Ten brewers make over 90 percent of all U.S. beer

The Brewers Association reports that there are more than 3,400 breweries in the U.S., the most since 1873. However, about 1,400 of them are brewpubs that aren’t putting beers on bar taps or store shelves. Also, the 1,900 or so microbreweries that exist are competing in a U.S. beer market in which exactly nine companies controlled 90 percent of all beer sold in 2014, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Craft beer’s share of the market rose 17.6 percent last year, accounting for 11 percent of beer volume and USD 19.6 billion of the beer industry’s USD 101.5 billion in sales.

Still, craft also faces competition from imported beers, whose sales rose 6.9 percent in 2014. According to Nielsen, the amount of Mexican beer alone sold in grocery shops last year was equal to the amount of all craft beer sold from supermarket and convenience stores.

Despite advances by both craft and imported beers, one of every five beers sold is a Bud Light. Total sales of Bud Light were 38 million barrels (44.5 million hl).

Top 10 brewers in U.S. in 2014