The U.S. beer industry included 7,818 industry members and produced 158,133,696 barrels in 2024. Taxable removals totaled 147,804,427 barrels, while tax-free exports totaled 2,596,797 barrels. These figures come from the TTB Beer Yearly Data series and cover selected years from 2012 through 2024.
Contents
- Industry membership
- Production and taxable removals
- Packaging and removal methods
- Exports and inventory
- Selected-year comparison
- What the figures show
Industry membership
The TTB Beer Yearly Data series records the number of U.S. beer industry members in each selected year. The count rose from 2,782 in 2012 to 3,904 in 2014, then reached 5,335 in 2016 and 6,856 in 2018. It was 7,604 in 2020, 8,196 in 2022, and 7,818 in 2024.
This membership measure is a useful indicator of the breadth of the industry, but it should be read separately from production volume. The member count was highest among the years listed in 2022, while production was highest in 2012. In 2024, the member count remained higher than in every year shown before 2022, even though production was lower than in all of those earlier years.
The seven reported membership figures are:
- 2012: 2,782 industry members
- 2014: 3,904 industry members
- 2016: 5,335 industry members
- 2018: 6,856 industry members
- 2020: 7,604 industry members
- 2022: 8,196 industry members
- 2024: 7,818 industry members
Source: TTB Beer Yearly Data.
Production and taxable removals
Beer production was 196,174,279 barrels in 2012. The reported total was 192,879,520 barrels in 2014, 190,656,458 barrels in 2016, and 183,793,289 barrels in 2018. Production reached 181,842,329 barrels in 2020, 174,810,195 barrels in 2022, and 158,133,696 barrels in 2024.
Taxable beer removals followed a similar pattern across the selected years. They totaled 180,403,067 barrels in 2012, 177,448,153 in 2014, 174,605,112 in 2016, and 167,700,910 in 2018. The 2020 total was 170,440,004 barrels, followed by 162,853,185 barrels in 2022 and 147,804,427 barrels in 2024.
“Production” and “taxable beer removals” are separate measures in the TTB data. Production describes the reported beer production total, while taxable removals describe beer removed under the taxable-removal category. Because the measures track different parts of the industry flow, they should not be treated as interchangeable.
The year-by-year production and taxable-removal figures are shown below.
| Year | Production (barrels) | Taxable removals (barrels) |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 196,174,279 | 180,403,067 |
| 2014 | 192,879,520 | 177,448,153 |
| 2016 | 190,656,458 | 174,605,112 |
| 2018 | 183,793,289 | 167,700,910 |
| 2020 | 181,842,329 | 170,440,004 |
| 2022 | 174,810,195 | 162,853,185 |
| 2024 | 158,133,696 | 147,804,427 |
Source: TTB Beer Yearly Data.
Packaging and removal methods
The taxable-removal figures are divided into bottles and cans, kegs, and a category where the method was not specified. In 2012, removals in bottles and cans totaled 161,693,079 barrels. Keg removals totaled 18,158,274 barrels, and removals with method not specified totaled 551,714 barrels.
In 2014, bottles and cans accounted for 158,550,307 barrels, kegs for 18,182,270 barrels, and unspecified methods for 715,575 barrels. The corresponding 2016 figures were 155,481,538 barrels in bottles and cans, 17,051,050 barrels in kegs, and 2,072,524 barrels with method not specified.
The 2018 totals were 148,449,238 barrels in bottles and cans, 15,873,605 barrels in kegs, and 3,378,067 barrels with method not specified. In 2020, bottles and cans totaled 159,181,851 barrels, kegs totaled 7,589,903 barrels, and unspecified methods totaled 3,668,250 barrels.
For 2022, the TTB series reports 145,907,293 barrels in bottles and cans, 11,877,011 barrels in kegs, and 5,068,881 barrels with method not specified. In 2024, the figures were 132,492,879 barrels in bottles and cans, 10,995,482 barrels in kegs, and 4,316,066 barrels with method not specified.
The packaging and method figures provide context for the taxable-removal total, but the unspecified category is not a packaging type. It represents removals for which the method was not specified in the reported data.
Exports and inventory
Tax-free beer removals for export totaled 5,031,420 barrels in 2012. The export figure was 5,509,262 barrels in 2014, 6,520,927 barrels in 2016, and 6,923,976 barrels in 2018. It then measured 3,883,293 barrels in 2020, 3,629,616 barrels in 2022, and 2,596,797 barrels in 2024.
End-of-month beer stocks on hand were 126,705,648 barrels in 2012 and 129,425,941 barrels in 2014. The series reports 129,592,884 barrels in 2016 and 130,306,471 barrels in 2018. Stocks on hand totaled 129,078,103 barrels in 2020, 133,728,807 barrels in 2022, and 126,351,054 barrels in 2024.
Exports and stocks are different inventory-flow concepts. Tax-free removals for export describe beer removed for export without the taxable-removal classification. End-of-month stocks on hand describe the reported stock total at the end of the month. The two measures therefore answer different questions about the beer industry.
Selected-year comparison
The following compact comparison brings the main measures together for the first, highest-membership, and latest years in the supplied series. The 2022 membership figure is the highest among the listed years; 2024 is the latest measurement year shown.
| Measure | 2012 | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industry members | 2,782 | 8,196 | 7,818 |
| Production, barrels | 196,174,279 | 174,810,195 | 158,133,696 |
| Taxable removals, barrels | 180,403,067 | 162,853,185 | 147,804,427 |
| Bottles and cans, barrels | 161,693,079 | 145,907,293 | 132,492,879 |
| Kegs, barrels | 18,158,274 | 11,877,011 | 10,995,482 |
| Exports, barrels | 5,031,420 | 3,629,616 | 2,596,797 |
| Stocks on hand, barrels | 126,705,648 | 133,728,807 | 126,351,054 |
Source: TTB Beer Yearly Data.
The sequence also shows that the industry-member count and the volume measures should not be used as substitutes. The membership count was 6,856 in 2018 and 7,604 in 2020, while production was 183,793,289 barrels and 181,842,329 barrels in those respective years. In 2022, membership rose to 8,196 even as production was 174,810,195 barrels. Those paired observations describe scale in two different ways: the number of reported industry members and the amount of beer produced during the year.
What the figures show
Across the selected years, industry membership increased from 2,782 members in 2012 to 8,196 in 2022, before the reported count was 7,818 in 2024. Production moved through a different pattern: the highest production figure in this series was 196,174,279 barrels in 2012, while the 2024 figure was 158,133,696 barrels.
The taxable-removal series also had its highest reported value in 2012, at 180,403,067 barrels. The 2024 total was 147,804,427 barrels. Bottles and cans were the largest named removal method in every selected year, with 132,492,879 barrels reported for 2024. Keg removals were 10,995,482 barrels in 2024, while the method-not-specified category was 4,316,066 barrels.
The export series reached its highest listed value in 2018, at 6,923,976 barrels, and was 2,596,797 barrels in 2024. End-of-month stocks reached 133,728,807 barrels in 2022 and were 126,351,054 barrels in 2024.
For home brewers and beer-industry readers, these statistics show why a single headline number can be incomplete. Membership, production, taxable removals, removal method, exports, and stocks measure distinct parts of the U.S. beer system. Each figure should be read with its specific year, geography, unit, and TTB category in view.
Source for all statistics: TTB Beer Yearly Data.