U.S. craft beer dollar sales share 2015, by city
Craft beer - additional information
Craft beer is quite difficult to define because each individual beer brand is unique. The craft brewery segment comprises most of the breweries in the United States according to the Brewers Association. The organization defines the "American craft brewer" as small, independent and traditional. To begin with, a craft brewery should produce no more than six million barrels of beer per year, or roughly three percent of U.S. annual sales. Secondly, non-craft brewers are only allowed to own or control less than 25 percent of the brewery. Finally, the majority of its beer flavor should come from traditional or innovative ingredients and their fermentation.
Craft brewers have become mainstream in the United States over the last several years. The number of operating microbreweries in the country had increased from approximately 370 in 2006 to about 1,871 in 2014. That year, D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc. ranked first among the fifty leading U.S. craft brewing companies, with volume sales amounting to approximately 2.9 million barrels.
Aside from Portland, craft beer gained popularity in U.S. cities such as Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento in 2015, where more than one-third of beer sales came from craft beer. In 2016, Samuel Adams, Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Leinenkugel Specialty were named among the best-selling U.S. craft beer brands.