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The Myth Of The Magic Beer TruckOr, why you should care what other people drink. Because I Have Nothing Else To Bitch About—At The Moment
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April 15, 2010
Beer Issues:
The 50 Biggest Breweries In America
Because everyone likes a good list.by Eddie Glick
The Brewers Association just came out with their list of the top 50 breweries in America, based on beer sales volume. We’re presenting the list here for your reading convenience, along with some witty remarks about each, free of charge. If you’d like the uncommented version (i.e. the boring version), along with a list of just the craft breweries, you can check out their site.
| Rank | Brewing Company | City | State |
| 1. | Anheuser-Busch InBev Never heard of ’em. |
St. Louis | MO |
| 2. | MillerCoors Brewing Co. I still think Coiller would have been a much better name. |
Chicago | IL |
| 3. | Pabst Brewing Co. The largest brewing company in the world that does not actually own a frickin’ brewery. |
Woodridge | IL |
| 4. | D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc. Take THAT Canada! |
Pottsville | PA |
| 5. | Boston Beer Co. The largest craft brewery in America, according to the Brewers Association. |
Boston | MA |
| 6. | Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The brewery that made Cascade hops famous. |
Chico | CA |
| 7. | New Belgium Brewing Co. Makers of Fat Tire, the most viewed Beer Dorks review. |
Fort Collins | CO |
| 8. | Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc. Also known as Don’t Tell Anyone We’re Semi-Owned By Anheuser-Busch. |
Portland | OR |
| 9. | Spoetzl Brewery (part of Gambrinus) What’s brewed in Texas should stay in Texas. |
Shiner | TX |
| 10. | High Falls Brewing Co. In case you didn’t know (I had to look it up), they make the Dundee and Genesee brands. |
Rochester | NY |
| 11. | Minhas Craft Brewery Complete, absolute shit. |
Monroe | WI |
| 12. | Pyramid Breweries (part of IBU) They make a pretty good hefe. |
Seattle | WA |
| 13. | Deschutes Brewery A great big craft brewery making a range of great beers. Northwest Beer Dork Ade Solomon claims their Mirror Pond pale really moves him. |
Bend | OR |
| 14. | F.X. Matt Brewing Co. Recovered from last year’s scary fire. |
Utica | NY |
| 15. | Magic Hat Brewing Co. (part of IBU) Their big seller is #9, a pale ale with a hint of apricot. Original, I’ll give ’em that. |
Burlington | VT |
| 16. | Boulevard Brewing Co. One of those breweries that I sorely wish was in the Midwest. |
Kansas City | MO |
| 17. | Harpoon Brewery Ha! No one cares. |
Boston | MA |
| 18. | Alaskan Brewing Co. Might be the best brewery in America. Damn, they make great stuff. |
Juneau | AK |
| 19. | Bell’s Brewery, Inc. The Midwest’s biggest craft brewery. The list of their great beers goes on and on. |
Galesburg | MI |
| 20. | Goose Island Beer Co. I had a dream the other night that Goose Island abruptly closed up shop and I was scrambling to buy up the last of the Bourbon County Stout. |
Chicago | IL |
| 21. | Kona Brewing Co. I was in a Kona Brewing Co. bar in San Fran a few years ago and the cute, young bartender didn’t know they brewed their own beer. |
Kailua-Kona | HI |
| 22. | Full Sail Brewing Co. Employee-owned! |
Hood River | OR |
| 23. | Stone Brewing Co. What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! I salute you. |
Escondido | CA |
| 24. | Dogfish Head Craft Brewery 120 Minute IPA is a harsh mistress. |
Milton | DE |
| 25. | Iron City Brewing Co. One of the reasons why TP sales are still strong in Pittsburgh. |
Pittsburgh | PA |
| 26. | August Schell Brewing Co. Grainbelt, mon amour. If only I had the five bucks to buy a case of it … |
New Ulm | MN |
| 27. | The Brooklyn Brewery Good to see Garrett Oliver’s little side project is coming along nicely. |
Brooklyn | NY |
| 28. | Abita Brewing Co., L.L.C. Some drinkable beer brewed in the bayou. |
Abita Springs | LA |
| 29. | Summit Brewing Co. Putting out some great new stuff lately. |
Saint Paul | MN |
| 30. | Anchor Brewing Co. Craft brewing’s angry old man is still cranking out the goods. |
San Francisco | CA |
| 31. | Shipyard Brewing Co. I’ve never had a drop of this brewery’s beer. |
Portland | ME |
| 32. | New Glarus Brewing Co. The 32nd largest brewery in America and they only distribute in Wisconsin. |
New Glarus | WI |
| 33. | Great Lakes Brewing Co. So many solid brews. And I’m still haunted by their Nosferatu. |
Cleveland | OH |
| 34. | Rogue Ales/Oregon Brewing Co. It’s a Rogue Nation, and we are its citizens. |
Newport | OR |
