By Iron Chef Leftovers
Micro brews ownership of the beer market is somewhere around 5% nationally, so of course, Seattle is slightly different:
Bud and Coors aren’t brewed here and much of Washington doesn’t seem to mind. Craft beer alone holds 25.5% of the beer market in the Seattle area, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, which is more than MillerCoors’ 25.3% share and A-B’s 23.8%
I will be honest, I am actually surprised that craft brews make up only 25% of the Seattle market, especially since so much tap space is dedicated to local brews. It must be the suburbs skewing the results.
As for the biggest brewer in Washington, it is not who you would expect:
Perhaps the most surprising contribution comes from a brewer that few beer enthusiasts would deign to call “craft”: Mike’s Hard Lemonade. The Seattle-based brewer has turned its colorful, fruity malt beverages into a 1.2-million-barrel-producing beast last year after pushing out only 805,000 just four years earlier. In the geographic cradle of craft beer where no macro dares to tread, Mike’s is the closest Washington comes to a big brewer.
FlatbreadGarden 
I wonder if the beer vendors (and taps) at the stadiums had more craft beer if that would change the numbers at all. At Centurylink, for me to get a craft beer I have to go around a 1/4 of the stadium from my season tickets(passing about 6 stands) to get a beer that I will drink and the line is insane (because its the only craft beer around and they have about 6 different craft beers). I believe many fans are okay with drinking a macro if a craft is not easily available. I have to really want a beer to make the trip and wait in line. I am pretty sure I am in the minority as I will not purchase anything instead of drinking macro guys. Safeco is better at having craft at most stands but the beer vendors usually start with a small percentage of their beer as craft and almost always are out of craft when I try to buy.
Then again how many times have I been at Elysian Fields and had someone order a pitcher of Bud Light?
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