This is my fourth annual annotated list of the Top 50 so you can see who moved up and down, who was new to the list and who dropped off. So here is this year’s list again annotated with how they changed compared to last year.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev; #1 last year, no surprises
- MillerCoors; ditto for #2
- Pabst Brewing; ditto for #3
- D. G. Yuengling and Son; Moved up 1, over Boston Beer again
- Boston Beer Co.; Moved down 1 to behind Yuengling, where they’d been the 2 years prior to 2008
- Sierra Nevada Brewing; Same as last year
- New Belgium Brewing; Moved up 1
- Craft Brewers Alliance; Moved down 1
- Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Moved up 1
- High Falls Brewing; Moved down 1
- Minhas Craft Brewery; Up 3 over last year
- Pyramid Breweries (IBU); Down 1, after two years moving up
- Deschutes Brewery; Down 1
- F.X. Matt Brewing; Moved up 1, after dropping down 1 last year
- Magic Hat Brewing (IBU); Up 3 from #18 last year
- Boulevard Brewing; Same as last year, as others move all around them
- Harpoon Brewery; Up 3 from #20 last year
- Alaskan Brewing; Up 1 from #19 last year
- Bell’s Brewery; Up 2 from #21 last year
- Goose Island Beer; Up 2 from #22 last year
- Kona Brewing; Up 2 from #23 last year, after Shooting up 14 the previous year
- Full Sail Brewing; Down 5, primarily from removing contract beers from their total to give a more accurate figure of their own brands
- Stone Brewing; Up 5 again this year from 28, same jump as last year
- Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Shot up 9 from #33, after being up 5 and 4 the two previous years
- Iron City Brewing; Plummeted 12, after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and moving production out of Pittsburgh
- August Schell Brewing; Down 1 from last year
- Brooklyn Brewery; Up 4 from #31 last year
- Abita Brewing; Up 2 from #30 last year
- Summit Brewing; Down 2 from #27 last year
- Anchor Brewing; Down 6 from #24
- Shipyard Brewing; Down 5 from #26 last year
- New Glarus Brewing; Same as last year
- Great Lakes Brewing; Up 4 from #37 last year
- Rogue Ales/Oregon Brewing; Up 2 from #36, canceling being Down 2 last year, and Up 2 the year before that
- Long Trail Brewing; Down 1 from #34 last year
- Lagunitas Brewing; Up 2 from #38 last year, after being up 3 for the prior 2 years
- Mendocino Brewing; Down 8 from #29 last year
- Gordon Biersch Brewing; Down 3 from #35
- Sweetwater Brewing; Up 1 from #40 last year
- Firestone Walker Brewing; Down 1 from #39 last year
- Victory Brewing; Up 5 from #46 last year
- Flying Dog Brewery; Down 1 from #41 last year
- BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Down 1 from #42 last year
- Odell Brewing; Up 1 from #45 last year
- Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants; Down 2 from #43 last year, a reversal of the year before
- Straub Brewery; Up 1 from #47 last year
- BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus); Down 3 from #44 last year
- Lost Coast Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
- Big Sky Brewing; Up 1 from #50 last year
- Stevens Point Brewery; Not in Top 50 last year
Two breweries are new to the list this year, Lost Coast and Stevens Point (who’ve transitioned to primarily all-malt brewing), while two dropped off the list; Cold Springs Brewery (fka Gluek Brewing) and Mac and Jack’s Brewery.
If you want to see the previous annotated lists for comparison, here is 2008, 2007 and 2006.
How is this list compiled? Is it by the amount of beer produced?
Yes, it’s “based on 2009 beer sales volume.”
I have always wondered why they publish this list without including the sales volume information. Is this publicly available somewhere that I am unaware of? It would be nice to know what the gaps are between each position and how those change over time.
They do it the same way every year, or at least for a number of years now. First they publish the rankings online and the full list with the next issue of New Brewer, the BA’s trade magazine for the membership. If you’re not a member of the BA and in the industry, you should consider joining, though I believe subscriptions may be available for non-members, too.
It’s stated right in the press release, as follows:
Thanks J, I guess I skipped the press release and went straight to the raw numbers. My only complaint then would be that it would be nice to have access to production numbers online (maybe in a members only section) as well as numbers for breweries outside of the top 50. I have tried to research this information in the past and living in Oregon, the closest thing I have found locally is OLCC numbers for volume produced AND sold in Oregon.
Had no idea D. G. Yuengling and Son was as large as it was.
When my brother and I were collecting beer cans in the early 70’s, I thought for sure it would wind up like Schmidt’s of Philadelphia and scores of other breweries as they produced an awful lager and packaged it in a hideous white, red and gold can.
Minhas’s numbers have to include their contract brewing figures. Surprised The Lion Company out of Wilkes-Barre, PA didn’t make the list.
It amazes me a brewery like New Glarus that doesn’t even distribute outside of the state of Wisconsin is halfway up that list. Ahead of breweries that distribute to large swathes of the nation. Pretty awesome! Personally, I am very happy to see Yuengling jump past Boston Beer.. but’s that just my personal bias talking 🙂