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Indie craft beer production declined 5.1% in 2025, Brewers Association estimates based on annual production survey results and other available data. So BA-defined craft gained slight share of total beer production (excluding FMB/Seltzer/Cider), org figures. That's driven by outperformance of taproom brewers (that sell 25% or more of their beer on-site), down 4%, and brewpubs off just 1.7%. Both regional brewers 15K bbls/yr and up (-6%) and microbreweries (-9%) lost share last yr. It ain't all downers in craftland with 39% of brewers reporting growth to the BA and 1% flat vs 60% reporting declines. Assuming similar %'s for all 9,578 brewers in the country last yr, that's still a lotta companies on an upward trajectory. And craft "retail dollar value" declined just 3.6% to $27.8 bil, BA estimates, proving "more resilient than volume trends alone might suggest." But either way, craft continued to decline as brewers "continued to adjust to a challenging market in 2025," wrote BA in release headlining "A Year of Correction for Craft Beer, With Early Signals of Recovery." Editor's Note: BA indie craft trend and share performance is a bit healthier than available data in tracked off- and on-prem channels indicate and BMI estimates for total craft, with definitional differences accounting for some of the trend difference. Non-alc craft beers and certain growing lower-priced lagers like Garage Beer and Outlaw are included in BA's craft definition.Brewery Count Dipped 3%; Workforce Dipped 4% For the 2d consecutive year, the number of BA craft breweries declined, org estimates. Total count dipped 2.9% to 9,578 vs yr ago with over 100 taproom brewers closing and ~90 brewpubs and microbreweries closing. Number of taproom brewers and brewpubs declined less than 3% and still totaled 3,784 and 3,525, respectively. Suggests that closures account for a significant portion of craft taprooms and brewpubs' overall volume declines. That's not the case for microbreweries, which were down 4.4% to 1,994 total, just about half of microbreweries' total volume decline rate (-8.9%). Regional brewer count dipped just slightly to 275, tho the yr brought loss of venerable brands Rogue and 21st Amendment. Interestingly, total workforce declined at a slightly steeper rate, -4% to 189K jobs across the craft brewing workforce. So it seems that existing brewers collectively pared back their workforces slightly too, on top of brewery closures.Top 50 Rank Changes: Garage, Tivoli, Maine, Coronado Now Make the List This yr's list of top 50 indie craft brewers ranges from DG Yuengling (excluding JV states with MC) at #1 to OH's Fat Heads now at #50 overall. For context, Fat Heads sold nearly 46K bbls in 2024 and declined by high-single-digits in scans last year. New to the list in 2025 were Garage Beer (#12), Tivoli (#18), Maine Beer (#46) and Coronado (#49), plus #11 Artisanal Brewing Ventures (Victory, Southern Tier, Sixpoint), which was temporarily not listed in 2024 but always woulda ranked in that group. They replaced Fremont, Zero Gravity, Shipyard, Drake's/Bear Republic and Rogue.Recall, Garage Beer surpassed 3 mil cases last yr, and according to the BA list, it's now larger than New Glarus, which shipped 218K bbls. Tivoli now ranks ahead of Rhinegeist and Narragansett, and behind Fiddlehead, suggesting it produced between 110K to 120K bbls last yr. And ABV beer production ranked 11th ahead of Garage and behind Deschutes, which saw shipments surge to 284K bbls, co shared with CBN separately. Deschutes is back to #10 indie craft brewer overall. ABV beer volume was around ~250K bbls, we estimate.Sierra Ahead of Boston, Athletic #6; Fiddlehead Up 6 Ranks to #17; Hendler Fam, New Trail and Creature Comforts Climbing Too A coupla major rank changes occurred toward the very top of the list, as Craft Brew News reported in a little over one mo ago. Sierra Nevada surpassed Boston Beer's craft portfolio (Sam Adams and Dogfish) to become the 2d largest indie craft brewer overall. Both produced a little over 1 mil bbls of craft beer in 2025, but Sierra edged ahead with steadier trends. Then too, Athletic Brewing rose 2 spots to become the #6 indie craft brewer overall as it produced around 500K bbls of non-alc beer. That's now ahead of Gambrinus and only behind Duvel Craft, Tilray, Boston, Sierra and Yuengling. And VT's Fiddlehead maintained strong growth, rising 6 spots to the #17 craft brewer overall. That was the biggest rank change for any previously ranked top 50 craft brewer. Further down the list, Hendler Family moved up 5 spots to #27, primarily thru new partnerships/acquisitions, while New Trail moved up 4 spots to #42 and Creature Comforts rose 2 spots to #29.Maui, Barrel One, Great Lakes, Matt and Surly Among Steepest Rank Drops; Several Growing Brewers Dropped in Rank Too With different kinds of brewers entering the list in 2025, the majority of top craft brewers dropped in rank in 2025. But that didn't always correlate to declines in volume overall, as was the case with cos like pFriem and Pizza Port, which were still posting healthy growth last yr. And Maui (-16) was among the steepest rank drops primarily due to its sale of Modern Times. Yet other big rank drops from Barrel One, Great Lakes, Matt, Surly, Summit, Odell, Pittsburgh, BJ's, Abita, BrewDog, Stevens Point, and Alaskan do tend to correlate with respective declines. Net-net, this list continues to change year by year as the craft industry moves thru this more challenging period and new growth cos emerge.

BA Craft Production -5% in 2025; "Year of Correction…With Early Signals of Recovery"; Brewery Count -3%; Top 50 Indie Ranks

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BA Craft Production -5% in 2025; "Year of Correction&hellip;With Early Signals of Recovery"; Brewery Count -3%; Top 50 Indie Ranks

Publishing Info

BA Craft Production -5% in 2025; "Year of Correction…With Early Signals of Recovery"; Brewery Count -3%; Top 50 Indie Ranks