They did it again! The Oregon Brewers Guild announced on June 26 that during 2011 Oregon’s breweries crafted 1,168,000 barrels of beer, which is a 7.5% increase from 2010. While overall Oregon had weak employment figures, the brewing companies added over 600 jobs in 2011.

“Increasing production by 7.5 percent simply means more jobs,” said Brian Butenschoen, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “When an increased number of Oregonians choose Oregon beer over other options, we need more farmers to grow hops and barley, brewers buy more equipment, open breweries, and hire new employees.”

Oregon has 110 brewing companies operating 145 brewing facilities in 58 cities. Portland also has 49 breweries within its city limits, more than any other city in the world. In addition to these impressive numbers, Oregon’s brewing industry also contributes $2.44 billion to the state’s economy and employs over 25,000 people directly and indirectly.

About 15.8 percent of  2.712 million barrels of all beer consumed in the state were made in Oregon. This percentage jumps up quite a bit with draft beer, with Oregon breweries producing about 42.8 percent of all draft beer consumed in the state. These numbers are the highest for any state in the U.S. In the United States, craft beer production has grown 13 percent in the last year and is 5.7 percent of the total volume of beer brewed in the U.S. (statistics provided by SymphonyIRI Group)