The craft beer manufacture might be in a time of upheaval , but it is for certain not dying . Rather , it feels like the manufacture ’s going through some sort of business puberty – a stop noteworthy for its awkward growth and incessant thought of hot , sweaty … integration .

Thenumbers just released from the Brewers Association– a trade wind group that reps the US trade beer industry – show its undeniable growth in 2015 . Eleven calendar month ago we write thatcraft beer was at warfare with itself . A year later on , if this is the war , possibly this is the rare character of warfare where breweries and beer drinkers win . Here are the liberal takeaway from the BA ’s big information fall .

The craft beer industry is still growing

The BA says that while hoi polloi drink less beer overall in 2015 ( the full beer market was down .2 % ) , foxiness brewer volume went up 13 % . More beer is being brewed ( 2.4 million more barrel , to be precise ) , and that ’s never a defective thing . Even ifsome of it is gose . And whileselect trade beer trends might not be to your liking , the economic tendency are encouraging for anyone who likes secure beer .

foxiness breweries employed 121,843 people in 2015 , which was a 5.5 % addition from 2014 . Let ’s put that in perspective : Anheuser - Busch InBevalone employs more than 150,000 the great unwashed . This indicate that the integral industry is still a bead in the larger beer bucket in the oscilloscope of things .

Out of the $ 105.9 billion US beer food market retail clam economic value , craft is only 21 % of that . Hell , wad of Americans credibly think aBreakfast Stoutis a hugger-mugger menu item atCracker Barrel .

Deschutes Beer

Flickr/Karen Neoh

Consolidation doesn’t mean the end of craft beer

Sure , integration is bump – we justwrote about Cigar City ’s purchaseby an investment group that owns a majority interest in Oskar Blues . There are more breweries under one cap , and some of those roof ( rooves ? ) find to be owned by macrobrewers . But here ’s the proficient news : Cigar City is not closing ! It could potentially be making even more Hunahpu now ! And here ’s some more good news : 620 breweries opened in 2015 compared to only 68 closings . That intend more beer for everyone . monetary value should continue to go down , and competition will ratchet up . As a beer drinker , this should be music to your ears .

Not only is there more beer on the mart , there are more fun places to drink it . The numeral of brewpubs in this nation increased by 10 % in 2015 , and with 20 % more microbreweries around , hopefully we ’ll have to update this leaning ofgreat taprooms to eat on inshortly .

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Dogfish head beers

Flickr/Braden Kowitz

Cigar City Brewery

Russell Breslow/Cigar City Brewery