Beer sales statistics are easiest to understand alongside production, taxable removals, exports, and inventory. The TTB yearly beer data reports these measures in barrels for 2012 through 2024, while industry members are reported as counts. The series shows a large beer-production base, a long decline in taxable removals after 2012, a sharp change in keg removals in 2020, and a smaller industry-member count in 2024 than in 2022.
Contents
- At a glance
- Production and taxable removals
- Packaging channels
- Exports and ending stocks
- Industry members
- The 2020–2024 period
At a glance
The TTB yearly beer data records 196,174,279 barrels of beer production and 180,403,067 barrels of taxable beer removals in 2012. By 2024, production was 158,133,696 barrels and taxable removals were 147,804,427 barrels. These are reported annual totals, not retail dollar sales or a forecast.
The same source records 2,782 beer industry members in 2012 and 7,818 in 2024. The member count reached 8,196 in 2022 before moving to 8,155 in 2023 and 7,818 in 2024. The industry-member measure should be read separately from production and removals: it is a count of members, while the other figures are volumes measured in barrels.
| Measure | 2012 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Beer industry members | 2,782 | 7,818 |
| Beer production | 196,174,279 barrels | 158,133,696 barrels |
| Taxable beer removals | 180,403,067 barrels | 147,804,427 barrels |
| Tax-free beer removals for export | 5,031,420 barrels | 2,596,797 barrels |
| Ending beer stocks on hand | 126,705,648 barrels | 126,351,054 barrels |
Source for all figures in this article: TTB yearly beer data. The source series supplies annual observations for 2012–2024; it does not provide a retail-sales value series in the supplied facts.
Production and taxable removals
Production was 196,174,279 barrels in 2012. It was 192,130,392 barrels in 2013, 192,879,520 in 2014, and 192,636,536 in 2015. The annual total then moved to 190,656,458 barrels in 2016 and 186,579,265 in 2017.
The production figures continued downward through the next two years: 183,793,289 barrels in 2018 and 180,421,831 in 2019. Production was 181,842,329 barrels in 2020 and 181,861,958 in 2021. The TTB yearly beer data records 174,810,195 barrels in 2022, 165,481,228 in 2023, and 158,133,696 in 2024.
Taxable beer removals were 180,403,067 barrels in 2012. The annual totals were 178,091,476 barrels in 2013, 177,448,153 in 2014, and 177,164,772 in 2015. They then reached 174,605,112 barrels in 2016 and 171,113,949 in 2017.
The series records 167,700,910 taxable-removal barrels in 2018 and 167,889,868 in 2019. The 2020 figure was 170,440,004 barrels, followed by 170,131,461 in 2021. Taxable removals were 162,853,185 barrels in 2022, 152,533,266 in 2023, and 147,804,427 in 2024.
These figures describe taxable removals, not a direct measure of cash-register revenue. A barrel removed for tax purposes is a volume observation, so it should not be treated as a price, sales-dollar, household-consumption, or per-person statistic.
Packaging channels
The TTB yearly beer data separates taxable removals into bottles and cans, kegs, and a category where the removal method was not specified. Bottles and cans were the largest named category in every year supplied.
In 2012, taxable removals in bottles and cans were 161,693,079 barrels. The corresponding totals were 159,412,830 in 2013, 158,550,307 in 2014, and 157,961,438 in 2015. The category then recorded 155,481,538 barrels in 2016, 151,756,209 in 2017, and 148,449,238 in 2018.
The bottles-and-cans total was 148,980,057 barrels in 2019. It was 159,181,851 in 2020, 154,461,617 in 2021, 145,907,293 in 2022, 136,312,534 in 2023, and 132,492,879 in 2024.
Keg removals were 18,158,274 barrels in 2012, followed by 18,097,451 in 2013 and 18,182,270 in 2014. The figures were 17,870,441 in 2015, 17,051,050 in 2016, 16,626,415 in 2017, 15,873,605 in 2018, and 15,079,514 in 2019.
