There are seven times more breweries in the United States than there were in 2001, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In 2016, there were 2,843 breweries nationwide, with the biggest growth coming in 2013 and 2014.
Both Colorado and California, which were on the forefront of the craft brewing renaissance, boasted the largest number of breweries in 2006, with 27 and 45 respectively. In 2016, that number had grown to 204 in Colorado and 333 in California. BLS said only six states had fewer than 10 breweries. No states saw their number of breweries decline.
According to the Brewers’ Association, overall beer sales were static in 2016, but craft-brewed beer grew by 6.2 percent. Imported craft beer was also up nearly seven percent.The overall beer market in the U.S. was estimated to be $107.6 billion.
In sheer volume, the total amount of beer brewed in the U.S. was about 5 million barrels in 2004. By 2016, that grew to nearly 25 million barrels. One barrel has just over 117 liters of beer.
The number of Americans working in the brewing industry climbed over 30,000 in 2013 after having been relatively flat from 2001 to 2008, BLS said. The biggest growth came in 2015 and 2016. By the end of that year, there were 58,580 people employed in brewing.
Again and not surprisingly, Colorado and California have the most people employed in brewing with 8,113 and 5,173 people employed in brewing respectively. Beer brewing, according to the BLS “accounted for over half the jobs gained in beverage manufacturing from 2006 to 2016.”
