Four Colorado brewers make the list

In the competitive world of U.S. craft beer, Colorado’s biggest brewers continue to pour a national name for themselves.

Four Colorado-based brewers ranked among the nation’s 50 biggest craft beer sellers in 2018, according to an annual list compiled by the Brewers Association, an industry trade group.

Among those, the top three Centennial State companies — New Belgium Brewing Co., CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective and Odell Brewing Co. — also rated among the 50 biggest U.S. brewers overall last year, the association found.

For at least the third year running, New Belgium came in fourth among all U.S. craft brewers in sales volume, according to the rankings released this week. The employee-owned Fort Collins company — best known for its flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale — trailed only D. G. Yuengling & Son Inc., Samuel Adams maker Boston Beer Co. and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. when it came to beer sold in 2018.

CANarchy, the Longmont-based holding company that owns Oskar Blues Brewery and a handful of other brewing brands from across the country, came in eighth, continuing a steady climb up the rankings the last three years.

Odell Brewing Co., another employeeowned Fort Collins enterprise, appeared at No. 23 on the list, down one spot from 2017, while Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing Co. just made the list at No. 50. Left Hand was 44th last year.

Another Boulder County beer maker, Avery Brewing Co., fell off the list in 2018 after claiming the 50th spot in 2017.

“Although the market has grown more competitive, particularly for regional craft breweries with the widest distribution, these 50 small and independent brewing companies continue to lead the craft brewing market in sales through strong brands,

quality, and innovation,” Bart Watson, chief economist with the Brewers Association, said in a new release.

The Brewers Association, a nonprofit based in Boulder, classifies American craft brewers as companies that make 6 million barrels of beer or less each year and are less than 25 percent owned or controlled by an alcoholic beverage company that itself does not qualify as an American craft brewer. Its annual list does not detail sales totals for each company.

Among the 50 biggest U.S. brewers in overall, Chicago-based MillerCoors, a subsidiary of Denver international beer giant Molson Coors, was second in sales last year. New Belgium ranked 11th on that list, CANarchy 17th and Odell 33rd.

Forty of the top 50 domestic brewers in 2018 met the Brewers Association’s American craft brewer definition.

Colorado’s four craft breweries in the nation’s top 50 tied with Oregon for the second most of any state, trailing California’s 10 breweries.

With 8.4 craft breweries for every 100,000 drinking-age adults, Colorado ranks fifth among states for craft beer market saturation.

Vermont, a state with a population approximately one-ninth the size of Colorado’s, has the most, at 11.5 craft breweries per 100,000 residents age 21 or older.