How Committed is Your State to ‘Drinking Local’?

By now it’s probably no surprise: people love to drink at brewery taprooms.

The opportunity to get fresh, from-the-source beer is always a big draw, but there’s certainly an additional layer of excitement about visiting the physical space itself. It’s a deeper connection to the liquid in the glass.

In many places, it’s also simply part of the drinking culture.

Recently, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) released a new set of statistics related to beer: the aggregated data of sales state-by-state. The information includes numbers from 2010 to 2015, highlighting the breakdown of sales related to bottles and cans, barrels and kegs and “premise use,” the stuff that’s sold on-site and tracked by the TTB. This particularly relates to the “rise of own-premise” business models I wrote about for Good Beer Hunting.

Because of the qualitative and quantitative evidence that consistently appears related to greater customer interest in on-site drinking, I wanted to see if parsing the numbers might offer any new insight into how things look on a state-by-state basis.

Programming note: because of quirky interpretations of policies, business practices and state law, numbers reported to the TTB may not always be 100 percent, guaranteed accurate. In conversation with Bart Watson, the Brewers Association’s economist, he pointed out to me that reported premise use numbers are likely lower than reality. All the same, I’m taking the figures at face value for purposes of this post because it’s the data presented.

Cultural Impact

It’s impossible to deny that in several states, the act of going straight to the source for beer has become part of the culture for local residents. We often hear about people living in San Diego, for instance, taking advantage of the more than 100 beer-making businesses in the county alone. To put actual numbers to this, I pulled the information for states we may most closely associate with this behavior, using Brewers Association-defined craft breweries..

For example, here’s the data from California:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	431	518	20%
Own-premise barrels sold	66,582.57	121,961.79	83%

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Golden State drinkers keep California as the top premise-use sales state in the country, a number that is certain to grow as it surpassed 700 total in-state breweries this past summer.

But what’s really interesting is California’s comparison to another beer-loving state. Despite having roughly half the number of breweries in 2015, Colorado had nearly identical on-site sales:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	235	284	21%
Own-premise barrels sold	75,759.99	120,964.79	60%

Maybe it’s all those biking trails that lead straight to breweries?

Those state figures may not come as anything new, but what really interested me were states that might also attract a large number of tourists. In a previous post, I highlighted the very real financial impact of beer tourism, which is most definitely felt in states like Oregon:

In the most recent (2014) survey by Travel Portland, a tourism office for the Oregon city, results showed that 11 percent of US adults visited Portland for a leisure trip in 2013 or 2014 … Among those who visited, 68 percent participated in some beer-related experience.

Despite just a 5.5 percent growth in number of breweries from 2014 to 2015, own-premise sales more than doubled:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	216	228	5.50%
Own-premise barrels sold	35,542.33	86,834.95	144%

You can also find this kind of drastic contrast in Vermont, land of Hill Farmstead and Heady Topper:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	40	44	10%
Own-premise barrels sold	2,786.29	10,846.17	289%

And to a lesser extent, Washington:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	256	305	19%
Own-premise barrels sold	18,363.50	43,219.71	135%

And here’s a fun and perhaps unexpected one, Montana:

	2014	2015	Percent Growth
No. of breweries	44	49	11%
Own-premise barrels sold	6,203.14	26,374.60	325%

A common denominator for all these states would certainly be their unique beer cultures, which are deep and ingrained in each state’s connection to food, beverage and “what’s local.” Some of these brewery numbers are so large, the percentage growth remains relatively low, but there’s no denying how impressive the actual sale of pints looks.

Programming note: Because some of the jumps in on-site sales seem drastic from 2014 to 2015, I emailed the TTB to ask if any reporting or data collection changed. If I hear back, I will update this post with that info.

Growing Interest

While some states have always had great interest in their own beer scene, it’s easy to see that kind of attention spreading to other areas across the country. The number of breweries is growing everywhere and with it, the number of people checking out these new additions to their community.

To better understand this change, I tracked the top-15 states for on-site sales based on numbers reported to the TTB. Using all six years of data offered by the organization, here’s what a year-to-year chart looks like, highlighting the up-and-down shift of states. Note the key of this chart, which uses red to indicate a year-to-year drop, yellow to show an increased rank, but one for a state already on the list, and blue to show a new appearance in the top 15:

Obvious note on the quirkiness of reporting, as mentioned above, as Illinois somehow took over the top spot from California and Colorado solely for 2014. I have a note in with the TTB communications staff to help clarify this instance.

