July 2020

Michigan produced 1,428,445 barrels of beer in 2019, up 4% from 2017 and eight times the amount produced in 2008, according to federal statistics.

Growth in Michigan beer production continues to thwart a national trend, in which US beer production is declining, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Tax and Trade on alcohol and tobacco.

Most of the beers made in Michigan are craft beers, made by small, independent brewers.

The state’s main beer producers are Bell’s Brewery, based in Kalamazoo, and Founders Brewing Co., headquartered in Grand Rapids.

Below are some quick beer fasts in Michigan, based on the latest numbers.

Michigan Beer Sales / Production in 2019

The first is a database based on data from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.

The database allows you to research the amount of beer produced and / or sold in Michigan by individual businesses in each of four categories: Wholesalers, Brewers, Microbrewers, and Breweries.

For wholesalers, it is the quantity of beer sold. For producers in the state, this is the amount of beer produced and sold in Michigan. (There is a separate list for each license, which means multiple lists for some companies.)

You can search by vendor category, county, or business name.

The caveats about the numbers: This only includes beer sold in Michigan, not beer sold out of state, and for breweries, the numbers only include sales of in-house produced beer .

You will notice that the companies are divided into four categories. Here are the distinctions:

• Wholesalers distribute beer made outside of Michigan. It’s about 90% of the beer market.
• Brewers are allowed to make more than 60,000 barrels of beer per year. There are two companies with such licenses in Michigan – Bell’s Brewery and Founders Brewing Co.
• Microbreweries are limited to producing 60,000 barrels per year. Like Bell’s and Founders, microbreweries can sell their beer to wholesalers, and their license also allows a bar or restaurant to operate that sells beer by the glass.
• Craft breweries can produce up to 18,000 barrels of beer per year. Under their license, brewpubs must operate a full-service restaurant and cannot sell their beer to wholesalers.

Interactive map

Next is an interactive map that shows beer production by county.

Figures do not include beer made in Michigan and sold out of state. Additionally, the numbers are based on Michigan-produced beer sold in 2019 versus unsold inventory.

Can’t see the map? Click here.

County # 1 is Kalamazoo, home to Bell’s Brewery. Between Bell’s and the county’s microbreweries and breweries, 131,206 barrels of beer were produced in the county and consumed in the state.

County # 2 was Kent, the headquarters of the Founders. Approximately 105,000 barrels were produced in the county and consumed in Michigan.

More quick facts

Below are some quicker facts about Michigan beer sales and production, thanks to data from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Commerce and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.

US beer production on the decline

American breweries produced 179.9 million barrels of beer in 2019 compared to 182.8 million in 2018 and 199.7 million in 2008. The latter figure represents a decline of 10% over the past decade.

The 2019 number equates to about 41 ounces of beer per week for every American, regardless of age.

Michigan ranks 19th for beer production. The top five states: Colorado, Texas, California, Ohio, and Virginia.

Michigan beer production on the rise

Contrary to the national trend, Michigan beer production is on the rise.

Michigan breweries produced 1.43 million barrels of beer in 2019, up from about 180,000 barrels in 2008, almost eight times more, according to federal data.

In 2019, 66% of Michigan beer was sold in bottles and cans; 24% in casks and barrels, and 9% were sold locally, that is to say beer consumed where it is produced. It would be beer sold on site by breweries and microbreweries.

Michigan still only accounts for 0.9% of U.S. beer production

Even though Michigan beer production has skyrocketed in recent years, Michigan is not a major player in beer production in the United States.

In 2019, only 0.9% of beer produced in the United States was made in Michigan.

To put Michigan’s current beer production into perspective, Stroh’s Brewery in Detroit was producing 6.4 million barrels per year in the late 1970s. This compares to 1.4 million barrels produced across Michigan in 2019. .

Stroh’s closed its Detroit brewery in 1985, and the business was dissolved in 2000. In 2016, Pabst – who bought out part of Stroh’s – partnered with Brew Detroit to resurrect Stroh’s original 1850s recipe. The beer is marketed under the name Stroh’s Bohemian-Style Pilsner.

Craft beer making

Michigan produced 903,153 barrels of craft beer in 2019, about 3.5% of the national total.

The state ranks 10th for craft beer production, according to the National Brewers Association, and sixth for the number of craft breweries, with 400.

California is number 1 in craft beer production, followed by Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida and New York.

Michigan beer sales are down

Federal figures are for beer made in Michigan, regardless of where it was sold.

In contrast, Michigan Liquor Control Commission data relates to beer sold in Michigan, including beer produced outside the state.

These figures show that 5.96 million barrels of beer were sold in Michigan in 2019, down 9% from 2007 and 0.7% from 2018.

Why beer sales are declining while beer production is increasing

So how can beer sales fall as beer production rises?

The explanation: Even within the state, beer made in Michigan accounts for only 10% of the beer market. Although this share has increased, overall beer sales are declining.

Out-of-state beer sales increased from 6.5 million barrels in 2007 to 5.4 million barrels in 2019.

Learn more about MLive:

Michigan retail alcohol sales a bright spot amid coronavirus economic crisis

Michigan’s Top 50 Liquor Stores and Top 50 Sites for 2019; no longer see the numbers for your county

Michigan’s 50 Best Beer Brewers, Based on 2018 State Sales

Australian Brewery Young Henrys is working to tackle climate change with an unusual ingredient: seaweed. The fermentation process that occurs during beer production releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), which can contribute to climate change. It takes about two days for a tree to absorb the CO2 released by the production of a six pack of beers. But Young Henrys says his internally grown algae not only absorb the CO2 it releases, it also produces as much oxygen as 2.5 acres of wilderness.

Algae, a photosynthetic organism, is often considered a nuisance because it can cause a red tide – a toxic algal bloom – or infect local water sources. But it’s also up to five times more efficient at absorbing carbon than trees, according to technology company Hypergiant.

Oscar McMahon, co-founder of Young Henrys, sees its potential to reduce emissions from beer production. McMahon told Food Tank: “This is a one-time project and the goal isn’t to make a profit. It’s about creating something that we can then share with other people for the sake of it. ‘adapt and use it. “

Young Henrys signed this project with Sydney University of Technology to achieve carbon neutrality. To experiment with the effectiveness of his system, Young Henrys uses two bioreactors to grow algae. The first, a control, contains CO2, oxygen and algae. The second contains the same three components but is connected to a fermentation tank. As the fermentation process produces additional CO2, the gas flows into the bioreactor.

This is a one-time project and the goal is not to profit. It’s about creating something that we can then share with other people to adapt and use.

According to McMahon, at the end of each day, the control bioreactor consistently contains 50 percent less algae. This demonstrates that the algae in the experimental bioreactor successfully consume harmful greenhouse gases, McMahon told Food Tank. The hope is that this system can not only reduce CO2 emissions from beer production, but also convert them eventually to oxygen.

This specific project will continue for another year, but McMahon hopes the algae will continue to reduce Young Henrys’ carbon emissions as they find additional uses for the organism.

Young Henrys is experimenting with incorporating algae into foods, pharmaceuticals and bioplastics. Other companies around the world are developing energy bars, dietary supplements, protein shakes, and other seaweed-based foods and drinks.

To increase algae production and develop these new products, McMahon and Young Henrys are consulting with engineering and beer industry groups to make this process scalable. McMahon said micro-breweries and national breweries will need the infrastructure and technology to easily incorporate algae into beer production.

McMahon described the beauty of the algae and microorganisms used in the fermentation of beer as “ying and yang organisms, similar things that live in large reservoirs of liquid that do opposite but corrective work.”