The Best-Selling Craft Brewers in the U.S.

With more than 7,000 small producers operating nationwide, craft beer continues to cut into the overall beer market.

The Best-Selling Craft Brewers in the U.S.

America’s craft beer scene has never been stronger, with more than 7,000 small brewers operating throughout the country. The Brewers Association expects another 1,000 to open in 2019, so no matter where you live it’s likely there’s at least one taproom nearby.

Macro beer brands like Budweiser and Coors still dominate the overall landscape, but 40 of the nation’s 50 largest breweries by sales volume are craft breweries. A craft brewery, according to the Brewers Association, is one that produces fewer than 6 million barrels of beer annually and is less than 25 percent owned by a non-craft brewer. A barrel of beer, or keg, contains 31 gallons.

Many of the leading craft brands are available nationwide, but several maintain a regional presence or distribute to fewer than half the states. That makes it even more impressive that they are able to achieve such high sales volume. Let’s take a look at the top 25.

25. August Schell Brewing

Location: New Ulm, Minnesota

Founded: 1860

Sales volume (barrels): 117,300

Instagram followers: 11,000

Popular beers: Schell's Original, Keller Pils, Grain Belt Premium

Availability: Seven states

Backstory: August Schell is the second-oldest family-owned brewery in the U.S. In 2002, it purchased the Grain Belt label from another 19th century Midwest brewer, Minnesota Brewing, which went out of business. True to its roots, August Schell makes German-style beers but also dabbles in the latest trends, like brut and hazy IPAs.

24. Summit Brewing

Location: St. Paul, Minnesota

Founded: 1986

Sales volume (barrels): 122,987

Instagram followers: 18,000

Popular beers: Extra Pale Ale, Great Northern Porter, Saga IPA

Availability: Five states

Backstory: A year after its founding, Summit won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for its Great Northern Porter. The honor made the brewery very popular, and by 1998 it outgrew its original production space. Summit decided to build a new facility, making it the first brewery to be constructed from the ground up in Minnesota since Prohibition ended.

23. Odell Brewing

Location: Fort Collins, Colorado

Founded: 1989

Sales volume (barrels): 126,375

Instagram followers: 93,000

Popular beers: 90 Shilling, Easy Street Wheat

Availability: 19 states

Backstory: Founder Doug Odell was a one-man operation for the brewery’s first five years, but nowadays it boasts 16 400-barrel brewing systems. To ensure the brewery’s continued independence, the Odell family sold off all but 30 percent ownership to existing employees in 2015.

22. Stevens Point Brewery

Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Founded: 1857

Sales volume (barrels): 129,000

Instagram followers: 4,000

Popular beers: Point Special, Hoptastic, Classic Amber

Availability: 18 states

Backstory: Only two other independent breweries have been continuously operating for longer than Stevens Point. It’s so old, in fact, that soldiers in the Civil War were drinking the Point Special lager.

21. Abita Brewing

Location: Abita Springs, Louisiana

Founded: 1986

Sales volume (barrels): 130,332

Instagram followers: 46,000

Popular beers: Amber, Purple Haze, Turbodog Ale

Availability: 46 states

Backstory: During its first decades, Abita beers were only available in Louisiana. That started to change in 2011 when it ramped up production and began to distribute more widely, and in 2013 the brewer tripled production by adding a 200-barrel system to its existing 100-barrel operation.

20. Great Lakes Brewing

Location: Cleveland

Founded: 1988

Sales volume (barrels): 136,551

Instagram followers: 53,400

Popular beers: Dortmunder Gold, Eliot Ness Amber Lager, Burning River Pale Ale

Availability: 13 states

Backstory: Great Lakes was the first microbrewery and brewpub to open in Ohio. Over the years, it has positioned itself as an environmental steward, including building a straw-bale facility, composting, burning old promotional materials as a heat source, recycling spent grains and utilizing outside air in winter months for refrigeration.

19. Alaskan Brewing

Location: Juneau, Alaska

Founded: 1986

Sales volume (barrels): 139,800

Instagram followers: 33,000

Popular beers: Amber, Freeride Pale Ale, Icy Bay IPA

Availability: 22 states

Backstory: Alaskan was the first brewery to open in Alaska since Prohibition, and it employs the same brewing techniques that brewers used during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1800s. That includes alder-smoked malts and Sitka spruce tips for its Alaskan Amber.

18. Harpoon Brewery

Location: Boston

Founded: 1986

Sales volume (barrels): 184,850

Instagram followers: 76,000

Popular beers: IPA, Dark, Dunkin' Coffee Porter

Availability: 29 states

Backstory: Harpoon is a staple of the Boston beer scene and hosts three popular annual festivals in the city. When it was founded in 1986, it was the first company in nearly three decades to receive a permit to manufacture and sell alcohol in Massachusetts.