Aside from that, I’d like to draw your attention to the column for 2015, where we see four new states appear in the top-15. This is an important aspect to recognize, as it clearly helps illustrate the new brewery and beer cultures expanding in states like Texas, Florida and others.

Also, shoutout to Michael Uhrich for this addition regarding state-by-state growth:

.@BryanDRoth Very very interesting. My small contribution is "own premise" share rankings, some of which are surprising to say the least. pic.twitter.com/dtUcZnneZR

— Michael Uhrich (@EconBeer) October 19, 2016

Adding Capacity

To help reinforce this idea, I pulled two collections of states to focus on the increased number of breweries, as reported to the Brewers Association, and the total barrels sold on-site at breweries.

From 2014 to 2015, here are some of the top states in terms of percentage growth of breweries, according to numbers collected by the Brewers Association:

State	2014 Breweries	2015 Breweries	Percentage Growth
Texas	117	189	61.5%
New Jersey	32	51	59%
North Carolina	101	161	59%
Virginia	78	124	59%
Maryland	40	60	50%
Indiana	80	115	44%
Minnesota	73	105	44%
Arizona	53	78	40%
Florida	111	151	36%
Tennessee	39	52	33%
Michigan	159	205	31%
Pennsylvania	136	178	31%
Ohio	110	143	30%
Iowa	46	58	26%
Wisconsin	97	121	25%

Additionally, here are the same states with percentage growth of own-premise barrels sold, using figures from the TTB:

State	2014 Barrels Sold	2015 Barrels Sold	Percentage Growth
Texas	9,848.20	62,622.83	536%
Florida	7,140.24	35,277.93	394%
Iowa	5,775.54	17,917.21	210%
New Jersey	6,060.97	18,359.01	203%
Minnesota	12,806.87	35,898.89	180%
North Carolina	18,424.66	51,543.68	180%
Virginia	12,526.11	32,092.47	156%
Maryland	7,541.10	17,543.58	132%
Ohio	13,732.61	31,530.96	130%
Tennessee	9,264.57	20,735.79	124%
Indiana	16,300.90	32,287.43	98%
Wisconsin	17,984.10	35,039.17	95%
California	66,582.57	121,961.79	83%
Michigan	32,038.96	56,749.17	77%
Arizona	17,667.95	29,762.28	68%

For fun, a look at those two lists side-by-side:

Brewery Growth	Barrels Sold Growth
Texas	Texas
New Jersey	Florida
North Carolina	Iowa
Virginia	New Jersey
Maryland	Minnesota
Indiana	North Carolina
Minnesota	Virginia
Arizona	Maryland
Florida	Ohio
Tennessee	Tennessee
Michigan	Indiana
Pennsylvania	Wisconsin
Ohio	California
Iowa	Michigan
Wisconsin	Arizona

The key here is to better identify the places that are making the jump toward where long-tenured beer loving states may be. In the past couple years, Texas has certainly been a state to keep an eye on and these stats certainly emphasize that. As you go down the list, consider the states shown with new, hot breweries you’ve heard about.

The Pacific Northwest and West Coast have long been known as big beer places, but this collection of states helps to show why so many people are talking about just about every region of the country as something to offer. New breweries are doing some pretty great things, which is attracting plenty of people to not only open and expand these beer communities, but bringing beer lovers to the source. A lot of this has to do with growing interest, but it certainly also deals with modernizing laws in many of these states that for a long time impeded aspects of industry growth.

In the end, that final note will continue to play a pivotal role in how these kinds of stats grow and change in the years to come.

The Full List

In case you were interested in finding the data for certain states, the full list is pasted below. Note that the number of breweries per state, as shared on the Brewers Association website state-by-state, goes back five years. The TTB data goes back to 2010. In some cases, like Mississippi, data for a year may be missing.

