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Beer Diary:

The 50 Biggest Breweries In America in 2014

Same top 10 (13, actually) as last year.
by Eddie Glick

It’s April folks and fools, and you know what that means: baseball starting up, late-season snow storms, and college semi-pro basketball teams’ unbeaten seasons coming to a glorious end. It also means it’s time again for the Brewers Association’s meaningless 50 largest breweries in America list. Not a lot here that stands out, since the top 10 (13, if you’re counting, which you aren’t) is exactly the same as last year. But take a read through the list and check out our pithy comments, among other sundry info. I’m not linking to the BA’s web site since they got all snotty and put the list out as an image instead of copy-and-past-friendly text. You know the BeerDorks.com typist doesn’t work for fucking free, jerkwads.

The number in parantheses is last year’s ranking.

Rank	Brewing Company	City, State
1(1)	Anheuser-Busch, Inc (a) Owners of Goose Island, Blue Point, Shocktop, 10 Barrel, Elysian, and the biggest assholes in the marketing world.	St. Louis, MO
2(2)	Miller Coors (b) Also known as Band of Brewers, Blue Moon Brewing Co., and Leinenkugel’s	Chicago , IL
3(3)	Pabst Brewing CO (c) Hipster juice.	Los Angeles, CA
4(4)	D. G. Yuengling and Son, Inc One year older than they were last year.	Pottsville, PA
5(5)	Boston Beer Co Still relevant, if you ask us.	Boston, MA
6(6)	North American Breweries They own the Dundee, Genesee, Labatt, MacTarnahan, Magic Hat, and Pyramid brands.	Rochester, NY
7(7)	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co With their east coast expansion, will they vault into the top five?	Chico, CA
8(8)	New Belgium Brewing Co See number seven.	Fort Collins , CO
9(9)	Craft Brew Alliance They do the Kona, Omission, Red Hook and Widmer Brothers beers.	Portland, OR
10(10)	Gambrinus They’re responsible for the BridgePort, Shiner and Trumer brands. See number 20.	Shiner, TX
11(11)	Lagunitas Brewing Co Chicago brewery is fully operational.	Petaluma, CA
12(12)	Deschutes Brewery Creeping ever further east.	Bend, OR
13(13)	Bell’s Brewery, Inc Oh, yeah, April also means Oberon!	Comstock, MI
14(17)	Stone Brewing Co Moving into the international market.	Escondido, CA
15(n/a)	Sleeman Brewing Co Do they even actually brew anything in America? Do they get on this list just because they have an office here? So if Heineken opened an office in, say, New York, they suddenly appear in the top five?	La Crosse, WI
16(15)	Minhas Craft Brewery Blech.	Monroe, WI
17(16)	Brooklyn Brewery Seriously, why don’t they just buy Pabst and complete the hipster circle?	Brooklyn, NY
18(14)	Duvel Moortgat USA They bought Boulevard two years ago.	Kansas City & Cooperstown, MO/NY
19(20)	Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Back distributing in the Midwest.	Milton, DE
20(18)	Matt Brewing Co Who the fuck is drinking all this shit?	Utica, NY
21(19)	Harpoon Brewery Completely unimpressed with everything they do.	Boston, MA
22(23)	Firestone Walker Brewing Co Another California brewery.	Paso Robles, CA
23(35)	Founders Brewing Co Jumped 10 places from last, and they’re finishing up another expansion right now. With their buy-in with Mahou San Miguel, they might jump even further in next year’s list.	Grand Rapids, MI
24(26)	SweetWater Brewing Co Maybe the only thing good to come out of Georgia.	Atlanta, GA
25(25)	New Glarus Brewing Co That is a shit ton of Spotted Cow.	New Glarus, WI
26(24)	Alaskan Brewing Co Drinking an Imperial Red Ale as I write this.	Juneau, AK
27(22)	Abita Brewing Co Turbo Dog might be the last brown ale I ever drank.	Abita Springs, LA