17. Matt Brewing

Location: Utica, New York

Founded: 1888

Sales volume (barrels): 192,100

Instagram followers: 17,400 (Saranac)

Popular beers: Adirondack Lager, Black & Tan, Pale Ale

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: The fourth-oldest family owned brewery in the U.S. makes the Saranac line of beers. It also does contract brewing for smaller labels and was one of the only four breweries in the country to make Billy Beer in the late 1970s, a gimmicky brew named after President Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy, who liked to drink.

16. New Glarus Brewing

Location: New Glarus, Wisconsin

Founded: 1993

Sales volume (barrels): 231,875

Instagram followers: 46,700

Popular beers: Spotted Cow, Wisconsin Belgian Red, Uff-Da Bock

Availability: Wisconsin

Backstory: New Glarus stands out for the quality of its brews and its laser focus on the Wisconsin market for sole distribution. In fact, bars in Minnesota and New York City have been fined for illegally selling pints of Spotted Cow, the brewery’s most famous offering. New Glarus operates out of a $21 million facility that is designed to resemble a Bavarian village.

15. Minhas Craft Brewery

Location: Monroe, Wisconsin

Founded: 1845

Sales volume (barrels): 242,832

Instagram followers: No account

Popular beers: Simpler Times, Boatswain, Kirkland Signature Light

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: This historic Midwest brewery originally called Monroe Brewing is now owned by Canadian siblings Ravinder and Manjit Minhas, who also operate a Minhas brewery in Calgary. Minhas makes a variety of alcohols, but is best known for producing the value house brands for Trader Joe’s and Costco.

14. SweetWater Brewing

Location: Atlanta

Founded: 1997

Sales volume (barrels): 244,420

Instagram followers: 89,100

Popular beers: 420 Extra Pale Ale, Blue, Georgia Brown

Availability: 25 states

Backstory: Specializing in unpasteurized brews, SweetWater was created to bring West Coast-style beers to the Southeast. It maintains several green business practices, such as giving spent grains, hops and yeast to Georgia farmers and ranchers. It also reclaims millions of gallons of water annually to be used for future brewing.

13. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Location: Milton, Delaware

Founded: 1995

Sales volume (barrels): 275,784

Instagram followers: 371,000

Popular beers: 60 Minute IPA, Ancient Ales

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: Dogfish is well known for its wacky and experimental beers, such as a line called Ancient Ales that feature recipes derived from the chemical analysis of pottery and drinking vessel residue found at archaeological sites around the world. The first was Midas Touch Golden Elixir, developed from a residue sample from the 8th century tomb of King Midas. Dogfish’s merger with Boston Beer in 2019 will likely create the largest craft brewing company in the U.S. in years to come.

12. Brooklyn Brewery

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Founded: 1988

Sales volume (barrels): 282,000

Instagram followers: 162,000

Popular beers: Lager, American Ale

Availability: 32 states

Backstory: Brooklyn first contracted out its production before buying an old matzo factory in Williamsburg in 1996 where it still makes beer today. From its beginnings, the brewery exported to various countries and now, to meet international demand and keep quality up, it makes beer in Japan, Sweden, Australia and Brazil.

11. Artisanal Brewing Ventures

Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

Founded: 2016

Sales volume (barrels): 310,759

Instagram followers: 81,100 (Sixpoint); 9,000 (Southern Tier); 95,000 (Victory)

Breweries: Sixpoint, Southern Tier, Victory

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: Artisanal was formed by the family office Ulysses Management with the merger of Pennsylvania’s Victory and New York state’s Southern Tier. It became much larger with the acquisition of Sixpoint from Brooklyn, New York in 2018. Its main production facility for all three labels is in Charlotte and called Brewers at 4001 Yancey.

10. Deschutes Brewery

Location: Bend, Oregon

Founded: 1988

Sales volume (barrels): 313,510

Instagram followers: 158,000

Popular beers: Black Butte, Mirror Pond

Availability: 28 states

Backstory: Originally a brewpub, Deschutes grew by more than 1,000 percent in its first five years of operations. It’s known for its green business practices, including a water reuse system that diverts thousands of gallons of wastewater from the city’s sewer.

9. Stone Brewing

Location: Escondido, California

Founded: 1996

Sales volume (barrels): 400,000

Instagram followers: 453,000

Popular beers: Arrogant Bastard, Ruination, Stone IPA

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: The brewery is best known for its hop- and alcohol-heavy IPAs. Stone’s Arrogant Bastard is credited with putting San Diego on the craft brewing map in the 1990s, and the company spun it off as its own label in 2015.

