The beer market in the US was formerly the domain of a few big brands, and not much flavor. But changing consumer tastes have brought craft beers out of local brewery basements and into the national spotlight.
Americans consumed 2.71 billion liters of craft beer 2014, and this number is expected to reach 5.87 billion liters by 2019. Product innovation, demand from millennials, and a growing number of craft breweries are all factors that are expected to impact the market over the projected period.
Technavio has compiled a list of the top craft beer breweries in the US:
Anheuser-Busch
We select only the finest ingredients to brew and package the highest-quality beers in our 12 breweries located throughout the United States. This pride is seen in our sales and logistics teams, who work closely with our family of more than 500 independent wholesalers to provide exceptional service to retailers. And this pride is embodied by our marketing and innovations teams, who connect with consumers through a variety of beer-drinking occasions.
Bell’s Brewery
After struggling several years to produce and sell robust, full-bodied ales against a tide of a mass-market domestic beer, Bell’s began to see the demand for craft beer grow dramatically and expanded into new markets. Bell’s currently sells beer across a 20 state area in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington DC through a network of over 80 quality wholesalers.
Boston Beer
At Boston Beer, we’re not bound by traditional modes of thought and our brewers continuously strive to think outside the kettle.
Fundamental to Boston Beer’s continued success is a sense of awe at all there is yet to accomplish and create. As a brewery, Samuel Adams looks at the world as one without limits, in which it is free to explore, grow, create, and enjoy. Although proud of what we’ve achieved thus far, we look forward to the opportunities and possibilities that lie ahead.
Brooklyn Brewery
Starting with our flagship Brooklyn Lager, the portfolio of Brooklyn Brewery has grown to a wide-ranging collection of beers, always keeping an eye to traditional brewing techniques, even as Brewmaster Garrett Oliver and his team seek to push the boundaries of beer.
Craft Brew Alliance
As the fifth largest craft brewing company in the U.S., Craft Brew Alliance is a leader in brewing, branding, and bringing to market some of the world’s best-loved American craft beers.
In addition to growing and nurturing distinctive brands rooted in local heritage, we are committed to developing innovative new category leaders, such as Omission Beer, established in 2012 and already the #1 beer in the gluten free beer category. Our tribute to the earliest pioneers, Square Mile Cider, was launched in 2013 and is now the #2 hard cider in the Pacific Northwest.
Deschutes Brewery
As a family and employee-owned brewery, Deschutes believes every pint of beer worth brewing is worth sharing—with friends, family, and even the stranger you just met on the barstool next to you.
And every Deschutes Brewery pint shared has a healthy dose of community, experimentation, and ingenuity. It’s crafted with plenty of balance and drinkability and invested with quality and consistency.
D.G. Yuengling & Son
D.G. Yuengling & Son was established as Eagle Brewery in 1829. Its headquarters are in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. It manufactures and sells beer products across the globe. It also sells barware, glassware, apparel, and collectibles through its online store. It changed its name to D.G. Yuengling & Son in 1873.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Ever since the summer of 1995, we have been brewing, cooking, selling and talking everything beer. It’s our pasttime, our passion, our life. Since the beginning, we have always wanted to bring original beer, great food and local music to the Rehoboth Beach area.
Duvel Moortgat
In 1923 the production of Duvel began with just a few crates. Today, Duvel is enjoyed literally all around the world (in over 60 countries) by countless beer lovers. The beer is still brewed with profound respect for the original recipe and the time it needs to mature.
Gambrinus
The Gambrinus Company is a privately held craft beer company located in San Antonio, Texas.
With confidence in its motto, “Beer brings enjoyment to the world,” Gambrinus combines quality products, imaginative marketing and an aggressive field sales force to build its brands to be market leaders while profitably growing the business of its brewery suppliers, wholesalers and retail partners.
Harpoon Brewery
Harpoon was started in 1986 by Dan Kenary, Rich Doyle, and George Ligeti. They were three friends who loved beer and loved drinking beer together but found the beer choices at the time to be limited. Traveling through Europe and experiencing the rich traditions of European brewing and beer drinking enhanced their love of beer and opened their eyes to the rich beer culture they wanted back home. They decided to build a brewery so that they could brew the beers that they wanted to drink, and invite their friends to the brewery to drink it with them.
Lagunitas Brewing
From points distant and beyond we all converged on Petaluma in 1993 and ’94 with an unenunciated desire to be more than we were before. The core of Lagunitas came from Chicago, St Louis, Memphis, Walker Creek, and the highlands of Quincy.
The Lagunitas Brewing Co. was not so much an act of ordinary ‘foundling’ as it was willed into being by the unspoken desire of supportive beer-lovers in Northern California after which they continued to nurture their creation and urged us forward to fulfill the unifying needs of that same beer-loving diaspora from coast to coast and beyond.
Matt Brewing Co
The Matt Brewing Co is an American family owned brewery that is one of the oldest breweries in the US. Its sells beer under the brand name Saranac.
MillerCoors
MillerCoors is a joint venture between SabMillers and Molson Coors that sells a variety of beers including craft beer. The craft beer segment of the company includes brands such as Batch 19, Blue Moon, Colorado Native, Leinenkugel’s, and Winterfest.
Minhas Craft Brewery
The Minhas craft brewery is engaged in the production premium beers, craft beers, malt liquors, flavored malt beverages, and sodas.
New Belgium
New Belgium was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Fort Collins, US. The company is a top-ranked manufacturer of craft beer in the US. It operates two brewing facilities, one in Fort Collins and one in Ashville in the US. The company distributes its beer through a network of 358 distributors in the US, Sweden, and in the states of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. As of December 31, 2014 the company had 591 employees.
Oskar Blues Brewing
In 2002, our funky little Colorado grown brew-pub started stuffing our huge, voluminously hopped mutha of a pale ale in a can (Dale’s Pale Ale). That not only began the craft-beer-in-a-can craze, but has grown to add a brewery to the hills of Pisgah National Forest in Brevard, NC and another in the Live Music Capital of the World, Ausitn, TX, in 2016. Cans keep beer fresher, longer by eliminating the damaging effects of light and ingressed oxygen while being infinitely recyclable and portable…taking them where your next soul saving adventure takes you.
Sierra Nevada
We set out with a simple goal: brew the beers we wanted to drink. We started small, with a homebrew shop, a love of American hops and plenty of passion. In the process, we changed the beer world forever. Decades later, we’re still at it, and the passion burns brighter than ever.
