brewing, Tampa, FL
Silver: DTB Schwarzbier, Desperate Times Brewing Co., Carlisle, PA
Bronze: Lighter Than I Look, Figueroa Mountain Brewing, Buellton, CA

Category 49: Bock – 36 Entries
Gold: Low Boy, On Tour Brewing Co., Chicago, IL
Silver: Rock Out with Maibock Out, Hailstorm Brewing Co., Tinley Park, IL
Bronze: Mountain Series: Maibock, Breckenridge Brewery, Littleton, CO

Category 50: German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock – 51 Entries
Gold: Wobblor, Crooked Lane Brewing Co., Auburn, CA
Silver: Spectator, On Tour Brewing Co., Chicago, IL
Bronze: Goldie’s Big Bock, Lonerider Brewing Co., Raleigh, NC

Category 51: Baltic-Style Porter – 48 Entries
Gold: Public Enemy Baltic Porter, Dust Bowl Brewing Co., Turlock, CA
Silver: Herd Of Turtles, Bagby Beer Co., Oceanside, CA
Bronze: Powers of Observation, Ocelot Brewing Co., Dulles, VA

Category 52: Golden or Blonde Ale – 126 Entries
Gold: Boone Creek Blonde, Appalachian Mountain Brewery – Portsmouth, Portsmouth, NH
Silver: Firemans 4, Real Ale Brewing Co., Blanco, TX
Bronze: Blonde, Culture Brewing Co., Solana Beach, CA

Category 53: German-Style Koelsch – 154 Entries
Gold: Chuckanut Kolsch Style, Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA
Silver: Seafarer, Three Weavers Brewing Co., Inglewood, CA
Bronze: Downhill Kölsch, Elk Mountain Brewing Co., Parker, CO

Category 54: English-Style Summer Ale – 41 Entries
Gold: Organic California Blonde Ale, Eel River Brewing Co., Fortuna, CA
Silver: Back In The ESSA, Monkey Paw Brewing, San Diego, CA
Bronze: Bright Ale, Half Full Brewery, Stamford, CT

Category 55: Classic English-Style Pale Ale – 30 Entries
Gold: Mr. Kite’s Pale Ale, Social Kitchen & Brewery, San Francisco, CA
Silver: Extra Pale Ale, Summit Brewing Co., Saint Paul, MN
Bronze: Annadel Pale Ale, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category 56: English-Style India Pale Ale – 41 Entries
Gold: Punjabi, CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing, Fort Collins, CO
Silver: Hoppy Poppy IPA, Figueroa Mountain Brewing, Buellton, CA
Bronze: Jacaranda Rye IPA, Claremont Craft Ales, Claremont, CA

Category 57: Australian-Style or International-Style Pale Ale – 105 Entries
Gold: Triumvirate, Reuben’s Brews Taproom, Seattle, WA
Silver: Pure Intention Pale Ale, HopSaint Brewing Co., Torrance, CA
Bronze: Cannonball Australian-Style Pale Ale, Scottsdale Beer Co., Scottsdale, AZ

Category 58: American-Style Pale Ale – 199 Entries
Gold: Monterey Street, Central Coast Brewing Co., San Luis Obispo, CA
Silver: Mosaic Pale Ale, Lynnwood Brewing Concern – Production Facility, Raleigh, NC
Bronze: Triple Tail, SweetWater Brewing Co., Atlanta, GA

Category 59: American-Style Strong Pale Ale – 182 Entries
Gold: Hubert MPA, Melvin Brewing, Alpine, WY
Silver: Wolfback Ridge, Headlands Brewing Co., Mill Valley, CA
Bronze: Breakside Stay West, Breakside Brewery + Beer Hall, Portland, OR

Category 60: American-Style India Pale Ale – 408 Entries
Gold: Prairie Madness, Hailstorm Brewing Co., Tinley Park, IL
Silver: Gold Digger IPA, Auburn Alehouse, Auburn, CA
Bronze: Breakside IPA, Breakside Brewery & Taproom, Milwaukie, OR

Category 61: Imperial India Pale Ale – 221 Entries
Gold: Manta Ray, Ballast Point Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Silver: Lupulin River, Knee Deep Brewing Co., Auburn, CA
Bronze: Chux, Danville Brewing Co., Danville, CA

Category 62: American-Style Amber/Red Ale – 90 Entries
Gold: F-Town Amber, Copper Club Brewing Co., Fruita, CO
Silver: Legally Red, Second Chance Beer Co., San Diego, CA
Bronze: Blue Bridge, Galveston Island Brewing, Galveston, TX

Category 63: Double Red Ale – 72 Entries
Gold: Hop Donkey, Auburn Alehouse, Auburn, CA
Silver: St. James, Coldfire Brewing, Eugene, OR
Bronze: Midwest Red IPA, Masthead Brewing Co., Cleveland, OH

Category 64: Imperial Red Ale – 41 Entries
Gold: Cinder Beast, Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR
Silver: Hop Zombie, Lone Tree Brewing Co., Lone Tree, CO
Bronze: Jagged Shard, Boise Brewing, Boise, ID

Category 65: English-Style Mild Ale – 44 Entries
Gold: Hold the Reins, Brink Brewing Co., Cincinnati, OH
Silver: Mamoot English Mild, Logboat Brewing Co., Columbia, MO
Bronze: Nemo, Bonn Place Brewing, Bethlehem, PA

Category 66: Ordinary or Special Bitter – 34 Entries
Gold: Three Tun, Brew Hub, Lakeland, FL
Silver: Mooey, Bonn Place Brewing, Bethlehem, PA
Bronze: Saint Arnold Amber Ale, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX

Category 67: Extra Special Bitter – 73 Entries
Gold: 14° ESB, Bent Paddle Brewing Co., Duluth, MN
Silver: Extra Special Ale, Yards Brewing Co., Philadelphia, PA
Bronze: Holler ESB, Holler Brewing Co., Houston, TX

Category 68: Scottish-Style Ale – 53 Entries
Gold: Taildragger’s Clan-Destine, Saddle Mountain Brewing Co., Goodyear, AZ
Silver: McGarvey’s Scottish Ale, Oggi’s Sports Brewhouse Pizza, San Clemente, CA
Bronze: Heavy 80 Scotch Ale, Coal Creek TAP, Laramie, WY

Category 69: Irish-Style Red Ale – 80 Entries
Gold: Ridgetop Red, Silver City Brewery, Bremerton, WA
Silver: Bomber Mountain, Black Tooth Brewing Co., Sheridan, WY
Bronze: Riley’s Irish Red, Packinghouse Brewing Co., Riverside, CA

Category 70: English-Style Brown Ale – 63 Entries
Gold: Boulder Garden Brown, Orlison Brewing Co., Airway Heights, WA
Silver: Shaven Yak Brown, Wichita Brewing Co. – Production, Wichita, KS
Bronze: Rogue River Brown, Rockford Brewing Co., Rockford, MI

Category 71: American-Style Brown Ale – 90 Entries
Gold: Bull Creek Brown Ale, Springfield Brewing Co., Springfield, MO
Silver: FRB Brown, Fort Rock Brewing, Rancho Cordova, CA
Bronze: Machine Gun Teddy, Goldwater Brewing Co., Scottsdale, AZ

Category 72: American-Style Black Ale – 54 Entries
Gold: Hoppa Emeritus, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach, CA
Silver: Black 28, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Golden, CO
Bronze: Midnight Moonlight, Fat Head’s Brewery, Middleburg Heights, OH

Category 73: Berliner-Style Weisse – 72 Entries
Gold: Kalliope, Captain Fatty’s, Goleta, CA
Silver: Ringmaster Raspberry Berliner, Big Top Brewing Co., Sarasota, FL
Bronze: Blackberry Table Sour, Baere Brewing Co., Denver, CO

Category 74: Leipzig-Style Gose or Contemporary Gose – 96 Entries
Gold: Mermaid’s Scorn, Benchtop Brewing Co., Norfolk, VA
Silver: No. 33 Gose, The Freehouse, Minneapolis, MN
Bronze: Passionfruit Gose, Perrin Brewing Co., Comstock Park, MI

Category 75: German-Style Altbier – 53 Entries
Gold: Glacier Ale, Red Lodge Ales Brewing Co., Red Lodge, MT
Silver: It’s Your Fault, Piece Brewery, Chicago, IL
Bronze: Little Red Cap, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, Loveland, CO

Category 76: South German-Style Hefeweizen – 128 Entries
Gold: Hefeweizen, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant – Navy Yard, Broomfield, CO
Silver: Big Horn Hefeweizen, RAM/Big Horn Brewery – Lakewood, Lakewood, WA
Bronze: Hornet’s Nest, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, Charlotte, NC

Category 77: German-Style Wheat Ale – 41 Entries
Gold: AlpenGlow, Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon, North Olmsted, OH
Silver: Hidden Gem, OB Brewery, San Diego, CA
Bronze: Saint Arnold Weedwacker, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX

Category 78: Belgian-Style Blonde Ale or Pale Ale – 64 Entries
Gold: Squatters Hell’s Keep, Utah Brewers Cooperative, Salt Lake City, UT
Silver: Breton Blonde, Metazoa Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
Bronze: Belgian Pale Ale, Redwood Curtain Brewing Co., Arcata, CA

Category 79: Belgian-Style Witbier – 78 Entries
Gold: Wild Wacky Wit, Moon River Brewing Co., Savannah, GA
Silver: Suntrip, New Terrain Brewing Co., Golden, CO
Bronze: Witte Ale, Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY

Category 80: Classic Saison – 103 Entries
Gold: Saison, Funkwerks, Fort Collins, CO
Silver: Matisse, Night Shift Brewing, Everett, MA
Bronze: One Arm Farmhouse Ale, Hobbs Tavern & Brewing Co., West Ossipee, NH

Category 81: Specialty Saison – 81 Entries
Gold: Rye Saison, Base Camp Brewing Co., Portland, OR
Silver: Make Hay, Cellar West Artisan Ales, Boulder, CO
Bronze: Farmhouse Saison, CO-Brew, Denver, CO

Category 82: Belgian- and French-Style Ale – 53 Entries
Gold: Grisette Summer Ale, Sly Fox Brewing Co., Pottstown, PA
Silver: Biere de Voleur, Horse Thief Hollow Brewery, Chicago, IL
Bronze: Working Title, Perennial Artisan Ales, Saint Louis, MO

Category 83: Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale – 77 Entries
Gold: El Sur, Casa Agria Specialty Ales, Oxnard, CA
Silver: Blended 2017, Side Project Brewing, Maplewood, MO
Bronze: Drinking with Friends, Mraz Brewing Co., El Dorado Hills, CA

Category 84: Belgian-Style Dubbel or Quadrupel – 75 Entries
Gold: #QuadGoals, 515 Brewing Co., Clive, IA
Silver: Deduction, Taxman Brewing Co., Bargersville, IN
Bronze: Four Fat Baby, Hillman Beer, Asheville, NC

Category 85: Belgian-Style Tripel – 77 Entries
Gold: Tripel Dog Dare, Big Dog’s Brewing Co., Las Vegas, NV
Silver: Rapunzel, Corridor Brewery & Provisions, Chicago, IL
Bronze: Tripel Horse, River Horse Brewing Co., Ewing, NJ

Category 86: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale – 74 Entries
Gold: Amandus, Lazarus Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Silver: It’s Always Something, Peticolas Brewing Co., Dallas, TX
Bronze: Smells Like Money, BearWaters Brewing Co., Canton, NC

Category 87: Other Belgian-Style Ale – 42 Entries
Gold: Witty Moron, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, San Diego, CA
Silver: Lux Mundi, Save the World Brewing Co., Marble Falls, TX
Bronze: Cousin Stoopid, Stickman Brews, Royersford, PA

Category 88: Brown Porter – 57 Entries
Gold: Porter, Back East Brewing, Bloomfield, CT
Silver: Pinch Hit Porter, Stadium Pizza Main St., Lake Elsinore, CA
Bronze: Man Full of Trouble, Dock Street Brewery, Philadelphia, PA

