Today is National Beer Day. Let’s celebrate, but how? I think the answer is obvious. With a beer!
What is National Beer Day?
National Beer Day is celebrated in the United States every year on April 7, marking the day that the Cullen–Harrison Act was came into force after having been signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933. This led to the Eighteenth Amendment being repealed on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Mark Perry, a senior fellow at AEI, wrote an interesting article regarding National Beer Day with some reflections on where we are in the state of beer. He points out an interesting graph showing the number of American breweries dating to the late-1800s through to 2021. According to this chart, back around 1873, the US had 4,131 breweries. That number obviously dropped off during prohibition (1920 - 1933) to about zero. A few breweries survived while refocusing on tangential businesses and the like. The low point was reached in 1978 with only 89 breweries remaining.
Mully’s Brewery in Calvert County, MD
The Brewers Association National Beer Sales & Production Data reports that in 2021 we reached a high point of 9,247 breweries. Mark pulls some interesting facts from that report. Of that 9,000 breweries, about 3,600 are taproom breweries (selling 25%+ beer on-site with no significant food service), 1,800 are microbreweries (produce less than 15k barrels per year, 75%+ sold off-site), 3,200 craft brew pubs (sells 25 percent or more of its beer on-site and operates significant food services), 222 regional craft breweries (annual beer production of between 15k and 6 million barrels), and 84 macrobreweries (think Anheuser-Busch adn MillerCoors, producing 6 million barrels or more annually).
California has the most breweries with 958, Mississippi has the fewest with 12. Maryland reports 121 breweries and ranks 24th. Vermont has the largest number of breweries per capita (per 100,000 persons) with 15.4 and again Mississippi has the lowest with 0.6. Maryland has 2.7 breweries per capita and ranks 34th.
In 2011, Maryland had just 25 breweries. In that short 10-year period to 2021, that number has jumped nearly five-fold (480%) to 121. If you go to the Brewers Association of Maryland website, there are at least 18 breweries in planning.
Final Thoughts
In short, it’s a great time to be a beer drinker, with more breweries popping up every year, new breweries are now shipping to Maryland like Prairie Artisan Ales, Other Half Brewing, and American Solera to name a few. Brewers are pushing the limits on styles and ingredients. And we are now 89 years after the ”Great Experiment” called Prohibition. Indeed, we do have much to celebrate. Let’s go have a beer!
