USA: Brewers Association releases annual lists of top 50 craft and overall brewing companies

The Brewers Association — the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers — released on March 30 its annual list of the top 50 producing craft brewing companies and overall brewing companies in the U.S., based on beer sales volume. Of the top 50 overall brewing companies, 40 were small and independent craft brewing companies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed where Americans purchased alcohol in 2020. Breweries who had established packaging and distribution capacity were best positioned to take advantage of the boom in off-premise sales and weather market uncertainty,” said Bart Watson, chief economist, Brewers Association. “These businesses also saw variation in performance based on geography and business model, with different parts of the country seeing very different beer trends, and draught-heavy breweries suffering.”

The Top 5 Craft Brewing Companies are:

1. D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc (Pottsville, PA)
2. Boston Beer Co (Boston, MA and Milton, DE)
3. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co (Chico, CA)
4. Duvel Moortgat (Paso Robles, CA, Kansas City, MO, and Cooperstown, NY)
5. Gambrinus (Berkeley, CA and Shiner, TX)

The Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies are:

1. Anheuser-Busch Inc (St. Louis, MO)
2. MolsonCoors (Chicago, IL)
3. Constellation (Chicago, IL)
4. Heineken USA (White Plains, NY)
5. Pabst Brewing Co (Los Angeles, CA)