Location Trends and Analysis of the American Beer Brewing Industry [poster]

Abstract

The U.S. is the second largest beer producer in the world, accounting for 14 percent of the worlds' total market share. The 162 billion dollar industry directly employs 900,000 U.S. workers, and millions of workers indirectly through agriculture, packaging materials, and wholesaling. Beer drinkers in the US consumed 210 million 31 gallon barrels of beer in 2006. The per capita consumption for persons over 21 is 21.6 gallons. There has been a major paradigm shift in the brewing industry in the past 30 years. In 1980, 40 traditional breweries and 8 specialty breweries were in business. Today, there are 1,552 specialty brewers and just 20 traditional brewers. This GIS will look at total number of breweries by state and determine which states produce the most beer, which states consume the most beer, and which states have the highest production to consumption rates.