Category 89: Robust Porter – 97 Entries
Gold: Tabula Rasa Toasted Porter, Second Chance Beer Co., San Diego, CA
Silver: Black Strap Molasses Porter, Waikiki Brewing Co., Honolulu, HI
Bronze: JFP, Rivertowne Pour House, Monroeville, PA

Category 90: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout – 30 Entries
Gold: Bearded Seal, Pinthouse Pizza North, Austin, TX
Silver: Sheehan’s Stout, Rockford Brewing Co., Rockford, MI
Bronze: Boulder Stout, PT’s Brewing Co., Las Vegas, NV

Category 91: Export Stout – 48 Entries
Gold: Correspondent, Wander Brewing, Bellingham, WA
Silver: Z-Man Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Black Rock Stout, Crossroads Brewing Co., Athens, NY

Category 92: American-Style Stout – 60 Entries
Gold: Cholo Stout, Marble Brewery – Mav Lab, Albuquerque, NM
Silver: American Stout, Wild Wolf Brewing Co., Nellysford, VA
Bronze: Night of the Living Stout, Full Pint Brewing Co., North Versailles, PA

Category 93: Sweet Stout or Cream Stout – 69 Entries
Gold: Oatmeal Milk Stout, Finkel & Garf Brewing Co., Boulder, CO
Silver: Milk Bone, Pinellas Ale Works, Saint Petersburg, FL
Bronze: McPoyle, Mile Wide Beer Co., Louisville, KY

Category 94: Oatmeal Stout – 57 Entries
Gold: Wall of Sound, Stereo Brewing Co., Placentia, CA
Silver: The Ferguson, Studio Brew, Bristol, VA
Bronze: Fat Pug, Maplewood Brewing Co., Chicago, IL

Category 95: Imperial Stout – 80 Entries
Gold: The Russian, 2SP Brewing Co., Aston, PA
Silver: Russian Imperial Stout, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant – Media, Media, PA
Bronze: Duke Snider’s Imperial Stout, Walking Tree Brewery, Vero Beach, FL

Category 96: Scotch Ale – 70 Entries
Gold: Real Heavy, Real Ale Brewing Co., Blanco, TX
Silver: Duck-Rabbit Wee Heavy Scotch Style Ale, Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery, Farmville, NC
Bronze: AleSmith Wee Heavy, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 97: Old Ale or Strong Ale – 43 Entries
Gold: 10&2 Barleywine, Fifty West Brewing Co., Cincinnati, OH
Silver: Heini’s Good Cheer, Roundabout Brewery, Pittsburgh, PA
Bronze: Pilgrim’s Dole, New Holland Brewing Co., Holland, MI

Category 98: Barley Wine-Style Ale – 49 Entries
Gold: Shipfaced, Silver Harbor Brewing Co., Saint Joseph, MI
Silver: No. 20 Barleywine, The Freehouse, Minneapolis, MN
Bronze: Behemoth, One Barrel Brewing Co., Madison, WI

Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition – 118 Entries
Gold: Just Another Pretty Face, Denver Beer Co., Denver, CO
     Brewmaster Jason Buehler and Denver Beer Co. Brewing Team, AHA Member Doug Thiel
Silver: Lichtenhainer, Black Bottle Brewery, Fort Collins, CO
     Brewmaster Black Bottle Scuba Squad, AHA Member Daniel Tomkins
Bronze: Eluxansis, Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO
     Brewmaster Odell Brew Team, AHA Member Mark Boelman

2017 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards

Packaging Breweries

Very Small Brewing Company and Very Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year = <1,000 BBLS
on-tour
On Tour Brewing Co., Chicago, IL
Mark Poffenberger & Mark Legenza

Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year = 1,000 – 14,999 BBLS
sunriver
Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, OR
Sunriver Brewing Team

Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year = 15,000 – 6,000,000 BBLS
st-arnold-new
Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Saint Arnold Brew Crew

Brewpubs

Small Brewpub and Brewmaster of the Year = <750 BBLS
rockford
Rockford Brewing Co., Rockford, MI
Rockford Brewing Company

Mid-Size Brewpub and Brewmaster of the Year = 750 – 1,500 BBLS
moon-river-wh
Moon River Brewing Co., Savannah, GA
Moon River Brewing Company

Large Brewpub and Brewmaster of the Year = 1,500+ BBLS
abgb
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Amos Swifty Kim

Large Breweries or Multiple Location Breweries

Brewery Group and Brewmaster of the Year
melvin
Melvin Brewing, Alpine, WY
Melvin Brewing

Per Capita Alcohol Consumption By Country

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world-map-3
The website VoucherCloud published an interactive map showing the The World’s Booziest Countries. The source they used for the data is from the recently released World Health Statistics 2017.

booziest-map-2017
booziest-map-2017-key

The original story only lists the top fifteen countries, and identifies the United States at No. 27. Happily, they made the full list available in a Google sheet. The first number is their rank, of course, followed by the name of the country and the final number after their name is “Alcohol consumed per capita (litres).”

