Think your state has suds? These have the most craft beer breweries

The buzz over craft beer shows no signs of going flat.

Growth in craft beer, measured by sales and volume, may be slowing, but the number of breweries just keeps on climbing. Like manifest destiny, small, independent breweries have spread across the U.S., becoming a coast-to-coast phenomenon. 

Traditional hotbed states with the most breweries include California — home of pioneering breweries such as Anchor Brewing Co., and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. — leading the way with 520. Colorado holds the No. 2 spot (252) and is home to New Belgium and Oskar Blues, and Pennsylvania, home to Yuengling and Tröegs, is No. 3 (236).

But other states have the most breweries per person with Oregon, which has 191 breweries including Deschutes and Rogue, boasts 4.7 breweries for every 100,000, followed by Vermont (No. 2 at 4.6 per person), and Colorado and Montana tied at No. 3 (4.5).

A billion bottles of beer: Nowhere in the nation brews more craft beer than Pa.

"It's a national trend," said Ben Lee, managing director of funds for CircleUp, a San Francisco-based investment company for smaller consumer brands including breweries. "Certainly there are higher concentrations in urban areas and in a few regions, but you will see it just as much in San Francisco, Portland and New York City as you will in Milwaukee, St. Louis or Phoenix or in Idaho. It is a growing trend across the country."

CircleUp used its machine learning technology Helio to analyze 4,005 privately-owned breweries across the U.S. Its analysis, done in August, considers metrics such as brands, product quality and financial performance to tailor investment insights.

Overall, there are even more craft breweries across the U.S.: about 5,560 —up 19% from last year — and another 2,730-plus in the works, according to the Brewers Association. California has 623 breweries, according to the association's figures.

The $107.6 billion overall U.S. beer market, which includes major labels such as Budweiser, Coors and Miller, has been relatively flat in recent years. But craft beer has been a growth center, increasing 10% in 2016 to $23.5 billion, the association says.

Craft beer's constantly growing share of the market is nearly 22%, up from 14% in 2013. "Beer as a market overall is flat. Craft is what is driving growth," Lee said.

As craft beer's market share grew, bigger beer companies wanted a taste of the action. In recent years, many good-sized craft breweries have been bought by larger companies such as Anheuser-Busch, which acquired Asheville, N.C.'s Wicked Weed Brewing in May, bringing its list of craft brewery acquisitions to ten. In other moves, Constellation Brands (Corona, Modelo) paid nearly $1 billion for Ballast Point Brewery of San Diego two years ago and acquired Funky Buddha Brewery of Boca Raton, Fla., in August.

Megabrewers have been snapping up independent breweries "because they need to have a portfolio of these regional brands to really compete in that market," Lee said.

Continued consumer interest in local and regional craft beer makers means "there are opportunities to have good investments ... and that can be a nice business," he said. "But if you are aiming for another Ballast Point-type outcome where you sell it for a billion dollars that is likely going to be much more difficult in the future."

Craft beer sales at retail, including supermarkets, mass market chains and convenience stores, have risen 6% over the past 52 weeks, amounting to $4 billion, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm.

And in its 2017's half-year report, the Brewers Association says the amount of craft beer sold is continuing to bubble up at a rate of 5% and the dollar value is likely up a few points, too, according to Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association.

“The growth pace for small and independent brewers has stabilized at a rate that still reflects progress but in a more mature market," Watson said in a statement with the report. "Although more difficult to realize, growth still exists,”

More beer facts:

►The city with the most breweries, based on CircleUp's analysis: Portland, with 78, followed by Denver (63), San Diego (61), Seattle (49), and Chicago (43).
 
►India pale ale remains the most popular craft beer style, earning about 31% of the market share, or $1.2 billion, of craft beer sold at retail, IRI says. Beer lovers continue to buy more IPAs than ever, with sales up 17% from the previous year. Next favorite styles: seasonal beers (15%); Belgian Wits (10%); variety packs (8%); pale ale (7%); and amber ale (3.6%).

►Craft beer's economic impact in the U.S. continues to ferment. The industry contributed $67.8 billion to the U.S. economy in 2016, up 21.7% from 2014, the last year the association did the study. Craft brewing jobs rose 7.5% to 456,373 full-time equivalent jobs.