The Brewers Association recently released the Top 50 Craft Brewing companies and Top 50 Overall Brewing companies by Sales Volume for 2008.

Here’s the Top 20 Overall Brewing companies for 2008. (2007 ranking in parentheses)

1. Anheuser-Busch Inbev (#1 in 2006 as Anheuser-Busch)
2. MillerCoors Brewing Co. (#2 Miller / #3 Coors)
3. Pabst Brewing Co. (4)
4. Boston Beer Co. (5)
5. D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc. (6)
6. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (7)
7. Craft Brewers Alliance (#11 Widmer / #12 Redhook)
8. New Belgium Brewing Co. Inc. (8)
9. High Falls Brewing Co. (9)
10. Spoetzl Brewery (10)
11. Pyramid Breweries Inc. (13)
12. Deschutes Brewery, Inc. (16)
13. Iron City Brewing Co. (17)
14. Minhas Craft Brewery (15)
15. Matt Brewing Co. (14)
16. Boulevard Brewing Co. (18)
17. Full Sail Brewing Co. (19)
18. Magic Hat Brewing Co. (22)
19. Alaskan Brewing Co. (21)
20. Harpoon Brewery (20)

Except for mergers, there was virtually no movement in the Top 10, and very little in numbers 11 through 20.

Interestingly, because of slots opened up by mergers, no breweries dropped off of the list.

(See Brookston Beer Bulletin for annotations on all 50)