The Worlds Booziest Countries: Full Data

1 Lithuania 18.2
2 Belarus 16.4
3 Moldova 15.9
4 Russia 13.9
5 Czech Republic 13.7
6 Romania 13.7
7 Croatia 13.6
8 Bulgaria 13.6
9 Belgium 13.2
10 Ukraine 12.8
11 Estonia 12.8
12 Slovakia 12.3
13 Hungary 12.3
14 Latvia 12.3
15 United Kingdom 12.3
16 Poland 12.3
17 South Korea 11.9
18 Serbia 11.8
19 Namibia 11.8
20 Uganda 11.8
21 France 11.7
22 Equatorial Guinea 11.6
23 Rwanda 11.5
24 Germany 11.4
25 Slovenia 11.3
26 Australia 11.2
27 South Africa 11.2
28 Luxembourg 11.1
29 Finland 10.9
30 Ireland 10.9
31 Gabon 10.8
32 Angola 10.8
33 Seychelles 10.8
34 Portugal 10.6
35 Austria 10.6
36 Andorra 10.5
37 New Zealand 10.1
38 Denmark 10.1
39 Switzerland 10
40 Canada 10
25 Cameroon 9.9
26 Montenegro 9.6
27 Cyprus 9.3
27 United States 9.3
28 Spain 9.2
29 Nigeria 9.1
29 Argentina 9.1
30 Chile 9
31 Brazil 8.9
31 Peru 8.9
32 Sweden 8.8
32 São Tomé and Príncipe 8.8
33 Kazakhstan 8.7
33 Netherlands 8.7
33 Guyana 8.7
34 Vietnam 8.6
35 Greece 8.5
35 Zimbabwe 8.5
36 Belize 8.2
36 Botswana 8.2
36 Cape Verde 8.2
37 Grenada 8.1
37 Georgia 8.1
38 Suriname 8
39 Panama 7.9
39 Palau 7.9
39 Trinidad and Tobago 7.9
39 Republic of the Congo 7.9
40 Japan 7.8
40 Norway 7.8
40 Mongolia 7.8
40 Barbados 7.8
40 China 7.8
41 Saint Lucia 7.6
41 Burkina Faso 7.6
41 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 7.6
41 Italy 7.6
42 Malta 7.5
42 Iceland 7.5
43 Laos 7.3
44 Thailand 7.2
45 Venezuela 7.1
45 Niue 7.1
45 Mexico 7.1
46 Burundi 6.9
46 Saint Kitts and Nevis 6.9
47 Uruguay 6.8
48 Dominican Republic 6.6
49 Paraguay 6.3
49 Tanzania 6.3
49 Haiti 6.3
50 Swaziland 6
51 Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.9
51 Bolivia 5.9
52 Sierra Leone 5.7
52 Albania 5.7
52 Lesotho 5.7
53 Philippines 5.6
54 Jamaica 5.5
54 Kyrgyzstan 5.5
54 Turkmenistan 5.5
55 Puerto Rico 5.4
55 Netherlands Antilles 5.4
55 Armenia 5.4
55 Cuba 5.4
55 Liberia 5.4
55 Bahamas 5.4
55 Guinea-Bissau 5.4
56 Cambodia 5.3
57 Colombia 5.2
57 Ivory Coast 5.2
57 Chad 5.2
58 Ecuador 5.1
58 Cook Islands 5.1
58 Nicaragua 5.1
58 Uzbekistan 5.1
59 Dominica 5
59 India 5
59 Gambia 5
60 Ethiopia 4.6
61 Ghana 4.4
61 Kenya 4.4
62 Costa Rica 4.1
62 Sri Lanka 4.1
63 Mauritius 4
63 Azerbaijan 4
64 Zambia 3.9
64 North Korea 3.9
65 Honduras 3.8
65 Central African Republic 3.8
66 Nauru 3.6
67 El Salvador 3.4
68 Fiji 3.3
68 Sudan 3.3
69 Guatemala 3.1
70 United Arab Emirates 3
70 Democratic Republic of the Congo 3
70 Israel 3
71 Tajikistan 2.9
72 Macedonia 2.8
72 Samoa 2.8
73 Kiribati 2.7
74 Togo 2.6
74 Benin 2.6
75 Nepal 2.5
76 Federated States of Micronesia 2.4
76 Papua New Guinea 2.4
76 Malawi 2.4
77 Mozambique 2.3
78 Myanmar 2.2
79 Singapore 1.9
79 Turkey 1.9
79 Tuvalu 1.9
80 Madagascar 1.8
81 Maldives 1.7
82 Lebanon 1.6
82 Tunisia 1.6
83 Malaysia 1.5
84 Solomon Islands 1.4
84 Tonga 1.4
85 Vanuatu 1.3
85 Brunei 1.3
86 Mali 1.2
86 Eritrea 1.2
87 Qatar 1
87 Algeria 1
87 Iran 1
87 Timor-Leste 1
88 Bahrain 0.9
89 Syria 0.8
89 Morocco 0.8
89 Guinea 0.8
90 Indonesia 0.6
91 Oman 0.5
91 Jordan 0.5
91 Bhutan 0.5
91 Afghanistan 0.5
91 Senegal 0.5
91 Somalia 0.5
91 Niger 0.5
92 Djibouti 0.4
92 Iraq 0.4
92 Egypt 0.4
93 Yemen 0.2
93 Comoros 0.2
93 Saudi Arabia 0.2
93 Bangladesh 0.2
93 Kuwait 0.2
93 Pakistan 0.2
94 Libya 0.1
94 Mauritania 0.1

And here are the notes for each of the Top 15:

  1. Lithuania is the booziest country in the world. Lithuanians consume 18.2 litres of pure alcohol per capita or the equivalent to 186 bottles of wine.
  2. Belarus comes in second behind Lithuania. The country drinks 168 bottles of wine or 16.4 litres per capita.
  3. Moldovans consume 15.9 litres of pure alcohol per capita or 163 bottles of wine.
  4. Russia takes fourth place in the booziest country stakes. Russians consume the equivalent of 1390 vodka shots per capita.
  5. The Czech Republic drink a huge 482 pints of beer per capita! That’s 13.7 litres of pure alcohol.
  6. Tie for 6th:
    • In Romania people consume 13.7 litres of pure alcohol per capita.
    • Croatia follows closely behind Romania, consuming 13.6 per capita.
    • Bulgarians drink 13.6 litres of pure alcohol or 479 pints of lager per capita.
  7. Belgians drink 478 pints of beer per capita! That’s 13.2 litres of pure alcohol.
  8. Tie for 8th:
    • Ukranians consume 12.8 litres of pure alcohol per capita or 131 bottles of wine.
    • Estonia is joint eighth with people drinking 12.8 litres of pure alcohol per capita.
  9. Tie for 9th:
    • Solvakia is joint ninth place with people consuming 12.3 litres of pure alcohol per capita.
    • Hugarians consume 12.3 litres of pure alcohol per capita and take join tninth place.
    • Latvians drink 12.3 litres of pure alcohol per capita which is equal to 433 pints!
    • The UK is in the top 10 booziest countries. We each consume 12.3 litres of pure alcohol a year – the equivalent of around 126 bottles of wine.
    • Poland is also in joint ninth place with the UK, Slovakia, Hungary and Latvia.
  10. South Koreans drink 11.9 litres of pure alcohol per person and take the tenth place in the booziest countries place!

