American craft beer revolution, term commonly used to describe the foundation, growth, and proliferation of independent and artisanal breweries (producers of so-called craft beer) in the United States, a process that began in the 1960s and continued into the 21st century.

Background and origins

Before the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919, American breweries flourished. The advent of Prohibition in 1920 forced the major breweries to retool their production, as they were allowed to make only low-alcohol “near beer.” Another effect of this policy was to drive many smaller breweries out of business. The number of breweries overall fell from 1,345 in 1915 to 756 in 1934. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, not only were the bigger breweries able to grow again, but they also benefited from the absence of competition from the smaller breweries, leaving them poised to assume an overwhelming dominance of the industry. Between the mid-1940s and 1980, the five largest breweries’ share of the market rose from 19 to 75 percent.

Renewed interest in small-scale brewing began to grow in the 1960s, primarily on the West Coast. If one wished to pinpoint a specific location at which the craft brewing revolution began—its “Lexington and Concord,” as it were—it would be Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. A young entrepreneur, Fritz Maytag, purchased the failing brewery in 1965 and revived its iconic Anchor Steam brand. Maytag also expanded the business, launching several new brands and bottling the beer (previously only available on draft) for wider sale.

One important factor in the vogue for craft beer was the growth in home brewing. This became a popular hobby in the 1970s and was further facilitated when home brewing became legal at the federal level in 1979. The establishment of the American Homebrewers Association in Boulder, Colorado, in 1978 gave home brewing an institutional base. At a time when the dominant breweries were mostly concentrating on light lagers, legalization encouraged home brewers to experiment and be creative. Some of the rising interest in brewing was propelled by exposure to European beer styles and an associated desire to introduce them to the American market. A major figure in this trend was Jack McAuliffe, who had been stationed in Scotland during his time in the U.S. Navy. Impressed by the quality of Scottish beer, McAuliffe sought to replicate his experience at his California brewery, New Albion, which was founded in 1976. Although New Albion stayed in business for only six years, it acquired legendary status as America’s first true craft brewery.

As is often the case with revolutions, literature played a role. In 1977 the British beer authority Michael Jackson published The World Guide to Beer. This comprehensive tome furnished American brewers with a veritable encyclopedia of brewing styles. As the beer writer Fred Eckhardt said, “Jackson’s book brought us back to reality. It turns out that beer actually had more than one-and-a-half styles! And who’d ever heard of Belgian beer, not to mention a number of fine British ales? It was a remarkable revelation.” Brewer Charlie Papazian not only wrote a seminal work, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, he also founded the Great American Beer Festival, first held in 1982.

The business expands

Getting the new product to a rapidly growing and thirsty market was the next big step. In the early 1980s a new generation of leaders with business backgrounds entered the craft beer market. Arguably the most important of them was Jim Koch. Coming from a brewing family and boasting an M.B.A. from Harvard University, Koch founded the Boston Beer Company in 1984. The brewery’s signature brand, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, was introduced in 1985 and was acclaimed “best beer in America” later that year at the Great American Beer Festival. Other key craft breweries that opened in the early 1980s included Sierra Nevada in California and Bell’s Brewery (originally called Kalamazoo) in Michigan.

The success of these prominent craft breweries inaugurated a new stage in the revolution: its transformation into a big business in its own right. As of 1985 there were about 100 craft breweries in the United States; by 1996 that number had risen to 1,000. The proliferation of craft breweries began to attract the attention of the large breweries, which led to an ironic outcome: many of the successful craft breweries were acquired by those same big players that they had been founded to oppose. This process became a major trend in the new century. In 2011 Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased Chicago’s Goose Island, one of the original 1980s independents. As of 2017, more than a dozen popular craft breweries, including such well-known brands as Lagunitas and Ballast Point, had been acquired by the big breweries.

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The contemporary scene

As of the 2020s the craft beer scene in the United States was still flourishing. By 2023 the quantity of American craft breweries had reached an all-time high, numbering almost 10,000. At the same time, breweries were negatively affected by pandemic-era restrictions and had to adjust to new generational attitudes toward beer consumption, with younger people less interested in beer drinking and the social rituals associated with it. In response to market pressures, craft brewers started going beyond their original strict focus on beer, branching out into other beverages, such as hard seltzers, which have become increasingly popular.