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US Craft Brewers: "350 new breweries since June 2011"

(beveragemanager.net) - The US now has 2,126 breweries and a new brewery is opening nearly every day, according to the US Brewers Association.

Boding well for continued robustness in the craft brewery segment, there are 1,252 new breweries in the planning stage compared to 725 a year ago, the group said.

"Generally, most craft brewers are continuing to see strong growth in production, sales, brewing capacity and employment, which is to be celebrated during challenged times for many of today’s small businesses," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.

The growth of craft beer continued in the first half of 2012, when sales rose 14 percent over the same period in 2011 and production rose by 12 percent, according to BA statistic. (bmg)