And here’s the note for the U.S.

  1. The US lags behind us on 9.3 litres per person – that’s the same as 564 330ml bottles of Budweiser.

Top 50 Craft Breweries For 2016

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ba
The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2016, 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 the ninth year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:

Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies

Rank Brewing Company City State
1 D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc Pottsville PA
2 Boston Beer Co Boston MA
3 Sierra Nevada Brewing Chico CA
4 New Belgium Brewing Fort Collins CO
5 Gambrinus San Antonio TX
6 Duvel Moortgat Paso Robles/Kansas City/Cooperstown CA/MO/NY
7 Bell’s Brewery, Inc Comstock MI
8 Deschutes Brewery Bend OR
9 Stone Brewing Escondido CA
10 Oskar Blues Brewing Holding Longmont CO
11 Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn NY
12 Minhas Craft Brewery Monroe WI
13 Artisanal Brewing Ventures Downington/Lakewood PA/NY
14 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Milton DE
15 SweetWater Brewing Atlanta GA
16 New Glarus Brewing New Glarus WI
17 Matt Brewing Utica NY
18 Harpoon Brewery Boston MA
19 Alaskan Brewing Juneau AK
20 Abita Brewing Abita Springs LA
21 Great Lakes Brewing Cleveland OH
22 Anchor Brewing San Francisco CA
23 Stevens Point Brewery Stevens Point WI
24 August Schell Brewing New Ulm MN
24 Long Trail Brewing Bridgewater Corners VT
26 Summit Brewing Saint Paul MN
27 Odell Brewing Fort Collins CO
28 Shipyard Brewing Portland ME
29 Full Sail Brewing Hood River OR
30 Rogue Ales Newport OR
31 21st Amendment Brewery Bay Area CA
32 Flying Dog Brewery Frederick MD
33 Ninkasi Brewing Eugene OR
34 Gordon Biersch Brewing San Jose CA
35 Allagash Brewing Portland ME
36 Narragansett Brewing Providence RI
37 Green Flash Brewing Co San Diego CA
38 Tröegs Brewing Hershey PA
39 Uinta Brewing Salt Lake City UT
40 Bear Republic Brewing Cloverdale CA
41 Karl Strauss Brewing San Diego CA
42 Surly Brewing Minneapolis MN
43 Sixpoint Brewery Brooklyn NY
44 Left Hand Brewing Longmont CO
45 Lost Coast Brewery Eureka CA
46 Revolution Brewing Chicago IL
47 North Coast Brewing Fort Bragg CA
48 Avery Brewing Boulder CO
49 Real Ale Brewing Blanco TX
50 BJ’s Brewery Huntington Beach CA

Here is this year’s press release. The last couple of years, the BA has helpfully annotated the list, saving me lots of time, since I’ve been annotating the list for the last nine years, but they’ve abandoned that practice for a second year. So for the ninth consecutive year, I’ll also posted an annotated list, showing the changes in each brewery’s rank from year to year, but it will take me some time to put together so I’ll have that again later tonight or tomorrow.

And similar to last year, the BA created a map showing the relative location of each of the breweries that made the list.

Top_50_Craft_Breweries_2016

Top 50 Breweries For 2016

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ba
The Brewers Association has also just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2016, which this year they’re calling the “Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies.” This includes all breweries, regardless of size or any other definitions or parameters. Here is the new list:

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

Breweries in bold are considered to be “small and independent craft brewers” under the BA’s current definition. That there are so many footnotes (23 in total, or almost half of the list) explaining exceptions or reasons for the specific entry, seems illustrative of a growing problem with the definition of what is a craft brewery. I certainly understand the need for a trade group to have a clearly defined set of criteria for membership, but I think the current one is getting increasingly outdated again, and it’s only been a few years since the contentious debate that resulted in the current BA one. But it may be time to revisit that again.

six-glasses

Rank Brewing Company City State
1 Anheuser-Busch, Inc (a) Saint Louis MO
2 MillerCoors (b) Chicago IL
3 Pabst Brewing Co (c) Los Angeles CA
4 D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc Pottsville PA
5 North American Breweries (d) Rochester NY
6 Boston Beer Co (e) Boston MA
7 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co Chico CA
8 New Belgium Brewing Co Fort Collins CO
9 Lagunitas Brewing Co (f) Petaluma CA
10 Craft Brew Alliance (g) Portland OR
11 Gambrinus (h) San Antonio TX
12 Duvel Moortgat (i) Paso Robles/Kansas City/Cooperstown CA/MO/NY
13 Ballast Point Brewing Co (j) San Diego CA
14 Bell’s Brewery, Inc (k) Comstock MI
15 Deschutes Brewery Bend OR
16 Founders Brewing Co (l) Grand Rapids MI
17 Stone Brewing Co Escondido CA
18 Oskar Blues Brewing
Holding Co (m)		 Longmont CO
19 Sapporo USA (n) La Crosse WI
20 Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn NY
21 Minhas Craft Brewery (o) Monroe WI
22 Artisanal Brewing Ventures (p) Downington/Lakewood PA/NY
23 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Milton DE
24 SweetWater Brewing Co Atlanta GA
25 New Glarus Brewing Co New Glarus WI
26 Matt Brewing Co (q) Utica NY
27 Harpoon Brewery Boston MA
28 Alaskan Brewing Co Juneau AK
29 Abita Brewing Co Abita Springs LA
30 Great Lakes Brewing Co Cleveland OH
31 Anchor Brewing Co San Francisco CA
32 Stevens Point Brewery (r) Stevens Point WI
33 August Schell Brewing Co (s) New Ulm MN
33 Long Trail Brewing Co (t) Bridgewater Corners VT
35 Summit Brewing Co Saint Paul MN
36 Odell Brewing Co Fort Collins CO
37 Shipyard Brewing Co (u) Portland ME
38 Full Sail Brewing Co Hood River OR
39 Rogue Ales Newport OR
40 21st Amendment Brewery Bay Area CA
41 Flying Dog Brewery Frederick MD
42 Ninkasi Brewing Co Eugene OR
43 Gordon Biersch Brewing Co San Jose CA
44 Allagash Brewing Co Portland ME
45 Narragansett Brewing Co Providence RI
46 Green Flash Brewing Co (v) San Diego CA
47 Tröegs Brewing Co Hershey PA
48 Uinta Brewing Co Salt Lake City UT
49 Bear Republic Brewing Co Cloverdale CA
50 Pittsburgh Brewing Co (w) Pittsburgh PA

