Brewers Association 2023 Top 50: Multi-Brand Platforms Endure; Pittsburgh, Jack’s Abby and Fiddlehead Make Biggest Leaps

The country’s five largest craft brewers by volume in 2023 remain unchanged from 2022, according to the Brewers Association (BA), which released its annual craft brewery production report today.

Those five breweries ranked in order are D.G. Yuengling & Son, Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head), Sierra Nevada, Duvel Moortgat (Firestone Walker, Boulevard, Brewery Ommegang), and Gambrinus (Shiner, Trumer).

The impact of multi-brand craft platforms was apparent throughout the BA’s list of the top 50 craft brewers.

A pattern repeating from last year is “the emergence of groups, as more craft brewers look to partner, join, acquire to achieve scale, or are looking for a larger partner, if they’re struggling,” BA chief economist and VP of strategy Bart Watson said during a press conference.

“That’s a trend we’re going to continue to see grow in the next couple of years,” he said.

The No. 6 spot went to the beer division of Canadian cannabis company Tilray, which includes SweetWater, Green Flash, Alpine, Montauk, 10 Barrel, Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Breckenridge and Blue Point.

In a recent earnings call, Tilray estimated that it is the fifth largest craft brewery in the country, following its acquisition of the latter five brands from Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) in October 2023. Watson explained that the BA only includes volume from those brands after the sale closed.

“We have prorated their volume, so Tilray maybe is a little bit lower on the top 50 list than you’d expect because we’re trying to capture what they did as a craft brewer in 2023,” he said. “The volume from post-acquisition – October on – is included, but we’re not including those brands for the beginning of the year.”

To claim the No. 6 spot, Tilray edged out Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV), the rollup of Victory, Southern Tier and Sixpoint, which held it in 2022 but dropped to No. 7 in 2023. Sapporo-owned Stone Brewing was the seventh largest craft brewery by volume in 2022; Sapporo’s acquisition of it closed in August 2022, removing it from the BA’s data set for 2023.

Brooklyn Brewery jumped two spots to No. 8, ahead of Monster Brewing (Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Squatters, Wasatch, Perrin), which dropped one spot to No. 9.

Non-alcoholic craft brewery Athletic jumped three spots to No. 10.

There was lots of movement beyond the top 10. New Glarus, which only distributes within its home state of Wisconsin, increased output enough to move up one spot to No. 11. It switched places with Deschutes, which fell one spot to No. 12.

The acquisition of Flying Dog (No. 34 in 2022) in 2023 propelled F.X. Matt Brewing up one spot to No. 13. Further down the list, the addition of Ecliptic Brewing and Wings & Arrow Beer to Ninkasi (No. 43 in 2022) under the Great Frontier Holdings umbrella pushed the platform to No. 35 in 2023.

Gordon Biersch jumped three spots to No. 14.

All making leaps of five places were No. 15 Allagash, No. 16 Georgetown, No. 23 Narragansett and No. 24 August Schell.

Great Lakes was No. 18, up one spot from last year. Harpoon fell two spots to No. 19, while Three Floyds gained four places, landing at No. 20.

Other noteworthy leaps outside the top 25:

Pittsburgh jumped 10 spots to No. 21;
Jack’s Abby leaped nine spots to No. 38;
Fiddlehead gained 8 spots, landing at No. 28.

All three breweries repeated strong growth from 2022, when Pittsburgh went from unranked to No. 31, Jack’s Abby jumped 16 spots and Fiddlehead leaped 13.

One “commonality” among “fast-growing brewers” such as Georgetown, Fiddlehead and Jack’s Abby, “is real geographic focus,” Watson said.

“Many of them are not super widely distributed,” he said. “They’re really going deep in particular markets. Many of them – and this is more qualitative, but in talking to them – have succeeded partly by continuing to focus on draft, suggesting there’s still a lot of draft opportunity out there for brewers who make that a focus part of their strategy.”

Breweries with single-digit jumps include:

Rhinegeist, +1, to No. 22
Craft ‘Ohana (Maui, Modern Times), +2, to No. 26;
Alaskan, +1, to No. 31;
Kona Brewing (Hawaii operations), +1, No. 32;
Abita, +2, to No. 33;
Creature Comforts, +3, to No. 34;
BrewDog, +2, to No. 36;
Saint Arnold, +3, to No. 41;
Pizza Port, +2, to No. 47.

Breweries with ranks that remain unchanged from 2022 beyond the top five include:

No. 19 Stevens Point;
No. 30 Kings & Convicts (Ballast Point);
No. 39 Revolution;
No. 46 Shipyard.

The steepest declines belonged to No. 29 Minhas, which fell 14 places from its 2022 rank, and No. 37 Summit, which fell 11 places. IndieBrew (Scofflaw, Bearded Iris) dropped five places, to No. 50.

Other single-digit declines include:

Odell, -3, to No. 25;
Rogue, -3, to No. 44;
Tröegs, -2, to No. 27;
Lost Coast, -2, to No. 42;
Surly, -1, to No. 43.

New entrants include No. 40 Montucky Cold Snacks, No. 45 U.S. Beverage (Uinta, Saint Lawrence), No. 48 Coronado and No. 49 Drake’s, which acquired Bear Republic in 2023.

Falling out of the top 50 in 2023 were Stone, due to acquisition by Sapporo; Flying Dog, which was rolled up in Matt Brewing’s volume; North Coast; and Made By the Water (Faubourg, Catawba, Palmetto, Oyster City).

Top 50 Overall Brewers Ranked

In addition to the top 50 BA-defined craft breweries, the trade group also published the ranking of the overall top 50 brewing companies in the U.S. They are as follows: