US Craft Beer Statistics 2026

A regularly updated snapshot of America's independent craft brewing industry. The numbers below come from the Social Sips brewery directory (built on Open Brewery DB plus our own additions and verification) and are refreshed as breweries open or close. Facts and figures on this page are released under CC BY 4.0 — free for journalists, bloggers, and researchers to cite with attribution to Social Sips.

7,830 BREWERIES 49 STATES 3,317 CITIES UPDATED Jun 2026

The Big NumberNational

7,830

Independent Craft Breweries
Verified, currently-operating independent US craft breweries tracked in the Social Sips directory across all 50 states.

49

States with Craft Breweries
Every US state has at least one independent craft brewery — craft beer is a coast-to-coast industry, not a coastal one.

3,317

US Cities & Towns
Unique cities and towns home to at least one independent craft brewery. The industry is overwhelmingly small-town and neighborhood-driven.

160

Avg Breweries per State
National average — but as the rankings below show, the distribution is dramatically uneven.

Top 10 States by Brewery CountRanked

#1 · California

919 breweries · 11.7% of US total
Browse all 919 California breweries on Social Sips.

#2 · Washington

498 breweries · 6.4% of US total
Browse all 498 Washington breweries on Social Sips.

#3 · Colorado

449 breweries · 5.7% of US total
Browse all 449 Colorado breweries on Social Sips.

#4 · New York

419 breweries · 5.4% of US total
Browse all 419 New York breweries on Social Sips.

#5 · Michigan

375 breweries · 4.8% of US total
Browse all 375 Michigan breweries on Social Sips.

#6 · Texas

352 breweries · 4.5% of US total
Browse all 352 Texas breweries on Social Sips.

#7 · Florida

312 breweries · 4.0% of US total
Browse all 312 Florida breweries on Social Sips.

#9 · Ohio

303 breweries · 3.9% of US total
Browse all 303 Ohio breweries on Social Sips.

#10 · Oregon

295 breweries · 3.8% of US total
Browse all 295 Oregon breweries on Social Sips.

Breweries by TypeIndustry mix

Micro

4,027 breweries
51.4% of US independent craft breweries.

Brewpub

2,270 breweries
29.0% of US independent craft breweries.

Planning

613 breweries
7.8% of US independent craft breweries.

Closed

349 breweries
4.5% of US independent craft breweries.

Regional

199 breweries
2.5% of US independent craft breweries.

Contract

178 breweries
2.3% of US independent craft breweries.

Large

73 breweries
0.9% of US independent craft breweries.

Proprietor

66 breweries
0.8% of US independent craft breweries.

Citation & LicensingFor press

Licensed CC BY 4.0 — Free to Reuse with Attribution

The data and figures on this page are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. You may quote, screenshot, or republish any number on this page in articles, podcasts, videos, or research as long as you credit "Social Sips" and link back to https://socialsips.io/craft-beer-statistics. Methodology: brewery counts are based on the Social Sips directory, built on Open Brewery DB with ongoing additions, verification, and removals. Counts reflect breweries actively listed at page load and may differ slightly from Brewers Association figures, which use different inclusion criteria. For embargoed pre-release stats or methodology questions, see the press page.

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