six-glasses

2016 Top 50 Overall U.S.
Brewing Companies Notes

Details from brand lists are illustrative and may not be exhaustive. Ownership stakes reflect
greater than 25% ownership:

(a) Anheuser-Busch, Inc includes 10 Barrel, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Point, Bud Light,
Budweiser, Breckenridge, Busch, Devils Backbone (partial year), Elysian, Four Peaks,
Golden Road, Goose Island, Karbach (partial year), King Cobra, Landshark, Michelob,
Natural Rolling Rock, Shock Top, Wild Series brands and Ziegenbock brands. Does not
include partially owned Coastal, Craft Brew Alliance, Fordham, Kona, Old Dominion,
Omission, Red Hook, and Widmer Brothers brands;
(b) MillerCoors includes A.C. Golden, Batch 19, Blue Moon, Colorado Native, Coors,
Hamms, Hop Valley (partial year), Icehouse, Keystone, Killian’s, Leinenkugel’s,
Mickey’s, Milwaukee’s Best, Miller, Olde English, Revolver (partial year), Saint Archer,
Steel Reserve, Tenth & Blake, and Terrapin (partial year) brands;
(c) Pabst Brewing Co includes Ballantine, Lone Star, Pabst, Pearl, Primo, Rainier, Schlitz
and Small Town brands;
(d) North American Breweries includes Dundee, Genesee, Labatt Lime, Mactarnahan’s,
Magic Hat, Portland and Pyramid brands as well as import volume;
(e) Boston Beer Co includes Alchemy & Science and Sam Adams brands. Does not include
Twisted Tea or Angry Orchard brands;
(f) Lagunitas Brewing Co ownership stake by Heineken;
(g) Craft Brew Alliance includes Kona, Omission, Red Hook and Widmer Brothers brands;
(h) Gambrinus includes BridgePort, Shiner and Trumer brands;
(i) Duvel Moortgat USA includes Boulevard, Firestone Walker, and Ommegang brands;
(j) Ballast Point Brewing Co owned by Constellation brands;
(k) Bell’s Brewery, Inc includes Bell’s and Upper Hand brands;
(l) Founders ownership stake by Mahou San Miguel;
(m) Oskar Blues Brewing Holding Co includes Cigar City, Perrin and Utah Brewers
Cooperative brands;
(n) Sapporo USA includes Sapporo and Sleeman brands as well as export volume;
(o) Minhas Craft Brewery includes Huber, Mountain Crest and Rhinelander brands as well as
export volume;
(p) Artisanal Brewing Ventures includes Victory and Southern Tier brands;
(q) Matt Brewing Co includes Flying Bison, Saranac and Utica Club brands;
(r) Stevens Point Brewery includes James Page and Point brands;
(s) August Schell Brewing Co includes Grain Belt and Schell’s brands;
(t) Long Trail Brewing Co includes Long Trail, Otter Creek, The Shed and Wolaver’s
brands;
(u) Shipyard Brewing Co includes Casco Bay, Sea Dog and Shipyard brands;
(v) Green Flash Brewing Co includes Alpine and Green Flash brands;
(w)Pittsburgh Brewing Co includes Iron City and Old German brands

BEER-generic

Here is this year’s press release.

The Price Of A Beer: 1952-2016

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beer-money
I saw a slideshow recently on a genealogy website that took data from the Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and showed the price of a pint beginning in 1952 through last year, along with what that price would be in today’s money, in other words adjusted for inflation. I took it from a slideshow and turned into a table so you could more easily see the changes over time. Perhaps most surprising is that the average price of a beer is one-third less now than it was 64 years ago.

1-drink-bill

According to the data, the adjusted price for a pint peaked in the mid-1950s, 1956-57 to be specific. After that, the price has been coming down slowly but surely (with a few blips here and there) ever since. Part of that is undoubtedly efficiencies in both brewing and distribution. The on-and-off price wars that the big brewers engaged in over the last few decades must certainly have played a roll, as it kept prices artificially low across the board. At any rate, it’s interesting to see the prices all laid out like this over six decades. I’m sure others will see a lot more in the data, too.

