Three Wisconsin breweries made an annual list of the top 50 craft brewing companies in the U.S. in 2020, though none are located in Brew City itself.
The Brewers Association, a not-for-profit trade association based out of Boulder, Colorado, released its annual liston Tuesday. It includes what it believes to be the top 50 producing craft brewing companies and the overall brewing companies in the U.S., based on beer sales volume.
These are the three Wisconsin breweries that got top marks for brewing craft beer:
- #12 New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus
- #16 Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point
- #18 Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe
The list puts Kings & Convicts Brewing/Ballast Point in Pleasant Prairie and San Diego, CA at #30. However, their products are made at their Highwood, IL facility. They plan to open a location in Pleasant Prairie.
And the same breweries are credited in the association's list for overall brewing companies:
- #21 New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus
- #25 Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point
- #27 Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe
- #39 Kings & Convicts Brewing/Ballast Point in Pleasant Prairie and San Diego, California
What are the top craft breweries in the nation, according to the survey, you might ask:
- #1 D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc in Pottsville, PA
- #2 Boston Beer Co in Boston
- #3 Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, CA
- #4 Duvel Moortgat in CA, MO, NY
- #Gambrinus in CA, TX
Bart Watson, chief economist of Brewers Association, had this to say about this year's list, amid the coronavirus pandemic:
“The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed where Americans purchased alcohol in 2020. Breweries who had established packaging and distribution capacity were best positioned to take advantage of the boom in off-premise sales and weather market uncertainty... These businesses also saw variation in performance based on geography and business model, with different parts of the country seeing very different beer trends, and draught-heavy breweries suffering.”
The Brewers Association’s full 2020 industry analysis, which shows regional trends and sales by individual breweries, will be published in the May/June issue of The New Brewer, available in May 2021.
