Earlier today, the Brewers Association released its annual list of the top 50 craft-brewing companies and overall brewing companies in the country. The not-for-profit trade association used sales-volume figures from calendar year 2021 to calculate rankings for both lists. Of the top 50 craft breweries, five had ties to San Diego County, while four locally based interests made it onto the overall list.
Escondido-based Stone Brewing retained the ninth spot on the craft-brewery list for the fourth straight year, while coming in eighteenth on the overall list. New on the list and rocketing to the twenty-seventh spot after a banner year of massive production at its pair of facilities, which includes its West Coast HQ in Miramar, was Athletic Brewing. The non-alcoholic brand also came in thirty-sixth on the overall list. Not far behind was Ballast Point Brewing parent company Kings & Convicts Brewing, which ranked thirty-fourth on the craft list and forty-third on the overall list. And sliding eight spots from 40 to 48 was Point Loma-based Modern Times Drinks.
Loosely connected to the local beer scene was SweetWater Brewing, which ranked tenth on the craft list and nineteenth overall. SweetWater’s parent company, Canadian cannabis interest Tilray, purchased locally born brands Green Flash Brewing and Alpine Beer Co. late last year, moving production of the beers in both portfolios out-of-state.
Anheuser-Busch, MolsonCoors, Constellation, Heineken and Pabst Brewing were the top five corporations on the overall list, while D.G. Yuengling & Sons, Boston Beer Co., Sierra Nevada Brewing, Duvel Moortgat USA and Gambrinus were tops on the craft list.
The Brewers Association defines a “craft brewer” as a small and independent brewing company producing less than six million barrels of beer per year that is less than 25 percent owned or controlled by a beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.