This is not new. The numbers get tossed into conversations every once in a while, a reminder that when we talk about small breweries we really are discussing small businesses.
@Josh Noel ran this up the flag poll today on Twitter: “We think of craft as having grown so large. It has. But there’s some stat out there: 90% make less than 3k bbls — or something like that.” Then he suggested it would be better if he could quote a number a little more authoratively.
Brewers Association economist Bart Watson replied rather rapidly:
– “Just looked up the 2015 TTB data. 91.8% (of brewers who made at least 1 bbl) made less than 7,500.”
– “They don’t break out between 1K-7.5K, but our figures have 90% around 5K, which makes sense with that TTB data.”
– “The smallest 3,000 breweries in country made less than Sierra Nevada in 2015 & Sierra Nevada makes ~1% of what AB makes in the US.”
– “That’s all 3,000 collectively. So 3,000 breweries together make less than 1% of AB’s US production. Small breweries are small.”
I have the 2015 numbers right here.
A thousand barrels and less: 68%
Ten thousand and less: 94%
A hundred thousand or more: .9%
Very interesting! Does anyone have some figures for well known breweries, just for context? (I find it hard to visualise how much a barrel actually is!)
A barrel holds 31 gallons. There are figures from 2015 (and rounded):
Sierra Nevada 1.2 million
Abita 155,000
Sun King (Indiana) 29,000
Weyerbacher (Pennsylvania) 199,000
Creature Comforts (Georgia) 10,000
Diamond Knot (Washington) 6,700
Moonlight (California) 2,500
Crooked Stave (Colorado) 1,750
Saint Somewhere (Florida) 750