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Top 50 Breweries For 2017


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

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

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;

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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