28(29)	Anchor Brewing Co See number four.	San Francisco, CA
29(27)	Great Lakes Brewing Co The beers are still solid from this venerable Cleveland institution.	Cleveland, OH
30(33)	Oskar Blues Brewery See number seven, except maybe top 20 instead of five.	Longmont, CO
31(21)	Shipyard Brewing Co They dropped 10 places from last year.	Portland, ME
32(45)	Stevens Point Brewery Co Biggest jump on the list from last year. Mainly from contract brewing, since there’s no fucking way people are sucking down that much Point Special.	Stevens Point, WI
33(28)	August Schell Brewing Co See number 20.	New Ulm, MN
34(32)	Summit Brewing Co See number 29, swap Saint Paul for Cleveland.	Saint Paul, MN
35(37)	Victory Brewing Co Beautiful beers from this beautiful brewery.	Downingtown, PA
36(31)	Long Trail Brewing Co Quick, name their flagship beer without using the internet.	Bridgewater Corners, VT
37(38)	Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits See number 22.	San Diego, CA
38(36)	Rogue Ales Brewery 8(8), Headquarters My Rogue Nation citizenship has not been revoked. Yet.	Newport, OR
39(34)	Full Sail Brewing Co Been there. Drank that.	Hood River, OR
40(44)	Odell Brewing Co Another Colorado brewery.	Fort Collins, CO
41(40)	Southern Tier Brewing Co Have some self-respect and please don’t release Pumking until September.	Lakewood, NY
42(39)	Ninkasi Brewing Co These guys make some hop monsters.	Eugene, OR
43(30)	World Brews/Winery Exchange How in the fuck is this considered a brewery?!? All they do is wholesale shitty store brands.	Novato, CA
44(43)	Flying Dog Brewery Still scratching our heads over the move to Maryland.	Frederick, MD
45(47)	Pittsburgh Brewing Co Last year I predicted they’d be off the list, but instead they moved up by two. SEE NUMBER 20!	Pittsburgh, PA
46(n/a)	Uinta Brewing Co Never seen this anywhere.	Salt Lake City, UT
47(46)	Bear Republic Brewing Co See number 22.	Cloverdale, CA
48(50)	Left Hand Brewing Company I don’t think I’ve seen anything other than their Milk Stout. Do they brew anything else?	Longmont, CO
49(n/a)	21st Amendment Brewery Cafe Newcomer, but isn’t most of their stuff contract brewed?	San Francisco, CA
50(n/a)	Allagash Brewing Co Surprised they weren’t on the list before. See their stuff everywhere.	Portland, ME

Drinkin’ And Thinkin’

Beer Dorks News

The aptly named Tenacity Brewing seeks to emerge from the disaster that was the water crisis in Flint, MI. Chicagoans hopeful a recent announcement from Three Floyds will bring a much-desired brewpub to the city. Sam Calagione's brilliant response to the news that an AB/InBev subsidiary is now a part-owner of RateBeer. Wisconsin's Gestapo, the Tavern League, looks to tighten rules that will hurt small brewers. One of the original craft beer stalwarts of the Upper Midwest, Summit, ceases distribution in 6 more states, leaving only 5 from their peak of 17. How much does psychology play into perceptions of craft beer? An incredibly interesting case study by this Estonian brewery indicates it's a major factor. AB-InBev controls South African hop market, not allowing craft brewers access. Sounds like the actions of a company that "advocates for craft brewers". Dirty fucking liars. Denmark brewer creates "Pisner", brewed with human urine. As opposed to Bud/Miller/Coors, which is just straight up urine, human or otherwise. On the heels of the Wicked Weed sellout, Lagunitas announces it's sold the remaining 50% to Heineken. We've said it before... this is not going to end well. Just when it seemed the Big Beer acquisition train was slowing a bit, this bomb dropped. And it's a BIG one. Sad.