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Alabama
No. of breweries		6	10	13	19	24
Own-premise barrels sold	0.00	0.00	0.00	130.55	226.25	5,760.63
Alaska
No. of breweries		20	22	22	22	27
Own-premise barrels sold	1,666.84	1,994.17	2,007.52	2,556.31	2,656.27	5,049.98
Arizona
No. of breweries		34	45	47	53	78
Own-premise barrels sold	14,982.81	16,668.08	14,427.63	18,562.39	17,667.95	29,762.28
Arkansas
No. of breweries		6	10	13	19	26
Own-premise barrels sold	518.25	535.25	524.00	558.14	776.12	1,319.67
California
No. of breweries		270	319	381	431	518
Own-premise barrels sold	29,464.37	38,249.35	27,645.89	62,653.99	66,582.57	121,961.79
Colorado
No. of breweries		126	151	175	235	284
Own-premise barrels sold	39,224.46	50,434.80	43,769.12	61,841.82	75,759.99	120,964.79
Connecticut
No. of breweries		16	21	23	27	35
Own-premise barrels sold	695.72	1,006.90	471.10	2,411.30	2,076.35	13,478.12
Delaware
No. of breweries		7	9	10	11	15
Own-premise barrels sold	0.00	569.00	0.00	3,051.08	3,089.73	5,981.02
Florida
No. of breweries		45	57	66	111	151
Own-premise barrels sold	5,072.64	4,679.22	3,189.01	6,370.49	7,140.24	35,277.93
Georgia
No. of breweries		21	22	28	40	45
Own-premise barrels sold	2,121.72	2,489.06	1,853.20	4,658.16	4,435.57	17,961.44
Hawaii
No. of breweries		7	9	8	10	13
Own-premise barrels sold	1,329.75	1,367.08	1,134.11	1,972.63	1,380.60	4,234.55
Idaho
No. of breweries		24	31	34	43	50
Own-premise barrels sold	3,783.23	4,994.57	4,354.86	6,006.63	4,573.66	13,792.75
Illinois
No. of breweries		54	68	83	103	157
Own-premise barrels sold	12,011.12	15,552.91	14,890.69	25,269.76	91,945.35	44,535.02
Indiana
No. of breweries		46	55	63	80	115
Own-premise barrels sold	6,072.24	9,611.42	8,564.63	15,006.35	16,300.90	32,287.43
Iowa
No. of breweries		27	34	40	46	58
Own-premise barrels sold	3,316.93	4,356.60	3,593.09	6,175.74	5,775.54	17,917.21
Kansas
No. of breweries		17	19	20	22	26
Own-premise barrels sold	3,461.57	4,906.29	3,403.46	7,451.96	7,579.47	6,540.63
Kentucky
No. of breweries		11	14	15	18	24
Own-premise barrels sold	279.60	1,277.50	749.81	6,465.48	6,234.52	7,190.18
Louisiana
No. of breweries		8	8	11	15	20
Own-premise barrels sold	1,775.20	1,536.07	1,606.10	1,723.51	1,579.10	5,933.60
Maine
No. of breweries		34	37	47	52	59
Own-premise barrels sold	2,980.25	3,754.47	3,814.16	8,036.58	7,936.21	14,797.04
Maryland
No. of breweries		25	31	34	40	60
Own-premise barrels sold	7,145.62	6,929.68	5,586.80	7,771.25	7,541.10	17,543.58
Massachusetts
No. of breweries		45	49	57	61	84
Own-premise barrels sold	9,881.01	8,377.22	7,691.57	12,570.98	10,352.66	15,277.04
Michigan
No. of breweries		105	122	131	159	205
Own-premise barrels sold	12,998.13	14,199.86	11,527.15	28,569.48	32,038.96	56,749.17
Minnesota
No. of breweries		35	47	52	73	105
Own-premise barrels sold	1,715.22	3,058.91	1,238.71	11,110.35	12,806.87	35,898.89
Mississippi
No. of breweries		2	3	4	7	8
Own-premise barrels sold	0.00	3.00	0.00	0.00		6,294.62
Missouri
No. of breweries		43	45	49	55	71
Own-premise barrels sold	8,431.39	10,596.85	10,804.23	13,003.37	13,743.88	18,183.66
Montana
No. of breweries		33	36	39	44	49
Own-premise barrels sold	2,708.02	3,042.40	3,236.79	4,373.97	6,203.14	26,374.60
