In a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic robbed alcoholic beverage producers of on-premise occasions for the majority of 2020, and forced consumer purchasing to shift to off-premise retailers and e-commerce, 36 of the top 50 Brewers Association-defined craft brewing companies recorded volume declines, according to data published in the May/June edition of the New Brewer magazine.
Those numbers, while not unexpected given last year’s challenges, could be even higher. Three top 50 breweries — D.G. Yuengling & Son (No. 1), Abita (No. 19), and August Schell (No. 23) — asked the trade group not to publish their production numbers but agreed to be ranked.
The BA previously reported that craft brewer production declined for the first time in the modern craft era, dipping 9%, to a little more than 23 million barrels.
Two companies — Stevens Point Brewery (130,000 barrels) and Three Floyds Brewing Co. (97,750 barrels) — managed to stay flat compared to 2019 volumes. Three Floyds shuttered its brewpub last year, but opened several markets for off-premise distribution (and just announced the addition of Michigan).
Nine of the top 50 BA craft breweries increased production volume in 2020. Just three of those companies were ranked among the top 10 producers. They include Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (+6%, 1.1 million barrels) at No. 3, the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective (+2%, 489,626 barrels) at No. 6, and Artisanal Brewing Ventures (+9%, 437,555 barrels) at No. 8.
Notably, two of those companies are brewery rollups. CANarchy includes production from Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Three Weavers, Perrin Brewing, Squatters, and Wasatch. Meanwhile, ABV is made up of Victory Brewing, Sixpoint, and Southern Tier.
Within the top 10, Samuel Adams-maker Boston Beer Company, whose overall data now includes Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (the 13th largest craft brewery in 2019 with 277,727 barrels of beer), continues to hold the No. 2 spot overall.
However, Boston Beer’s traditional beer production declined an estimated -16%, to 1.7 million barrels last year (the BA’s data does not include beyond beer offerings such as hard seltzers, hard tea, and cider). That’s down from its estimated peak of 2.55 million barrels in 2014. So over the last years, Boston Beer has shed about 850,000 barrels of beer production, and the company’s share of the craft market has dropped from 10% in 2015, to now just under 8% share (7.99%).
However, Boston Beer shipped about 7.37 million barrels of product in 2020, showing the growth of its beyond beer portfolio, which includes second best-selling hard seltzer brand Truly and fast-rising FMB Twisted Tea.
Other top 10 craft breweries in decline, include Duvel Moortgat (-11%, 628,744 barrels) at No. 4, Shiner-maker Spoetzl Brewery (-1%, 513,897 barrels) at No. 5, Bell’s Brewery (-7%, 461,582 barrels) at No. 7, Stone Brewing (-4%, 347,000 barrels) at No. 9, and Deschutes Brewery (-19%, 236,044 barrels) at No. 10.
Duvel Moortgat’s craft breweries, Firestone Walker (-12%, 464,712 barrels), Boulevard (-5%, 147,614 barrels), and Brewery Ommegang (-41%, 16,418 barrels). The pandemic led to the decline at Paso Robles, California-based Firestone Walker, whose production has grown from 118,564 barrels in 2012, to 525,424 barrels in 2019. However, the pandemic exacerbated what has been steady declines for Kansas City, Missouri-based Boulevard and New York-based Brewery Ommegang since their peak production in 2015 of 196,000 barrels and 49,000 barrels, respectively.
New Belgium Brewing Company is no longer included in the BA’s top 50 craft brewers list, following the sale of the company to Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages. The transaction placed New Belgium outside of the BA’s definition of a small and independent craft brewery (those producing fewer than 6 million barrels annually and not more than 25% owned by a beverage alcohol company that is not itself a craft brewery). In 2019, New Belgium was the fourth largest craft brewery, according to the BA. In 2020, New Belgium produced 975,000 barrels of beer, a 10% increase compared to 2019.
