American Breweries Hit All Time High

It shocked me to find out that we now have more breweries or brew pubs in America than at any time since 1873.  My surprise wasn't that we have 4,144 brewers now, but that we had 4,131 American breweries in 1873.  How could that be possible with a population of around 38,000,000?  Our population now is almost ten times what it was after the Civil War, yet we have just about the same amount of breweries as we did then.  There must have been one on every corner!

From 1873 -1930, the number of breweries decreased rapidly, to the point that there were none during the years of prohibition.  The number of breweries stayed very low for the next 50 years.  In fact, in 1978 there were only 89 breweries or brew pubs in America.  Since then, the numbers have increased at a staggering rate.  From 2005-2015 breweries have increased 186.4%.  The number continues to increase.  North County San Diego is one of the hubs of breweries making craft beers.  Go to Vista and walk on Main Street, just a two block area, and see all the new local breweries.  America is in love with local breweries, brewing craft beers, but this is not just an American phenomenon.  It is world wide.  Not being a beer drinker (I've tried and just don't like it) I can't appreciate what all the fuss is about.  I do know that it creates jobs and businesses, and makes the big boys (Coors, Bud, etc.) up their game.  They can no longer see cheap tasteless beer.  The public is smart and they will go elsewhere for their beer if national brands are not up to par.

This is not dissimilar to what happened in the wine industry.  Over the past  50 years, the public became more knowledgeable about wine, and found that they could drink a good local wine or wine from a small winery for a modest price.  That forced the big wineries to compete, and now you see Gallo and other wineries that used to be producing low end tasteless wines, now making good inexpensive wines.  Competition is always good, and in the beer and wine business there is definitely a lot of completion.  That makes for more choice, more jobs, more businesses.  It's a good thing for our economy.