Nebraska
No. of breweries		18	19	22	32	33
Own-premise barrels sold	3,020.29	2,083.32	1,132.00	6,449.30	3,657.26	6,412.13
Nevada
No. of breweries		18	22	22	25	34
Own-premise barrels sold	12,111.63	14,930.03	14,025.70	14,187.08	16,234.04	21,479.94
New Hampshire
No. of breweries		15	19	22	26	44
Own-premise barrels sold	4,698.22	5,352.00	5,653.58	6,072.36	6,381.32	8,636.34
New Jersey
No. of breweries		24	25	26	32	51
Own-premise barrels sold	2,120.18	2,293.27	905.64	5,280.34	6,060.97	18,359.01
New Mexico
No. of breweries		25	28	31	36	45
Own-premise barrels sold	8,436.52	8,424.92	6,140.71	13,997.52	13,976.38	13,352.96
New York
No. of breweries		75	92	165	181	208
Own-premise barrels sold	8,095.67	10,455.01	7,839.08	25,407.21	39,154.22	44,669.50
North Carolina
No. of breweries		59	71	91	101	161
Own-premise barrels sold	11,792.64	12,674.72	12,987.41	22,091.10	18,424.66	51,543.68
North Dakota
No. of breweries		2	4	6	6	9
Own-premise barrels sold	0.00	132.00	47.98	1,376.15	1,350.78	2,325.95
Ohio
No. of breweries		45	58	76	110	143
Own-premise barrels sold	7,220.57	8,084.49	8,244.44	11,927.23	13,732.61	31,530.96
Oklahoma
No. of breweries		10	10	13	10	14
Own-premise barrels sold	1,575.34	1,753.78	937.96	2,381.47	2,459.74	9,950.59
Oregon
No. of breweries		124	145	181	216	228
Own-premise barrels sold	23,123.20	28,137.03	29,193.32	38,267.28	35,542.33	86,834.95
Pennsylvania
No. of breweries		88	104	108	136	178
Own-premise barrels sold	13,405.80	20,844.85	17,818.02	32,031.70	30,646.77	41,040.29
Rhode Island
No. of breweries		6	8	8	11	14
Own-premise barrels sold	787.84	902.50	716.47	830.80	987.13	974.43
South Carolina
No. of breweries		16	16	20	31	36
Own-premise barrels sold	2,001.43	1,708.77	652.55	2,738.72	3,184.64	9,666.53
South Dakota
No. of breweries		5	7	10	12	14
Own-premise barrels sold	253.50	165.00	0.00	913.96	1,433.02	1,802.72
Tennessee
No. of breweries		24	30	35	39	52
Own-premise barrels sold	9,010.41	5,529.06	4,987.68	10,180.52	9,264.57	20,735.79
Texas
No. of breweries		59	84	96	117	189
Own-premise barrels sold	4,914.36	5,396.15	2,356.02	9,709.23	9,848.20	62,622.83
Utah
No. of breweries		16	16	16	20	22
Own-premise barrels sold	4,240.25	4,790.98	3,359.90	3,953.10	5,875.72	4,001.39
Vermont
No. of breweries		22	27	29	40	44
Own-premise barrels sold	2,431.46	2,267.61	1,183.31	2,606.85	2,786.29	10,846.17
Virginia
No. of breweries		40	50	61	78	124
Own-premise barrels sold	8,866.98	9,306.00	7,561.59	12,460.13	12,526.11	32,092.47
Washington
No. of breweries		136	170	201	256	305
Own-premise barrels sold	13,847.68	15,650.91	14,729.64	17,833.16	18,363.50	43,219.71
Washington DC
No. of breweries		6	6	9	8	10
Own-premise barrels sold	3,574.26	1,676.75	1,572.75	2,250.90	4,630.30	7,860.31
West Virginia
No. of breweries		5	6	7	11	12
Own-premise barrels sold	0.00	0.00	8.10	422.15	420.50	3,759.35
Wisconsin
No. of breweries		73	84	90	97	121
Own-premise barrels sold	6,506.06	10,881.64	8,332.10	19,023.34	17,984.10	35,039.17
Wyoming
No. of breweries		13	15	18	22	23
Own-premise barrels sold	2,551.51	2,993.18	3,266.23	3,740.07	3,305.07	4,710.50

 

Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac