Beer in the United States

In the United States, beer is manufactured in breweries which range in size from industry giants to brew pubs and microbreweries. The United States produced 196 million barrels (23.0 GL) of beer in 2012, and consumes roughly 28 US gallons (110 L) of beer per capita annually. In 2011, the United States was ranked fifteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China.

Although beer was a part of colonial life across the North American settlements, the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 resulted in the prohibition of alcoholic beverage sales, forcing nearly all American breweries to close or switch to producing non-alcoholic products. After the repeal of Prohibition, the industry consolidated into a small number of large-scale breweries. Many of the big breweries that returned to producing beer after Prohibition, today largely owned by international conglomerates like Anheuser-Busch InBev, still retain their dominance of the market in the 21st century. However, the majority of the new breweries that have opened in the U.S. over the past three decades have been small breweries and brewpubs, referred to as "craft breweries" to differentiate them from the larger breweries.

The most common style of beer produced by the big breweries is pale lager. Beer styles indigenous in the United States include amber ale, cream ale, and California common. More recent craft styles include American Pale Ale, American IPA, India Pale Lager, Black IPA, and the American "Double" or "Imperial" IPA.

History

Beginnings

The earliest record of brewing in the Americas dates from 1587, and the first commercial brewery in North America was built by the Dutch West India Company in 1632 in Lower Manhattan on Brewers (later Stone) Street.