The brewing industry continues to evolve and grow as brewers move past early pandemic struggles.
The Brewers Association (BA) recently released the latest installment of its annual report detailing the state of craft brewing in the United States. With 24.3 million barrels of craft beer brewed, this year’s data shows similar production to that of 2021. Meanwhile, craft’s overall volume share of the beer market grew to 13.2 percent.
“2022 presented small brewers with a number of challenges, including rising operating and material costs and increasing competition, particularly in distribution,” BA chief economist Bart Watson says in the report. “In this maturing and competitive market, collective growth for the category is hard to come by.” Brewery closures in the U.S. remained at a modest 3 percent as a whole, while the number of new brewery openings in 2022 decreased for the second year in a row, which the BA says reflects a “mature market.”
Despite those hurdles brewers had to clear, an increasing number of craft beer drinkers are sipping pints at brick-and-mortar locations again. Craft breweries operating in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2022 at a whopping 9,552 locations. Those locations include 2,035 microbreweries, 3,418 brewpubs, 3,838 taproom breweries, and 261 regional craft breweries.
These breweries are spread out across the nation: Vermont tops the list with the highest number of craft breweries per capita, with over 15.5 breweries per 100,000 adults over 21. Maine follows closely behind, with a little more than 14 breweries per capita and 154 locations total. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mississippi has the lowest number of breweries per capita, with just under one location per 100,000 residents.
Keep reading to learn which other states host the most craft breweries in 2022.
| Rank | State | Craft Breweries | Craft Breweries Per Capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | 78 | 15.59 |
| 2 | Maine | 154 | 14.16 |
| 3 | Montana | 106 | 12.54 |
| 4 | Alaska | 59 | 11.21 |
| 5 | Wyoming | 45 | 10.53 |
| 6 | Colorado | 440 | 10.04 |
| 7 | Oregon | 318 | 9.80 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 101 | 9.29 |
| 9 | Washington | 448 | 7.66 |
| 10 | New Mexico | 104 | 6.66 |
| 11 | Idaho | 90 | 6.47 |
| 12 | South Dakota | 42 | 6.46 |
| 13 | Wisconsin | 249 | 5.66 |
| 14 | Minnesota | 233 | 5.56 |
| 15 | Michigan | 407 | 5.41 |
| 16 | Pennsylvania | 531 | 5.41 |
| 17 | Iowa | 126 | 5.41 |
| 18 | Virginia | 344 | 5.34 |
| 19 | North Carolina | 392 | 4.94 |
| 20 | Delaware | 37 | 4.80 |
| 21 | Connecticut | 130 | 4.73 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 65 | 4.63 |
| 23 | Ohio | 402 | 4.61 |
| 24 | Rhode Island | 38 | 4.54 |
| 25 | North Dakota | 23 | 4.12 |
| 26 | Indiana | 197 | 3.97 |
| 27 | Massachusetts | 203 | 3.81 |
| 28 | Missouri | 163 | 3.57 |
| 29 | South Carolina | 134 | 3.39 |
| 30 | New York | 504 | 3.39 |
| 31 | California | 957 | 3.31 |
| 32 | Illinois | 302 | 3.23 |
| 33 | Kansas | 67 | 3.17 |
| 34 | District of Columbia | 16 | 3.12 |
| 35 | Tennessee | 154 | 2.93 |
| 36 | Maryland | 134 | 2.93 |
| 37 | Kentucky | 90 | 2.71 |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 75 | 2.59 |
| 39 | Hawaii | 28 | 2.58 |
| 40 | West Virginia | 33 | 2.44 |
| 41 | Arizona | 129 | 2.36 |
| 42 | Nevada | 55 | 2.31 |
| 43 | Florida | 396 | 2.31 |
| 44 | Arkansas | 49 | 2.20 |
| 45 | New Jersey | 152 | 2.19 |
| 46 | Georgia | 171 | 2.15 |
| 47 | Utah | 44 | 1.93 |
| 48 | Texas | 407 | 1.91 |
| 49 | Alabama | 56 | 1.49 |
| 50 | Louisiana | 48 | 1.43 |
| 51 | Mississippi | 20 | 0.94 |
*Image retrieved from John Parry via Unsplash.com
