For the third straight year, the San Diego Brewers Guild released economic findings from a report assembled by California State University, San Marcos. The information was disseminated at today’s San Diego Craft Beer Con industry event. The report found that in 2018 San Diego County’s 150-plus independent craft breweries produced an economic impact of $1.2 billion with industry revenue coming in at $848 million. The aforementioned impact was up 6% from 2017. That rate is 1.2% greater than national industry figures.
Additional findings of the report are as follows:
- No state has a larger number of operational craft breweries as California with more than 900.
- California ranked second in the U.S. in craft-beer production with 3.4 million barrels.
- In 2018, San Diego craft breweries produced 1.13 million barrels of beer (up 3% from 2017) representing a third of the beer produced in California.
- At the start of 2019, San Diego County boasted 202 venues owned by independent brewing interests.
- San Diego County craft-brewing companies provided 6,480 jobs.
- Local independent brewers’ contributions to non-profit organizations and charity campaigns totaled $5 million in 2018.
The data leading to the above conclusions was collected from multiple sources during the first quarter of 2019, including IBISWorld, the Brewers Association and California Craft Brewers Association. CSUSM’s report does not account for the impact of breweries that do not meet the SDBG’s qualifications for inclusion as an “independent brewery” due to acquisition by macro-beer conglomerates, meaning data pertaining to local interests Ballast Point Brewing (owned by Constellation Brands), Saint Archer Brewery (owned by MillerCoors) and 10 Barrel Brewing (owned by A-B InBev) was not factored in.