The Brewers Association reports that in the past three months of March, April and May more than 50 breweries in 25 US states have opened; Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky,Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin. Here's their list ... Arizona Dragoon Brewing Co. Tucson, Arizona California Latitude 33 Brewing Co. Vista, California Monkfish Brewing Co. Torrence, California Offbeat Brewing Co. Escondido, California Societe Brewing Co. San Diego, California Colorado Echo Brewing Frederick, Colorado TRVE Brewing Co. Denver, Colorado Vine Street Pub & Brewery Denver, Colorado BRU Boulder Boulder, Colorado Big Choice Brewing Co. Broomfield, Colorado City Star Brewing Berthoud, Colorado Delaware Argilla Brewing Co. @ Pietro's Pizza Newark, Delaware Florida Darwin's on 4th Sarasota, Florida Props Craft Brewery Fort Walton Beach, Florida Due South Brewing Co. Boynton Beach, Florida Georgia Burnt Hickory Brewery Kennesaw, Georgia Idaho Snow Eagle Brewing Idaho Falls, Idaho Illinois Baderbrau Brewing Co. Chicago, Illinois Soleman Oath Brewery Naperville, Illinois Pig Minds Brewing Co. Machesney Park, Illinois Kansas Crazy Eye Brewing Hiawatha, Kansas Kentucky West Sixth Brewing Co. Lexington, Kentucky Maryland Dempsey's Brew Pub and Restaurant Baltimore, Maryland Michigan Rochester Mills Beer Co. - Production Facility Auburn Hills, Michigan Granite City Food & Brewery Troy, Michigan Minnesota Borealis Fermentery Knife River, Minnesota Badger Hill Brewing Co. Twin Cities, Minnesota Missouri John A. Huber Brewing Co. Jackson, Missouri Rock Bridge Brewing Co. Columbia, Missouri New Jersey Turtle Stone Brewing Co. Vineland, New Jersey Flounder Brewing Co. Somerset County, New Jersey New Mexico Broken Bottle Brewery Albuquerque, New Mexico New York Community Beer Works Buffalo, New York North Carolina Tipping Point Tavern Waynesville, North Carolina Brevard Brewing Co. Brevard, North Carolina Ohio Zauber Brewing Co. Columbus, Ohio Oregon Dragon's Gate Brewery Milton Freewater, Oregon Gigantic Brewing Co. Portland, Oregon Pennsylvania Doylestown Brewing Co. Doylestown, Pennsylvania Round Guys Brewing Co. Lansdale, Pennsylvania Naked Brewing Co. Feasterville Trevose, Pennsylvania Texas Rogness Brewing Co. Pflugerville, Texas Guadalupe Brewery New Braunfels, Texas Virginia Midnight Brewery Rockville, Virginia Brass Cannon Brewery Toano, Virginia Washington Dirty Bucket Brewing Co. Woodinville, Washington Elliot Bay Public House & Brewery Seattle, Washington Kulshan Brewing Co. Bellingham, Washington Brickyard Brewing Co. Woodinville, Washington Washington, D.C. 3 Stars Brewing Co. Washington, D.C. Wisconsin 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sweet Mullets Brewing Co. Oconomowoc, Wisconsin Port Huron Brewing Co. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin ###
Lexington, KY also had Country Boy Brewing open, and Louisville saw the opening of Apocalypse Brew Works.
Makes me wonder when are stores simply going to run out of shelf space to carry all the new breweries showing up...
cant help but think. the more breweries that open, the more that wont make it and be forced to either close or sell. i think the ones that have to sell, that made a decent name for them selves will get bought up by AB and miller Coors. so they can release "craft" beer under a different name. not that they haven't been basically doing this already
What a great time to be a fine beer lover. The pace of the craft beer revolution is staggering. Hope there are enough thirsty folk to support all of these.
They missed Pike 51 in Hudsonville, MI too. There's a few more on the way in Michigan, Boatyard Brewing Company in Kzoo, Perrin Brewing in Comstock Park, and more to come.
Most of these new breweries are going to take a year or more to start cranking out good beer. Remember the 90's. Lots will produce crap, most of them will fail.
This has been the case for years in the Boston area - sucks for beer drinkers like me who like to drink more than one bottle of each brand. For example, I can buy mixed 12 packs of Troeg's, but impossible to find a six pack of their pale ale. And good local/regional beers that fly under the beer geek radar are getting harder and harder to find - as well as import lagers. Seems like there are many stores that either cater to beer geeks with lots of obscure bombers and 750's or to the bmc crowd - and the middle tier is getting squeezed out.
Personally, I am finding it harder and harder to find beer that I want to drink and willing to pay its price. It was much easier 10 years ago.
Something's gonna have to give. Either small breweries are going to start closing up shop in droves, or distribution is going to become more regional and we're going to see more brewers pull back their distribution range. I simply don't believe there's a sustainable market for this kind of innundation of craft brewers.
I hear you, but i think with there being over 6,000 vineyards in the usa, approx. 2,000 usa breweries seem small (ie, if wine drinkers can support 6k, I would think beer drinkers could support well more than 2k; of course, i have zero research to back that up). I think we are just making up for lost time.
