On May 17th 2019, at the kickoff event for Columbus Craft Beer Week, the Ohio Craft Brewers Association shared a cake with the attendees celebrating the opening of Ohio’s 300th craft brewery. Now, just three years later, during the 2022 Columbus Craft Beer Week, the OCBA announced the opening of Ohio’s 400th craft brewery. When Mary McDonald, the OCBA Executive Director, started her tenure in 2013, there were only 58 craft breweries in all of Ohio. Central-Ohio alone has that many now.
And while the rate of growth may be slowing, the upward trend continues for Ohio craft brewing. MacDonald reports that in the last two years, Ohio has averaged 48 new breweries per year, while closing 11 breweries per year. She reports at least 70 more in the planning stage statewide.
Where is the top – nobody knows, but growth will continue. At the end of 2020, the U.S. had 9025 craft breweries, according to the Brewers Association. Back in 1873 there were 4131 breweries in this country, and the population then was a mere 39M. Today’s population is 330M. If we were to get to the same number of breweries per capita, that would suggest 35,000 total breweries in the US. Not likely, but it does provide a bit of perspective. Support your neighborhood brewers: Drink local!
