IPAs continue to dominate in craft beer, accounting for about 26% of all dollars spend on craft beer, with the next closest category — “seasonals” — at around 14%. American IPAs are the most popular within the IPA subcategory, with Imperial IPAs a distant second. The session IPA category, ranking third, is quickly on the rise though, increasing almost 200% year-over-year. English IPAs, the fourth most popular style in the subcategory, also grew substantially, at 78%.
But since “craft beer” only accounts for about 21% of the overall beer market, most of the beer being sold in the United States is still the lighter lagers produced by Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, making IPAs a blip in overall beer sales.
That’s why the Brewers Association says many craft brewers are producing lagers and other similar sessionable styles themselves.
“The vast majority of the U.S. beer market still falls in more sessionable styles like lagers, pilsners, golden ales, kolschs, the list goes on,” said Bart Warson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, at the State of the Industry report last week at the Craft Brewers Conference.. “Those traditionally have not been a huge percentage of craft brewers portfolios, but when you look at the data, those are growing rapidly.”
Local breweries are lightening up, too, with popular brews like Actual Brewing’s Photon Light Lager, Land-Grant’s 1862 Kolsch and Wolf’s Ridge’s Clear Sky Cream Ale.
Check out how other craft beer styles and IPA sub-style rank on the charts below.