wooden-nickel

Year
Price of Beer
Adjusted for Inflation
1952
$0.65
$5.93
1953
$0.65
$5.80
1954
$0.67
$5.93
1955
$0.67
$5.91
1956
$0.68
$6.01
1957
$0.69
$6.01
1958
$0.69
$5.82
1959
$0.70
$5.74
1960
$0.71
$5.77
1961
$0.71
$5.68
1962
$0.71
$5.62
1963
$0.72
$5.64
1964
$0.73
$5.64
1965
$0.74
$5.65
1966
$0.75
$5.63
1967
$0.76
$5.54
1968
$0.79
$5.61
1969
$0.82
$5.58
1970
$0.86
$5.58
1971
$0.89
$5.43
1972
$0.91
$5.32
1973
$0.94
$5.32
1974
$1.01
$5.38
1975
$1.09
$5.23
1976
$1.12
$4.93
1977
$1.15
$4.78
1978
$1.22
$4.76
1979
$1.32
$4.79
1980
$1.42
$4.63
1981
$1.52
$4.37
1982
$1.59
$4.14
1983
$1.65
$4.05
1984
$1.70
$4.04
1985
$1.75
$3.99
1986
$1.83
$4.03
1987
$1.88
$4.06
1988
$1.95
$4.06
1989
$2.03
$4.06
1990
$2.13
$4.07
1991
$2.35
$4.26
1992
$2.43
$4.22
1993
$2.47
$4.17
1994
$2.50
$4.10
1995
$2.54
$4.06
1996
$2.61
$4.05
1997
$2.68
$4.04
1998
$2.73
$4.08
1999
$2.80
$4.07
2000
$2.88
$4.09
2001
$2.95
$4.06
2002
$3.02
$4.04
2003
$3.08
$4.05
2004
$3.17
$4.08
2005
$3.23
$4.05
2006
$3.31
$4.01
2007
$3.41
$4.00
2008
$3.53
$4.03
2009
$3.64
$4.00
2010
$3.68
$4.06
2011
$3.73
$4.05
2012
$3.88
$4.00
2013
$3.87
$3.99
2014
$3.91
$3.97
2015
$3.95
$3.95
2016
$3.99
$3.99

nickel-beer

Session #117: Predicting The Future Of Beer

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crystal-ball
The 117th Session, is hosted this month by Csaba Babak, who writes the British beer blog Beer Means Business. For his topic, he’s chosen More, More, More, by which he’s asking us all to “paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.”

Here’s his full description of the topic:

I have always been obsessed with asking what happens next or what is still ahead instead of simply embracing what is in the present. Ever since I heard about Beer Blogging Fridays, I have been toying with the idea of hosting a Session to paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.

This month, Beer Means Business has the honour to host The Session and to make this happen. The final picture of Beer Future will be based on what you think we will see MORE of.

Over the last 10 years, numerous topics have been presented and the bloggers who discussed them expressed a rich diversity of perspectives or specific areas of interest. Therefore, I refrain from giving you further ideas or examples. There are no limits in time, space or nature either. I would like you to let your imagination free, and capture ONE thing you think we will see MORE of with an explanation of the idea.

session_logo_all_text_200

So this month’s Session will be short, both by necessity and because I think the answer to this month’s question has a relatively short answer.

beer-in-your-future

So, looking into my crystal ball, I have two observations.

1. Predictions are a fool’s errand. None of us can really say what the future will hold. Oh, we can make educated guesses, even back them up with charts, history or trend indicators. And I’ll even admit it can be fun to try. But in the end, the future rarely ever looks anything close to what think it will. To wit: where is my flying car that folds into a briefcase? A great quote that illustrates how off predictions can be comes from Joe Owades. Owades, in addition to creating low-calorie diet beer (a.k.a. light beer), helped several early small brewers with their recipes. In April of 1987 he said. “No microbrewer in his right mind should make wheat beer. Five years from now it will be dead (as a commercial product).” Wheat beers of all kinds seem to be doing very nicely, thank you very much. Though not beer-related, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once quipped that “no one will ever need more than 64K RAM.” And these were both smart people who were well-respected members of their industries, knew a lot about their subject matter, yet failed utterly to grasp where the future was heading. I also happen to think (a hunch really) that even most predictions that turned out to be correct were the result of blind luck. So lots of predictions continue to fail, and will continue to fail, and maybe a few will turn out to be correct, but not enough to know who you should listen to and who to ignore. So I think it’s best to ignore them all and follow what you personally like, what speaks to you. At least that way you’ll be happy. There is, however, one thing I believe I can safely predict for the near future, and even the distant future. Then again, maybe I’m wrong.

2. People will still be drinking beer, and with a little luck, more of it will be beer with flavor.

Schlitz-1951-crystal-ball

The Ballmer Peak

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ballmer-peak
I was unaware of the Ballmer Peak (named for Microsoft’s 30th employee and former CEO Steve Ballmer) until today, but it’s an interesting idea, although there are some who believe it just may be an elaborate joke. In a nutshell, it’s the idea “that having a BAC in the 0.129% – 0.138% range can improve your cognitive abilities,” and it’s supposedly an effective technique to help with computer programming. Another way it’s been described is that “alcohol improves cognitive ability, up to a point,” and that it’s apparently a variation of the Yerkes–Dodson law, which says “that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point.” xkcd described it with this cartoon:

ballmer_peak

Obviously, it may sound like bunk, but there has been earlier evidence of Creativity & Beer and also Caffeine Vs. Alcohol: Which One Better Enhances Creativity?. There’s also a lot of anecdotal evidence that alcohol can trigger creativity and/or create the conditions for new types of thinking to occur if in that sweet spot of not too drunk, and not too sober. Certainly there’s a rich historical record of books and songs created by writers and composers who were under the influence. And there was a great Bill Hicks bit about how if you think there are no positive aspects to drugs, he suggests burning all of the music that you love, because so many of the musicians who wrote it were “really fucking high.” Naturally, Bill put it much better than I ever could:

“You see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And if you don’t believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight. Take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn them. ‘Cause you know what, the musicians that made all that great music that’s enhanced your lives throughout the years were rrreal fucking high on drugs. The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few tunes.”

Recently, however, there was an article in the Observer whose headline was “The Ballmer Peak Is Real, Study Says.”

A recent study at the University of Illinois tested the creative problem solving ability of a group of men who were given vodka cranberry and snacks and asked to solve brain teasers. The results were starkly different for the tispy group, which had a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.075, versus the control group:

Astonishingly, those in the drinking group averaged nine correct questions to the six answers correct by the non-drinking group. It also took drunk men 11.5 seconds to answer a question, whereas non-drunk men needed 15.2 seconds to think. Both groups had comparable results on a similar exam before the alcohol consumption began.

The study notes that the Ballmer Peak effect was present for creative problem solving but not for working memory.

balmers-peak-for-programmers

Also, on the skeptics forum on Stack Exchange, someone asked if the Balmer Peak was real, and one of the answers posted was this:

[An] article by Norlander [link no longer working] specifically studies the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption (1.0ml/kg body weight) and creativity. According to my very rough calculations, this would correspond to a BAC in the range of 0.12–0.14 for a 73kg human. The paper concludes

…modest alcohol consumption inhibits aspects of creativity based mainly on the secondary process (preparation, certain parts of illumination, and verification), and disinhibits those based mainly on the primary process (incubation, certain parts of illumination, and restitution).

