The craft beer industry is still contracting, and San Diego's mark on it is getting smaller
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The craft beer industry took a spill in 2024, both nationwide and in San Diego.
Why it matters: The craft industry declined for the third straight year, accelerating a trend driven nationally by a downward shift in alcohol consumption and locally by the end of a decade of hype-driven growth.
By the numbers: Craft beer production fell 4% in 2024, the biggest drop in industry history outside of the pandemic, per a Brewers Association release Tuesday.
- The beer market as a whole saw a 1.2% dip in production during the same period.
The bottom line: The number of small, independent breweries operating in the U.S. fell for the first time in two decades, with 501 closing and 434 opening.
Zoom in: San Diego no longer makes a big mark on BA's 50 biggest craft breweries list.
- Tilray Beer Brands, the 4th largest craft brewery, owns two brands that used to be local breweries: Green Flash Brewing Company and Alpine Beer Company.
- Craft 'Ohana, 17th largest, owns the Modern Times Beer label, which last year closed its brewery and is now brewed on a contract basis by AleSmith.
- Pizza Port, still a local brewery and an early leader in San Diego's craft beer renaissance that still makes world-class beer, is the 38th largest in the country.
Yes, but: Sapporo/Stone — the company that purchased San Diego's once-swaggering local brewery that taunted non-craft competitors — no longer qualifies as a craft brewery.
- It's 14th largest among overall beer companies.