Some breweries produce up tp 2 million barrels every year. Other breweries produce less than 15,000 barrels a year. How are these breweries defined?
The beer industry labels brewing premises by the volume of beer they produce and whether or not they are independently owned and operated or by how much of the beer is sold on premise or off premise.
So what does this mean to us? Should it be important? Why is it important for us to understand the difference.
The primary difference between breweries are defined by tax laws and the Brewers Association. The department of the Treasury for Alcohol says small brewers producing no more than 2,000,000 barrels of beer qualifies for the reduced rate for taxation. This recently came close to being challenged when trying to establish excise taxes for breweries.
An example of how small a “small” brewery can be we can take a look at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. It is the second largest “small” brewing company in the United States. The largest being Samuel Adams. Sierra Nevada only produces approximately 723,880 barrels of beer on an annual basis. For a little more perspective of small production breweries, Anheuser Busch reached it’s first million barrels in 1901.
Taking production down a notch are the microbreweries. Breweries producing less than 15,000 barrels of beer each year are considered to be micro breweries. A barrel is the equivalent of 36 gallons. This is still quite a bit of beer and is probably along the capacity that most of us associate breweries with. 15,000 barrels of beer is still a significant volume.
So what is a brewery called when it falls between these parameters? These breweries are labeled as “regional” breweries. Most breweries falling within this label can be expected to a considerable amount of distribution throughout the region or even nationwide.
But what about the brewery that makes most of it’s own beer for sale on premise? Here is where the definitions of breweries and brewpubs begin to form a separation.
The difference between a microbrewery and a brewpub is not so much about volume but rather distribution and perhaps an indicator of the brewery’s intent. A microbrewery sells over 75% of it’s beer off premise. A brewpub has an eating establishment as part of it’s venue and sells more than 25% of it’s beer on site.
Most brewpubs sell their own beer and typically do not offer the other larger production beers such as AB, Coors, or Miller. Beers from a brewpub may not even be distributed. Russian River Brewing Company did not distribute their beers until recently. Many other smaller breweries do not distribute their beer. This is a case where beer is truly an sample of it’s community. Perhaps one of the smallest of such places is located in Roseville. Basic Urban Bar and Kitchen has one of the smallest brewing systems out there.
Other labels that are still significant to the brewery and brewer but may not be promoted are independent breweries. These breweries are controlled by less than 25% by an industry member or another member not of the industry itself. An example of that happened recently when Mendocino Brewing Co. was bought by an outside interest.
The label “craft’ or “traditional” implies that at least 50% of it’s beer is brewed by using malted grain as opposed to extract malt. There is a new trend with several brewpubs. It is in an effort to acquire a cheaper liquor license in primarily the more northern counties of California due to the limits set for liquor licenses. These types of establishments brew with a Clean in Place brewery systems and in most cases are a thorn in the true beer crafter’s side. Very few of these even feature feature their beer.
The newest type of brewery springing up on the market is the nano brewery. These breweries are small batch breweries. In some cases they are brewed off homebrew systems. These systems like commercial systems are defined by the amount of volume they are able to produce and the number of fermenters available to them. Some of these systems can range up to 15 barrels. Some of these systems are in industrial areas and are open to the public. Others are soley available on a distributing basis. Such as the smallest one in Placerville.
So whether you are at a "small" brewery, a regional brewery, a microbrewery, a brewpub, or a Nano brewery, it’s is always interesting to know how much beer had to be made to pour you that pint you have in your hand.
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