Oregon Beer Sales 2013


Update.  Here's the entire list (pdf) from the OLCC.

I have had a fairy Data-mother for the past nine months who has been sending me an Excel spreadsheet with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission's beer sales numbers.  It is pretty darn interesting. Before we delve into the details, let's get a global picture of what we're dealing with.

In 2012, Oregon brewers produced 1.3 million barrels of beer.  (Every brewery in Oregon is what we would call by a regular definition a "craft" brewery--the eldest of which is 30-year-old BridgePort.)  Of that, they sold 483,400 barrels, or 37.3%, of it in Oregon.  The OLCC numbers just cover the portion that Oregon breweries sell at home. The two largest breweries account for a third of all Oregon's sales, the four largest make half the beer, and the ten largest account for nearly 70% of the sales.  So while Oregon had around 150 breweries making beer last year, almost all the beer sold in Oregon was made by just a fraction of them.  In all, consumers bought 13.4% more Oregon beer in 2013 than they did a year earlier.

(For whatever reason, the Oregon Brewers Guild has slightly different numbers than the OLCC is currently reporting out, so if you're reaching for your calculators, know that the 483,400 figure is higher than the figure quoted by the OLCC.)

All right, you ready to see some numbers?  Let's start with the top ten:
Brewery - total barrels  (% of Oregon sales) (Position in 2012)
1. Deschutes - 90,242 (18%) (1)
2. CBA (Redhook/Widmer/Kona)  - 80,032 (16%) (2)
3. Ninkasi  - 46,070 (9.2%) (3)
4. Portland - 28,944 (5.8%) (4)
5. Full Sail - 24,342 (4.9%) (6)
6. Bridgeport - 23,721 (4.7%) (5)
7. 10 Barrel - 16,101 (3.2%) (8)
8. Rogue Ales - 14,492 (2.9%) (7)
9. Boneyard Beer - 12,685 (2.5%) (10)
10. Oakshire - 7,952 1.6%) (12)

There wasn't a lot of movement in terms of the ranking from 2012, but 10 Barrel (86.2%), Boneyard (69.6%) and Oakshire (36%) had astronomical growth while Widmer (-9.4%) and BridgePort (-4.1%) were heading the wrong direction.  In fact, if you look at which breweries had the largest growth in barrel terms, you find some pretty big growth:
1.  10 Barrel Brewing, 7453 more barrels in 2013 than 2012
2.  Boneyard Beer, 5207
3.  Ninkasi Brewing, 4229
4.  Portland Brewing, 3630
5.  Breakside Brewery, 2507
6.  Oakshire Brewing, 2104
7.  Pfriem Brewing, 1593
8.  Crux, 1319
9.  Base Camp Brewing, 1285
10. Gigantic Brewing, 827
What about the biggest drops?  Also illuminating, though less dramatic:
1. CBA (Redhook/Widmer/Kona) -8298 barrels in 2013 compared to 2012
2. Bridgeport Brewing, -1023
3. Deschutes Brewery/Mountain Room, -899
4. Hop Valley Brewing, -817
5. Silver Moon Brewery, -574
6. Deschutes Brewery, -384 (I believe the Bend brewpub)
7. Hillsdale Brewery, -348
8. Terminal Gravity Brewing, -340
9. Phat Matt's Brewing, -279
10. Crystal Ballroom & Brewery, -110 
The final numbers I'll leave you with are from some of the breweries that attract the most beer geek chatter (guilty).  You can go ahead and compare them to those on the top list--you'll see that the overlap is inexact.  In other words, setting BeerAdvocate on fire is not the same as selling a ton of beer. 

12.    Double Mountain Brewery, 7570 barrels in 2013
15.    Ft. George Brewery, 5922
21.    Breakside Brewery, 3178
26.    Burnside Brewing Co., 2398
29.    Pfriem Brewing, 2077
33.    Crux, 1701
41.    Gigantic Brewing, 1404
46.    Block 15, 1201
47.    Flat Tail Brewing, 1199
60.    Upright Brewing, 924
69.    The Commons Brewery, 771
90.    Hair of the Dog Brewing, 496
122.    Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, 166
145.    The Ale Apothecary, 60.4

Enjoy--