This PA Craft Brewery Produces The Most Beer In The United States

POTTSVILLE, PA — A beer company in Pennsylvania is the top-producing craft brewery in the country and one of the top 10 producers of all U.S. breweries, a new report shows.

The Brewers Association, a trade association that represents small and independent craft brewers, released it list of top 50 producing craft brewing companies in 2022. And, it said the number of operating craft breweries continued to climb in 2022, reaching an all-time high of 9,552.

D.G. Yuengling and Son of Pottsville is the top-producing craft brewing company in the country based on beer sales volume, according to the Brewers Association (BA) report.

Other brewing companies with Pennsylvania ties on Top 50 list are:

6. Artisanal Brewing Ventures (Victory Brewing, Downington)

25. Troegs Brewing Co. (Hershey)

31. Pittsburgh Brewing Co.

American craft brewers are classified as being both small (annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less) and independent (less than 25 percent of the brewery controlled by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer) by the BA.

Small and independent brewers produced 24.3 million barrels of beer in 2022, the association added.

Of the top 50 overall brewing companies in 2022, 40 were craft brewing companies. Yuengling was also seventh overall on the list of top 50 brewing companies in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch, MolsonCoors, and Constellation were the top three.

Artisanal Brewing Ventures, which has facilities in Downington, was ranked 15th overall. Troegs Brewing of Hershey was ranked 35th and Pittsburgh Brewing was 41st on the Brewers Association list.

The number of new brewery openings decreased for a second consecutive year according to the BA. The rate of closing also increased in 2022 but "continued to remain relatively low" at three percent.

“2022 presented small brewers with a number of challenges, including rising operating and material costs and increasing competition, particularly in distribution,” said Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association. “In this maturing and competitive market, collective growth for the category is hard to come by.”

The total number of breweries in the country is 9,709, and the BA said the overall beer market shrank three percent by volume in 2022.

“Breweries that managed to move up the list organically are often those that are adding incremental growth to the category,” Watson added. “Both beer and craft need to create new occasions and new beer lovers to find growth.”