Breweries
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 8,884 production breweries in the US include about 120 national or international breweries producing over 6 million barrels per year. Around 220 are regional craft breweries producing between 15,000 and 6 million barrels annually. Around 1,854 microbreweries produce less than 15,000 barrels per year. An additional 3,219 brewpub restaurants and 3,471 taprooms also produce beer on-site.
Industry Highly Regulated
The beer industry is highly regulated at both the state and federal level.
Competition Among Breweries
The beer industry is highly competitive with an increasing number of new entrants.
Industry size & Structure
The average brewery employs 7 workers and generates over $3 million in annual sales.
- The US brewing industry includes approximately 8,884 production breweries. About 120 are national or international breweries producing over 6 million barrels per year. Around 220 are regional craft breweries producing between 15,000 and 6 million barrels annually. Around 1,854 microbreweries produce less than 15,000 barrels per year. An additional 3,219 brewpub restaurants and 3,471 taprooms also produce beer on-site.
- The typical global brewery brews 100 million barrels per year, with revenue per barrel of approximately $125 (a barrel is 31 gallons).
- The top three global breweries (including Belgium-based AB InBev and Molson Coors) command 71% of the US beer market.
- Regional craft breweries include Boston Beer Company, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium. These breweries typically distribute nationally and often internationally. The 220-or-so regional breweries produce around 15 million barrels of beer annually.
- The nation's 1,854 microbreweries produce about 4.3 million barrels of beer annually.
- About 3,219 brewpubs produce 1.4 million barrels of beer each year.
- Per capita, Americans consume about 26 gallons of beer annually. Per capita beer sales are highest in Colorado, Vermont, Oregon and Maine, and lowest in Mississippi, Utah, West Virginia and Maryland.
Industry Forecast
Breweries Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 13, 2023 - Sake Sales Soar
- Sales of sake – a Japanese alcoholic beverage that is brewed from fermented rice – are booming globally and in the United States, The New York Times reported in February. Japanese exports more than doubled in volume from 2012 to 2022, from roughly 14 million liters per year to nearly 36 million liters, according to trade group Japanese Sake and Shochu Makers Association, NYTs reports. Exports to the United States over that period grew to more than nine million liters per year, up from just under four million liters. While sake produced in the US accounts for a small fraction sold domestically, sake breweries are popping up across the US, with a 24,000-square-foot brewery slated to open in May in Hot Spring, Arkansas that will be the nation’s largest. (Arkansas is the nation’s leading rice producer.)
- Cocktail beers – brews inspired by classic cocktails – are slowly gaining in popularity, Craftbeer.com reports. A niche within the craft beer scene, cocktail beers are a way for brewers to innovate while providing craft beer drinkers with even more options in the already diverse craft beer market. Brewers of cocktail beers draw their inspiration from classic cocktails like the rum-based Dark ‘N Stormy, the inspiration for a cocktail beer from the Firestone Walker Brewing Company, which has been making cocktail-inspired brews since 2017. While brewers are hesitant to anoint cocktail beers a full-fledged trend – akin to hard seltzer – they hope the beverages will attract people who aren’t typically beer consumers to the craft beer scene. “I think it does draw in consumers because cocktails have become a big part of the retail market,” said Fal Allen, brewmaster at Anderson Valley Brewing Co., a maker of cocktail beers.
- With the exception of tequila, craft beer led all other alcohol categories in terms of impact on on-premise sales, according to Beverage Information Group’s (BIG) most recent survey. Bars and restaurants surveyed by BIG reported craft beer as having a 21.05% increase in sales vs 5.26% for domestic beer and 42.11% for tequila. Off premises, craft and imported beer were on equal footing (up 15.79%) for the retailers surveyed in terms of the categories having the biggest impact on sales. Off-premise respondents said that declines in sales of domestic beer and sparkling wine were having the biggest impact on business.
- After more than a decade of frothy growth, the craft beer boom is showing signs of slowing down, The Wall Street Journal reported in January. With about 9,500 breweries currently operating in the US, according to the Brewers Association, brewers and beer drinkers are wondering whether US cities may have reached craft capacity. Colorado, a hub of craft culture and home to the Brewers Association, is a case in point. The state is home to more than 428 craft breweries, up from 126 in 2011. A signal that the craft beer market may be approaching saturation, the Brewers Association predicts that in 2023 the smallest number of new breweries in over a decade will open. As the market becomes more crowded, new craft breweries will have to work harder to get noticed and grow.
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