USA: More than 1400 breweries operate in the US today and craft brewers constitute the majority of the largest 50 brewing companies, said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association, according to a press statement of the Brewers Association published on March 15, 2005. More than 30 of the top-50 brewing companies produce the traditional all-malt beer styles that define a craft brewer.

Overall, the brands brewed by top 50 producers include well-known American standards from Bud, Miller and Coors as well as nationally distributed craft beers like Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale along with regional stars like New Belgium Brewing Co’s Fat Tire, Widmer Brewing Company’s Hefe-Weizen and Harpoon Brewery’s India Pale Ale, according to the Brewers Association. The top-50 also includes Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc., which operates 34 brewpubs.

“The diverse styles of beer available from America’s largest producers demonstrate the appeal that craft beer has for American beer drinkers,” said Ray Daniels, Director of Craft Beer Marketing for the Brewers Association. “Flavorful beer styles like amber ale and IPA are rapidly becoming favorites for an increasing number of consumers.”

Brewers Association figures show that domestic craft beer sales volume grew 7 % in 2004, faster any other segment of the beverage alcohol business, including wine, spirits and imported beer.

The Brewers Association estimates 2004 sales by craft brewers at 7,023,651 31-gallon barrels up from 6,563,461 barrels in 2003, an increase of 460,190 barrels or 6.34 million case-equivalents. Spirits volume increased at 3.1 % for the year and wine volume was up 2.7 %. The import and mass-market segments of the beer industry rose approximately 1.4 percent and 0.5 percent in volume respectively in 2004.

Craft Beers: Generally, "all-malt," domestic beers produced using 100 percent malted barley. Craft beers that are not all-malt sometimes substitute a percentage of malted wheat (for wheat beers) or malted rye (for rye beers). Their inspiration can be traced to British, German or Belgian traditions or is often uniquely American. Craft beers range from pale to dark in color and from mild to strong in alcohol content. Sometimes they include unusual ingredients such as fruit, herbs or spices. Compared with other beers, their emphasis is more on flavor, and less on appealing to a mass market. (The best-selling American beers are brewed using 30 to 40 percent rice or corn "adjunct," resulting in a paler, lighter-bodied and lighter-flavored beer).

Craft Brewer: A brewpub, microbrewery, regional specialty brewery or contract brewing company whose majority of sales is considered craft beer.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .