April Fools Day is right around the corner, but there is nothing funny about the Brewers Association’s (BA) latest annual lists of the top 50 craft and overall brewing companies in the U.S. based on sales volume in 2020.
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As was the case in 2017, 2018, and last year, Pottsville, PA-based D. G. Yuengling and Son, Inc, Boston Beer Co in Boston, and Chico, Calif.-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. took the first, second and third spots respectively.
However, that is where the major changes in the list begin: New Belgium Brewing Co. has been knocked from fourth place to 12th place, while CANarchy has moved up two spots from eighth to sixth place.
Other changes include Duvel Moortgat USA moving up one spot to fourth place, The Gambrinus Co. moving up one spot to fifth place and Artisanal Brewing Ventures moving up two spots to eighth place, while Deschutes Brewery landed on the list in the 10th slot for the first time.
The top 10 breweries on last year’s craft breweries list are:
- D. G. Yuengling and Son, Inc (Pottsville, Pa.)
- Boston Beer Co. (Boston, Mass.)
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, Calif.)
- Duvel Moortgat USA (Pasa Robles, Calif.)
- The Gambrinus Co. (San Antonio, Texas)
- CANarchy (Longmont/Tampa/Salt Lake City/Comstock Park)
- Bell’s Brewery, Inc (Comstock, Mich.)
- Artisanal Brewing Ventures (Downingtown, Pa./.Lakewood/Brooklyn, N.Y.)
- Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, Calif.)
- Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Ore.)
“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 with the Brewers Association, in a post on the company’s website.
“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 Brewers Association is a not-for-profit trade group representing small and independent craft brewers.
The list also includes the top 50 U.S. breweries for overall sales, all of which were unchanged from 2019:
- Anheuser-Busch, Inc (Saint Louis, Mo.)
- MolsonCoors (Chicago, Ill.)
- Constellation Brands (Chicago)
- Heineken (White Plains)
- Pabst Brewing Co. (Los Angeles, Calif.)
- Diego (Norwalk, Conn.)
- D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc (Pottsville, Pa.)
- FIFCO USA (Rochester, N.Y.)
- Boston Beer Co (Boston, Mass.)
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, Calif.)
Out of the top 50 overall brewing companies, the Brewers Association classified 40 as small and independent craft brewing companies, a number that was unchanged from 2017, 2018, and 2019.
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