2011's TOP 20 CRAFT Brewers by Volume

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Louella on February 8, 2012 at 11:00am

Wait. Yuengling had more sales than Boston Beer this year. It was close. So why is Yuengling not on this list? Is it not Craft Beer?  I can argue it is not different than Shiner Bock and they are on the list. 

http://adage.com/article/news/d-g-yuengling-son-america-s-largest-b...

According to new estimates from Beer Marketer's Insights, Yuengling surged last year with shipments up 16.9% to 2.5 million barrels, placing it eighth in overall U.S. market share, at 1.2%. That was good enough to nose by Boston, which grew by 8% to 2.4 million barrels, dropping to ninth place. Boston owns the Sam Adams brand.

Beer Marketer's stressed that the numbers are estimates and that Boston Beer hasn't yet reported its own fourth-quarter figures. But "we felt reasonably comfortable," in the rankings, said Eric Shepard, executive editor of the trade pub. "It's possible that [Boston] had a huge December, but I don't expect it."

 

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Permalink Reply by johnny b on February 8, 2012 at 5:19pm

Hey - what do I know - I saw this report and was focused on the brewers with over 15% growth in BBL's.

My list would knock-off several of these so-called "craft" brewers.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Welsh on February 8, 2012 at 5:33pm

Sam's makes Twisted Tea, which should disqualify them immediately.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Louella on February 8, 2012 at 6:12pm

So I searched and of course BeerAdvocate has a ton of posts on the matter and if Yuengling is craft beer.

""Yuengling" is brewery which makes a number of beers (I guess 7 now, including the seasonal bock?) none of which fall into the Brewers Association's definition of craft beer, so regardless of size and their new membership, they aren't a "craft brewery" by the BA's definition (yet). 

Most of Yuengling's beers pre-date the craft era and fit into that older era's styles (adjunct light lager, low calorie "light beer", bottom fermented adjunct golden ale, bottom fermented adjunct "Pennsylvania porter", plus a "Black and Tan" and a bock which are blends of two of their other beers, etc.). Only the relatively recent Traditional Lager (far and away it's flagship now) is unusual compared to standard pre-craft beer styles, but it's use of corn as an adjunct would logically disqualify it as "craft beer".

As a side note- to me, "BMC" is to be taken literally- and means only A-B and (now) M-C. "Macro" means them and possibly Pabst. I suppose one could call any traditional US style adjunct light lager (Genesee, Utica Club, Lionshead, etc) "BMC-like" but it confuses things- why not just call 'em "US light lagers"?"

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Knuttel on February 9, 2012 at 3:04pm

yeah, it's probably disqualified because it's generally considered more of a "regional" brewery than a "micro" brewery and they use adjuncts.  I don't understand how that separates it from Shiner, but whatevs.  Maybe the largest American-owned brewery is automatically disqualified for its size (but Sam Adams is available like everywhere, and Yeungling is just mid-atlantic, florida, and ohio).

i mean, the history of american brewing is filled with the use of adjuncts (so is belgian, but I guess they get a free pass for never inventing budweiser).

I guess I'm curious mostly about their definition of craft brewer.  What separates a regional brewer from a craft brewer and how do you make a definition work that includes more peculiar regional beers (like the comparable Shiner Bock and Yuengling Lager) while excluding AB and Miller Coors?  Should they even be excluded from a list like this if they are precipitously losing their market share anyway?

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