The keg series changed notably in the later observations. Keg removals were 7,589,903 barrels in 2020, 11,050,269 in 2021, 11,877,011 in 2022, 11,373,714 in 2023, and 10,995,482 in 2024. The supplied TTB facts report the measurements but do not identify the cause of the annual changes.
| Year | Bottles and cans | Kegs | Method not specified |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 161,693,079 | 18,158,274 | 551,714 |
| 2016 | 155,481,538 | 17,051,050 | 2,072,524 |
| 2020 | 159,181,851 | 7,589,903 | 3,668,250 |
| 2024 | 132,492,879 | 10,995,482 | 4,316,066 |
The method-not-specified category was 551,714 barrels in 2012, 581,195 in 2013, and 715,575 in 2014. It was 1,332,892 in 2015, 2,072,524 in 2016, 2,731,324 in 2017, and 3,378,067 in 2018. The category reached 3,830,298 barrels in 2019, 3,668,250 in 2020, 4,619,575 in 2021, 5,068,881 in 2022, 4,847,018 in 2023, and 4,316,066 in 2024.
Exports and ending stocks
Tax-free beer removals for export were 5,031,420 barrels in 2012. The annual totals rose to 5,313,800 barrels in 2013, 5,509,262 in 2014, 6,230,157 in 2015, 6,520,927 in 2016, and 6,830,951 in 2017.
The export series reached 6,923,976 barrels in 2018. It then recorded 5,110,672 barrels in 2019, 3,883,293 in 2020, 4,171,646 in 2021, 3,629,616 in 2022, 2,773,562 in 2023, and 2,596,797 in 2024.
These are tax-free beer removals for export, not total exports by value and not domestic sales. The geography represented by the series is not further specified in the supplied TTB facts, so the figures should be cited with the source label and the annual measurement year rather than presented as a global beer-market total.
Ending beer stocks on hand were 126,705,648 barrels in 2012 and 127,310,061 in 2013. The data records 129,425,941 barrels in 2014, 128,840,940 in 2015, 129,592,884 in 2016, and 127,252,983 in 2017.
The stock total was 130,306,471 barrels in 2018 and 127,294,681 in 2019. It was 129,078,103 barrels in 2020, 141,737,577 in 2021, 133,728,807 in 2022, 129,343,851 in 2023, and 126,351,054 in 2024. “Ending” means the observation is for stock on hand at the end of the reported year; it is not a monthly average.
Industry members
The TTB yearly beer data reports 2,782 beer industry members in 2012. The count was 3,286 in 2013, 3,904 in 2014, 4,594 in 2015, 5,335 in 2016, and 6,169 in 2017.
The annual member counts were 6,856 in 2018, 7,334 in 2019, 7,604 in 2020, and 7,886 in 2021. The series reached 8,196 in 2022, followed by 8,155 in 2023 and 7,818 in 2024.
| Year | Beer industry members |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 2,782 |
| 2016 | 5,335 |
| 2020 | 7,604 |
| 2022 | 8,196 |
| 2024 | 7,818 |
The member count is useful context for home brewers and beer businesses because it tracks the size of the reported industry-member population across the same annual series. It does not state how many members were breweries, brewpubs, producers, or another specific business type, and the supplied facts do not provide a business-size breakdown.
The 2020–2024 period
The recent observations show several distinct movements rather than one uniform pattern. Production was 181,842,329 barrels in 2020 and 181,861,958 in 2021. It then fell to 174,810,195 in 2022, 165,481,228 in 2023, and 158,133,696 in 2024.
Taxable removals were 170,440,004 barrels in 2020 and 170,131,461 in 2021. The next observations were 162,853,185 barrels in 2022, 152,533,266 in 2023, and 147,804,427 in 2024. Bottles-and-cans removals followed the figures of 159,181,851, 154,461,617, 145,907,293, 136,312,534, and 132,492,879 barrels across those five years.
Keg removals were 7,589,903 barrels in 2020, then 11,050,269 in 2021 and 11,877,011 in 2022. The series recorded 11,373,714 barrels in 2023 and 10,995,482 in 2024. Exports were 3,883,293 barrels in 2020, 4,171,646 in 2021, 3,629,616 in 2022, 2,773,562 in 2023, and 2,596,797 in 2024.
Ending stocks were 129,078,103 barrels in 2020, 141,737,577 in 2021, 133,728,807 in 2022, 129,343,851 in 2023, and 126,351,054 in 2024. The member count was 7,604, 7,886, 8,196, 8,155, and 7,818 across the same years.
For readers comparing beer sales statistics, the key distinction is measurement type: production and removals are annual volume measures, exports are tax-free removal volume, stocks are an end-of-year inventory measure, and industry members are counts. Keeping those definitions and years attached to each figure avoids treating one measure as a substitute for another.