In other words, moderate alcohol consumption does improve certain types of creative thinking, while inhibiting other types of creative thinking. Since the skills required for computer programming are solely cognitive in nature (discounting the motor skills required to type, of course), and given that creativity is a large part of computer programming, it is at least plausible that one might gain some amount of improvement from alcohol consumption.

There have also been studies on the relationship between alcohol consumption and creative output. That study examined 34 well known, heavy drinking, 20th century writers, artists, and composers/performers. It concludes:

Analysis of this information yielded a number of interesting findings. Alcohol use proved detrimental to productivity in over 75% of the sample, especially in the latter phases of their drinking careers. However, it appeared to provide direct benefit for about 9% of the sample, indirect benefit for 50% and no appreciable effect for 40% at different times in their lives. Creative activity, conversely, can also affect drinking behavior, leading, for instance, to increased alcohol consumption in over 30% of the sample. Because of the complexities of this relationship, no simplistic conclusions are possible.

So for a small portion of people there was a notable increase in creative output as a result of alcohol intake. It does appear that the study did not control for the quantity of alcohol intake, though, so this may not be directly applicable to the Ballmer Peak.

The best study I was able to find on the subject was by Lapp, Collins, and Izzo. They gave subjects vodka tonics of varying strengths (by varying the ratio of tonic to vodka), some of which did not even contain any alcohol. The subjects believed that they were drinking a standard-strength vodka tonic. The subjects then were asked to perform a number of cognitively and creatively challenging tasks. Here is what they conclude:

The present results support the idea that creative people probably gain inspiration from consuming alcohol …, but show that this effect may be due to the expected rather than the pharmacological effects of the drug. … A convergence of evidence supported the idea that creativity is enhanced (at least in some aspects) by the expected effects of alcohol.

In other words, alcohol can improve certain aspects of one’s cognitive ability, but this effect is not likely due to any pharmacological process (i.e., it is often sufficient to merely believe that one is drinking alcohol in order to achieve the same benefit).

And remember: The Ballmer Peak, as it is currently understood, is but a two dimensional projection of what in reality is a higher dimensional space, vi&.

balmer-bac

The Ballmer Peak-a-Thon even has a Ballmer Calculator you can use to determine how much to drink to reach maximum effectiveness.

The Beer Tourism Index

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travel
Undoubtedly beer tourism is growing phenomenon, and has been for some time. Fifteen years ago, when I was GM of the Celebrator Beer News, the “Hopspots” sections were the most popular in the brewspaper, as many readers reported that they always kept one in their car when they travelled to help them find a beer spot (remember that was before smartphones and GPS were ubiquitous). I know for at least thirty years I’ve been including beer destinations any time I travel, even before I did so as part of my profession. Having that information at your fingertips through apps, websites and GPS has only helped to increase beer travel, I think, and at least part of the success of beer weeks has to do with the goal of bringing tourism to specific geographic areas; essentially making the week the destination rather than a side trip. So it’s interesting to see that a popular travel website, Travelocity, is not only recognizing how beer people travel, but has created a Beer Tourism Index to rank the Top Beer Destinations, dividing them by large and small metro areas (though I’m surprised they consider Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Lancaster PA and a few others as “large”). Also somewhat curious is the total absence of the San Francisco Bay Area, or even San Francisco or Oakland/East Bay in the listings. What’s especially odd about that is that San Francisco is one of the top tourist destination cities (it’s number two according to EscapeHere and #5 according to TripAdvisor and #3 via Business Insider). At any rate, according to their press release.

By examining the location of all breweries in the U.S. and looking at other factors important to a successful “beercation,” including the availability of rideshare services, accessibility via air, and the average cost of lodging, this index identified the best large and small metro areas to sample some of the nation’s best craft beers.

Here’s the full list below:

Travelocity-BeerDestinations

And here’s the criteria used to arrive at this list:

*To find the top metropolitan areas for beer tourism, Travelocity scored the over 300 US MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) on four factors:

  • Breweries per 1 million residents: Working with the Brewers Association (an organization representing the majority of independent brewers in the US), every MSA was scored by the number of breweries and brewpubs per 1 million residents
  • Rideshare availability: To get a full sampling of a region’s beer culture, a beer tourist may need to visit multiple breweries across the area. Rideshare services like Uber or Lyft are invaluable for this, so each MSA was scored on availability of both, either, or neither of these services.
  • Nonstop air destinations: If the MSA has an airport with scheduled air service – from how many destinations is nonstop service available?
  • Lodging score: Each MSA was scored on the price of an average room night for the 2015 calendar year. The lower the price, the higher the score for the MSA.

The Brewers Association also released a joint press release, adding:

Beer tourism is a big deal. We estimate that in 2014, more than 10 million people toured small and independent craft breweries. That’s a lot of brewery tours. Just search “beercations” and you’ll get a plethora of results on where to tour local breweries.

More than 7 percent of craft sales (by volume) now happen at the source—the brewery. Craft brewers are now a main attraction for travelers. For example, in 2015, the Brewers Association’s three-day Great American Beer Festival generated the equivalent of 2 percent of Denver’s GDP, accounting for $28.6 million. Beer tourism is so strong that travel website Travelocity just published a beer tourism index.

In a Travelocity survey of 1,003 people, more than three-quarters said they would like to go on a trip where they visited craft breweries and sampled local beer. With numerous beer trails flourishing across the U.S. and beer events including festivals and special beer releases racking up millions upon millions of tourism trips and dollars, the modern beercation is a boon to beer.

The Brewers Association commissioned a Nielsen Omnibus panel in June 2016 that asked, “How many, if any, craft breweries have you visited at their site in the past 12 months while traveling?” The answer: on average 2.1 breweries. Impressive.

ba-beercations