But as I’ve discovered during my monthly brewery day trip series, many breweries-in-planning decided they had nothing to lose by moving forward - and the results have been promising.California Breweries Find A Brewery In California California Brewery Directory & Map You might think that opening a brewery during a pandemic might not be the best idea. While the number of brewery openings has slowed since its 2018 peak, considerably more new breweries opened (646) than closed (178) in 2021.
There’s more good news at the individual brewery level, too. 47.Īnd in the not-Californian-but-extremely-fascinating-anyway category: Connecticut’s Athletic Brewing - which only brews non-alcoholic beer - made its list debut at No. Anchor Brewing, as part of Sapporo’s multiple breweries, made the “all breweries” list at No. 42. Other Northern California breweries making the list include Lost Coast ( No. The other Bay Area brewery on the list is the 21st Amendment Brewery, which continues to shine at No. 15 and providing ample evidence that people really are drinking more pilsners and other lagers. The Bay Area’s Gordon Biersch, a longtime lager brewery, is this year’s star, rising from No. (Photo: Steve Schoonover/Enterprise-Record) The Resilience IPA tap flanks other offerings at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Closely behind is Firestone Walker and Trumer, although both are part of larger businesses owning multiple breweries Firestone Walker is owned by Duvel Moortgat USA (No. (California breweries also made a strong showing on the “all breweries” list, with 10 among the top 50.)Ĭalifornia’s biggest craft brewery is Sierra Nevada Brewing of Chico, which took the No. brewing, with 10 craft breweries in the top 50 and four in the top 10. Clearly, they were wrong - and we have 9,000 American breweries to prove it.Ĭalifornia continues to play a dominant role in U.S. I’ve been watching the world of beer long enough to remember when 10 percent felt impossible, and business analysts kept insisting craft beer was just a fad. But craft beer now accounts for just over 13 percent of the total beer market, which is impressive. That’s reason to celebrate, even though 2020’s precipitous drop - 10 percent - means we have not quite caught up to pre-pandemic levels. Overall, craft beer sales grew 8 percent from 2020 to 2021. But the newest report, which covers 2021, is particularly important because it’s an indicator of which breweries are successfully recovering from the pandemic. Watching the list year after year gives you a good idea of who’s doing well, who’s growing and who’s slipping. So where are we now and where do we go from here? Hold on to your hats: There is good news ahead.Įach year, the Brewers Association, a trade organization that represents small, independent breweries throughout the U.S., compiles its list of the top 50 craft brewers and a separate list of the top 50 breweries, a category that includes all American breweries. The lockdowns of 2020 brought a historic drop in beer sales, as restaurants, bars and taprooms closed their doors, and breweries had to find new ways to sell their beer. It’s no secret that the pandemic era has been hard on breweries.
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