8. CANarchy

Locations: Longmont, Colorado; Tampa, Florida; Salt Lake City; Comstock, Michigan; Inglewood, California; Dallas

Founded: 2015

Sales volume (barrels): 421,219

Instagram followers: 142,000 (Oskar); 19,000 (Perrin); 160,000 (Cigar City); 10,000 (Squatters); 9,100 (Wasatch); 38,000 (Deep Ellum); 27,000 (Three Weavers)

Breweries: Oskar Blues, Perrin Brewing, Cigar City, Squatters, Wasatch, Deep Ellum, Three Weavers

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: CANarchy is a unique collective of some of the top names in craft beer around the country, with and Oskar Blues and Cigar City being its most recognizable and widest distributed brands. The collective was awarded Craft Brewery of the Year in 2018 by Brewbound. It exists to counter the corporate push into the independent craft beer scene, with more and more macro labels buying up smaller producers or investing heavily into microbreweries.

7. Bell’s Brewery

Location: Comstock, Michigan

Founded: 1985

Sales volume (barrels): 472,168

Instagram followers: 194,000

Popular beers: Two Hearted Ale, Oberon, Official

Availability: 39 states

Backstory: Bell’s began as a homebrew shop called Kalamazoo Brewing Co., but within a few years it was selling its own beer. The first beers were made in a 15-gallon soup kettle and fermented in open containers covered with plastic wrap. Nowadays, Two Hearted Ale is often cited as one of the best beers in the U.S.

6. Gambrinus

Locations: San Antonio, Texas; Berkeley, California

Founded: Unknown

Sales volume (barrels): 560,351

Instagram followers: 69,600 (Shiner), 2,800 (Trumer)

Breweries: Shiner, Trumer

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: Gambrinus is much better known for the two beer labels that make it the sixth-largest craft brewery in the U.S. by sales volume. Shiner is made by Spoetzl, which started in 1909 and is the oldest brewery in Texas. Trumer has been in Berkeley since 2004 and is the sister brewery of Trumer Brauerei in Austria, a 400-year-old brand. The exact same process and recipe for Trumer Pils is used at the U.S. location.

5. Duvel Moortgat

Locations: Paso Robles, California; Kansas City, Missouri; Cooperstown, New York

Founded: 2003

Sales volume (barrels): 650,261

Instagram followers: 30,000

Popular beers: Duvel, Duvel Tripel Hop, Maredsous

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: Duvel is a Flemish brewery started in 1871 that came to the U.S. in the early 2000s after purchasing Brewery Ommegang in upstate New York. It’s main offering is simply called Duvel, which means “devil” in Brabantian Dutch, and clocks in at 8.5 percent alcohol. It was originally called Victory Ale and commemorated the end of World War I.

4. New Belgium Brewing

Locations: Fort Collins, Colorado; San Francisco

Founded: 1991

Sales volume (barrels): 848,609

Instagram followers: 279,000

Popular beers: Fat Tire, 1554 Black Ale, Citradelic

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: New Belgium has always been at the forefront of green business practices and is entirely employee owned as of 2013. Its flagship and still most popular beer is Fat Tire, a Belgian-style amber ale. The company is often recognized for the quality of its workplace experience and reports less than 3 percent annual turnover.

3. Sierra Nevada Brewing

Location: Chico, California

Founded: 1979

Sales volume (barrels): 1,078,908

Instagram followers: 351,000

Popular beers: Pale Ale, Torpedo IPA, Celebration Ale

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: The granddaddy of craft brewers, Sierra Nevada was started by homebrewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi. The brewery has steadily grown over the years from its humble 950 barrels the first year, and its label depicting its famous namesake makes Sierra Nevada one of the most iconic alcohol brands in the world.

2. Boston Beer

Location: Boston

Founded: 1984

Sales volume (barrels): 1,900,000

Instagram followers: 2,000

Popular beers: Sam Adams Boston Lager, Sam Adams Rebel IPA

Availability: Nationwide

Backstory: Boston Beer is most known for brewing the Sam Adams line of beers. It also make Angry Orchard ciders, Twisted Tea malt beverages and Truly Spiked & Sparkling hard seltzers. After acquiring Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in 2019, it could take over the top spot on this list in years to come.

1. D.G. Yuengling & Son

Location: Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Founded: 1829

Sales volume (barrels): 2,660,000

Instagram followers: 42,000

Popular beers: Traditional Lager, Porter, Lord Chesterfield Ale

Availability: 22 states

Backstory: America’s top craft beer producer is also America’s oldest brewery. The entirety of Yuengling’s production is distributed on the East Coast and in the South. Two of owner Dick Yuengling’s four daughters run the operation today (the other two also work for the company), and he already picked one of them to inherit a 51 percent ownership stake. It’s unknown publicly which one he chose.