Outside of the top 10, six breweries’ volumes grew, including Matt Brewing Co. (+1%, 191,600 barrels) at No. 13, Troegs Brewing (+7%, 112,709 barrels) at No. 20, BrewDog’s U.S. operations (+44%, 62,542 barrels) at No. 41, Toppling Goliath (+18%, 53,100 barrels) at No. 43, Creature Comforts (+8%, 50,084 barrels) at No. 48, Montauk Brewing Co. (+7%, 49,000 barrels) at No. 49.
BrewDog, Toppling Goliath, Creature Comforts and Montauk were among six newcomers to the top 50 list, in addition to Fremont Brewing (-8%, 51,260 barrels) at No. 45 and New Holland (-1%, 47,350 barrels) at No. 50.
Columbus, Ohio-based BrewDog made the biggest leap in the rankings, rising 25 spots from No. 66 in 2019 when it produced 43,559 barrels of beer. The company’s U.S operations have quickly ramped up from 4,144 barrels in 2017.
Several other top 50 craft brewers recorded either single- or double-digit declines, including:
- No. 11 SweetWater (-13%, 226,639 barrels);
- No. 12 New Glarus (-13%, 206,302 barrels),
- No. 14 Brooklyn Brewery (-35%, 182,861 barrels);
- No. 15 Harpoon Brewery (-16%, 146,400 barrels);
- No. 17 Odell Brewing (-3%, 128,095 barrels);
- No. 18 Minhas (-10%, 123,066 barrels);
- No. 21 Summit Brewing (-15%, 109,273 barrels);
- No. 22 Great Lakes (-15%, 105,841 barrels);
- No. 25 Rhinegeist (-8%, 97,381 barrels);
- No. 26 Alaskan (-23%, 97,100 barrels);
- No. 27 Gordon Biersch (-5%, 92,111 barrels);
- No. 28 Georgetown Brewing (-8%, 88,986 barrels);
- No. 29 Allagash (-15%, 88,023 barrels);
- No. 30 Kings & Convicts-owned Ballast Point (-57%, 88,000 barrels);
- No. 31 Long Trail (-1%, 87,000 barrels);
- No. 32 Narragansett Brewing (-14%, 86,096 barrels);
- No. 33 Ninkasi (-5%, 84,118 barrels);
- No. 34 21st Amendment (-21%, 80,042 barrels);
- No. 35 Flying Dog (-4%, 78,000 barrels);
- No. 36 Surly Brewing (-17%, 76,955 barrels);
- No. 37 Rogue Ales (-16%, 75,000 barrels);
- No. 38 Lost Coast (-2%, 74,127 barrels);
- No. 39 Revolution (-18%, 66,454 barrels);
- No. 40 Modern Times (-9%, 63,662 barrels);
- No. 42 Saint Arnold (-11%, 59,945 barrels);
- No. 44 Two Roads (-15%, 52,612 barrels);
- No. 46 Shipyard (-21%, 51,250 barrels);
- No. 47 Left Hand (-16%, 50,852 barrels).
Falling out of the top 50 in 2020 were San Diego-headquartered Karl Strauss (No. 39 in 2019), which relies heavily on traffic to its nine brewpubs; Westminster, Massachusetts-based Wachusett (No. 43 in 2019); Hood River, Oregon-based Full Sail (No. 46 in 2019); Cloverdale, California-based Bear Republic (No. 49 in 2019); and Fort Bragg, California-based North Coast (No. 50 in 2019).
The strict on-premise shutdowns in California clearly affected Karl Strauss, which declined 56%, to 37,300 barrels; the company also closed two locations and its LA location remains temporarily shuttered. Other California breweries knocked out of the top 50 include Bear Republic (43,000 barrels) and North Coast (43,609 barrels), which declined -28% and -25%, respectively.
Full Sail asked the BA not to publish its 2020 data.
Wachusett declined an estimated -12%, to 27,250 barrels. Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson told Brewbound that previously reported numbers were revised to match Massachusetts state numbers.