Ten years ago I had never heard of Nugget Nectar, Flower Power, Big A, Lunch, Sublimely Self Righteous, Super Kitty, Joe Mamas Stout, Brute, LeBleu, 2XIPA, Finest Kind, Saison Brett, The Abyss, Ommegang BPA, Captain Lawrence, etc., etc., and I could keep this list going til the cows come home. Perhaps things are different in the far off land of Massachusetts
Most already have, unless you think a row of just singles counts....sucks in some ways. At least as far as Total wine stores, seems like the more beer brands they carry the less, actual six packs are on the shelf! What I mean is there is just so much space and if you want six packs of things, there is not enough room for them, so they break them up and place them on the singles row, which does not help me much, as I not going to pay single prices......
Its just another cycle and a fad for many, everyone wants a to build a brewery now its So popular, of course its when so Popular, you know its a bubble. It happened in the 1990's and it will again, I hate to be negative about it, but what goes up always comes down. (unless your in space,and there are no pubs in space). I do not think its this year I think its 2013/2014 and wham the peak will be hit. Only time will tell though.
Unfortunately, the wine-drinking market is significantly larger than the craft beer market. Based on those numbers, we're at a 3:1 ratio of wineries:breweries. Are we at a 3:1 ratio of craft beer:wine drinkers? There's a lot of other factors involved obviously, but it's still food for thought, in my opinion.
Third brewery opening in Columbia, MO! Woohoo! Flat Branch and Broadway are both great. I can't wait to try some of Rock Bridge Brewings' offerings.
You can add even more to NC. Steel String Brewing in Carrboro just closed on their property, and Haw River Farmhouse Ales in Saxapahaw just finished and met their fundraising drive online to finalize their equipment.
One thing you also have to examine is size and scope for these breweries. In the Denver area almost none of them are bottling. They're essentially just like "neighborhood" breweries and no matter how many seem to pop up, they're shockingly all doing good business more often than not. They aren't having to compete with the New Belgiums and Odells because they don't bottle. They might compete for the occasional keg space, but that's it. Neighborhoods want their own little brewery hang-out spot more than just a multi-tap. At a certain point I'm pretty sure things will implode if every major neighborhood has 5 breweries, but the current batch are doing pretty well.
We need to ask have we peaked at 6% of beer drinking market? IMHO it comes down to whether the folks I now see everywhere buying the entry level crafts will continue to like fine beer well enough to become part of the regular buyers/lovers of even better craft. I believe they will stay with fine beer, because we have such great and experimental brewers in USA. It's the craft brew revolution, man, enjoy it. I think there's no going back to crap beer once you fall in love with craft beer.
I don't think it's unreasonable for the share by volume to triple in the next 2-3 decades. Of course that would mean the big guys would be paying a lot more attention and likely making some substantial acquisitions.
I wish the Boston area was more like Denver in this respect. I've had enough of these new douche-tastic hipster "gastropubs" that seem to pop up weekly around here, with their overpriced precious beer and food menus (and pompous attitudes to match). I'd even kill for a corporate brewpub like Gordon Biersch to open in my area, or maybe a BJ's. Back to the original point, I really don't see how this trend of new breweries can be sustainable. To think that this continued growth will continue to happen is not realistic.
When you look at the number of people that drink beer, relative to the number of people that drink craft beer, there are still TONS of people out there to draw from as customers. Simply opening your doors and exposing people to your beer is going to convert some people to customers. There's room for everybody in this game. Literally. As long as you know what the fuck you're doing and can actually make good beer.
There have been many breweries that made good great beer that have closed. I agree there is room for growth, but it is not a slam dunk to open a brewery and be successful.
That is Columbus, WI. Thanks for the tip as I often go home that way from the cabin. While the wife goes to that huge antique mall thing, I can go have a beer!
So much apathy in this thread. We are thirsty for good beers and in time BMC dinosaur soft drinks are going to have to make a little room for us. Some of these new breweries will be great and stay open for decades, some will create brands and sell out and then some will not be so great and fold. More good beer is a good thing.
I'm still waiting for the new WY brewery to open..Clear Creek in Buffalo. It will be the second closest brewery/brewpub to me at 106 miles, one way.
So many dumb derivative names for these breweries Why does every brand title have to include an animal, some vague reference to nature or geographical specificity? Yea I can't wait to try some Squirrel Cliff followed by some Stepdad's Porch and then how could I forget a growler fill of Indian Corn on 4th
Assuming they can make a decent beer, the success or failure, of any new brewery is usually dependent on successfully matching their capital outlays to their realistically valid business plan. The sweet spot is to spend just enough money to buy the right amount of equipment to satisfy your anticipated customer base to get the doors open. If you can successfully manage that and then scale things up according to the demand, you should be ok. Truth be told though, how may breweries start out by buying the equipment for a 5,000 bbl a year brewery and only wind up selling 500 bbls. That is an extremely quick way to chew through your capital and wind up for sale on Probrewer.
