Craft Beer Industry in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts

Market resiliency

After a significant decline in production in 2020, craft beer volume amounted to about 24.8 million barrels in 2021, not quite pre-pandemic levels but well on the way. In terms of brands, Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium were the top three craft beer brands in the United States.

According to the Brewers Association, the nation's largest craft brew trade organization, an American craft brewer is "small, independent and traditional". Despite the pandemic, the number of operating craft breweries reached all-time highs in 2020 and 2021, with 9,118 craft breweries throughout the country. In that year, California boasted over 900 craft breweries, the most of any U.S. state.

Still small but growing popularity

Beer is the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage, and craft beer is trying to capture more of the market. In spite of the growing craft beer sales, light beer is still the most popular beer in America by a huge margin, showing that craft beer has yet to gain mainstream popularity. Beer has also lagged behind other alcoholic beverages in the explosion of e-commerce that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Online beer sales have a penetration rate of just 1.4 percent compared to wine which enjoys a rate of 8.6 percent. The major cause for this discrepancy is beer's comparative lack of availability in direct-to-consumer sales.

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