Craft beer still growing strong

Source: Brewers Association

Despite losing some larger players to big-beer buyouts, craft beer growth continued to climb impressively in 2015.

Production nationwide was up 13 percent last year – to 24.5 million barrels – with craft accounting for 12.2 percent of the overall beer market, according to preliminary figures released today by the Brewers Association .

In 2014, according to the association, production grew by 18 percent, with market share reaching double digits for the first time at 11 percent. But those numbers got a big behind-the-scenes boost from changing the “craft brewer” definition to cover more breweries, including major East Coast player Yuengling.

For 2015, on the other hand, the figures were dampened by the loss of some larger breweries that were acquired by Anheuser-Busch and others and no longer qualify as craft , including Elysian, 10 Barrel and Lagunitas.

“While 99 percent of U.S. breweries are still covered, the few that aren’t shift the numbers a fair amount,” said Bart Watson , chief economist for the Brewers Association.

The craft growth still is striking in an overall beer market that shrunk again last year by 0.2 percent, reflecting a continuing decline in macrobrew sales.

“For the past decade, craft brewers have charged into the market, seeing double digit growth for eight of those years,” Watson said in a press release.

“There are still a lot of opportunities and areas for additional growth. An important focus will remain on quality as small and independent brewers continue to lead the local, full-flavored beer movement.”

Among the other highlights of today’s report:

– Because of craft beer’s higher prices, it accounts for 21 percent of overall beer sales. Total revenue last year was $22.3 billion, up 16 percent.

– The number of operating breweries nationwide grew by 15 percent, to 4,269 – the most ever. Of those, 4,225 continue to qualify as craft.

– There were 620 brewery openings last year, compared to 68 closures.

– Craft beer jobs totaled 121,843, up 5.5 percent from 115,469 two years ago.