US craft breweries count over 6,000 in 2017
Over 6,000 breweries operated in the US in 2017, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) count. About 900 craft breweries operate in the largest state alone, California. Across the country, “83 percent of the population lives within 10 miles of a local brewery,” the BA reports. This number rises to almost 92 percent in California. That’s a lot of communities directly impacted by craft beer businesses.
In recent years the brewery count has literally shot up. For example, the number of breweries in California has tripled in just five years, up from 300 in 2012. Overall there are four times as many breweries as there were ten years ago.
This means that 3,600, or just under 60 percent, of the country’s operating breweries have been open for five years or less.
Those annual growth rates have been slowing, though, as the base gets (much) bigger. The BA’s brewery count jumped 28 percent in 2014, 20 percent in 2015 and almost 17 percent in 2016 to just over 5,300.
If the count passed 6,000 in 2017, it looks like another 750 breweries will have opened by year end, give or take a few dozen. That’s a similar number to 2016 and about a 14 percent.
Plenty more craft breweries could be opening this year. The country’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) reported that had issued over 8,700 brewery permits by mid-summer, up from not quite 6,400 at the same time in 2016.