| 35. | Long Trail Brewing Co. Why is it that the only place I’ve had their stuff is at a brew fest in … Oregon? |
Burlington | VT |
| 36. | The Lagunitas Brewing Co. Please, no more California breweries. |
Petaluma | CA |
| 37. | Mendocino Brewing Co. See number 36. |
Ukiah | CA |
| 38. | Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. I’ve never, ever been in a Gordon Birsch establishment. |
San Jose | CA |
| 39. | SweetWater Brewing Co. Been to Atlanta once. Once. I had some SweetWater, but for the life of me I can’t remember which one. I do remember it being pretty damn good, though. |
Atlanta | GA |
| 40. | Firestone Walker Brewing Co. I always thought these guys were really small. They crank out some interesting stuff. |
Paso Robles | CA |
| 41. | Victory Brewing Co. See number 16. |
Downingtown | PA |
| 42. | Flying Dog Brewing Co. Recently moved from Colorado to Maryland. See number 44 for an explanation why. |
Frederick | MD |
| 43. | BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery Must be one big restaurant. |
Huntington Beach | CA |
| 44. | Odell Brewing Co. Please, no more Colorado breweries. |
Fort Collins | CO |
| 45. | Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants Does this actually count? |
Louisville | CO |
| 46. | Straub Brewery OK, now they’re just making names up. |
Saint Marys | PA |
| 47. | BridgePort Brewing Co. (part of Gambrinus) One of Portland’s tamer breweries. But their IPA is an old standby. |
Portland | OR |
| 48. | Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe I’ve been to Eureka, California, and the Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe. An accomplishment in itself. |
Eureka | CA |
| 49. | Big Sky Brewing Co. Moose Drool is one of the best beer names ever. Now it’s canned, too. |
Missoula | MT |
| 50. | Stevens Point Brewery Co. I swear I have never uttered the phrase “Give me a case of Point Special and a glazed donut.” |
Stevens Point | WI |
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Comments
I can't believe High Falls is 10th!!11! I lived in Rochester and always thought their beer was just a local favorite. Nothing special, nothing to see here. I haven't seen or heard of them since.
It's interesting the "rankings" give the impression of size for some of these breweries. As Jim Koch points out in his recent Sam Adams commercials, Sam Adams is 0.9% of the U.S. Beer Market...the bottom 40 of this list combined don't total even that much.
Great list and commentary...although, I've been somewhat impressed by the recent efforts of some of the old-school regionals when honestly tasting them again...they're not just brewing cheap crap anymore, in some cases....except for Straub. I've had that...it's crap...and I'm not makin' it up.
Great list and commentary...although, I've been somewhat impressed by the recent efforts of some of the old-school regionals when honestly tasting them again...they're not just brewing cheap crap anymore, in some cases....except for Straub. I've had that...it's crap...and I'm not makin' it up.
Yeah, still only 5 percent of the U.S. beer market is craft. (The list doesn't include imports like Heineken and Corona, which dwarf Boston Beer Co.) It's kind of depressing to think that when you're in a bar where everyone's drinking craft beer, there are 19 other bars out there full of people mindlessly drinking Bud Light, (gleep!) Natty Ice, and the like or "high mindedly" drinking Amstel Light or something with a damn lime wedge in it to help choke it down. But on the other hand it's kind of encouraging, because the potential for growth of craft beer is still almost limitless.
Seems you need to expand your definition of the Midwest. I'm proud to say that I've enjoyed and even visited a good number of these on the list. Even if they total 5%, take comfort in the number available ... and growing. Cheers!
No doubt, Abe...its wonderful that we have so much more to choose from than we did only a few short years ago...my comment was only saying that a "top 50" list gives the impression that the bottom 40-45 are "large," when they're not even a day's worth of spill at an AB or Miller brewing facility. They're all still "little guys" who need our support!
What’re The Dorks Drinkin’?
Eddie’s drinkin’ Three Floyds Brewing Co. Arctic Panzer Wolf 9/5/10 9:44 pm Nigel’s drinkin’ Great Lakes Brewing Co. Lake Erie Monster 9/4/10 8:33 pm Nigel’s drinkin’ Lake Louie Brewing Kiss The Lips 9/4/10 7:09 pm
Eddie’s drinkin’ Three Floyds Brewing Co. Arctic Panzer Wolf 9/5/10 9:44 pm Nigel’s drinkin’ Great Lakes Brewing Co. Lake Erie Monster 9/4/10 8:33 pm Nigel’s drinkin’ Lake Louie Brewing Kiss The Lips 9/4/10 7:09 pm
