Published: March 1, 2024
Knowing how to make great beer is essential to owning and operating a craft brewery. But understanding what your customer, or the consumer as a whole, is drinking is the special sauce for your business’s continued success.
You can do your own research, but having access to all the current data trends at your fingertips can save you countless hours and be a game-changer when making impactful business decisions.
Untappd Analytics, a part of the Next Glass family of brands that includes Ollie, Untappd for Business, Hop Culture, and BeerAdvocate, among others, provides next-level insight into data from the worldwide craft beer industry.
With more than eleven million registered users on Untappd, the app provides unprecedented insight into consumer trends and how particular beer styles gain traction in the market—whether uber locally or worldwide.
This information can alter your brew calendar, help you choose which brands to market for distribution to retailers, and decide what to have on draft in a tasting room.
To give you an idea of the level of data at our discretion through Untappd Analytics, in this piece, we’ll break down the most checked-in beers in California over the past ninety days.
What We’ll Cover in This Piece:
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California: The Second Most Checked-in U.S. State in the Past Year
Data courtesy of Untappd Analytics
California is a massive state with hundreds of craft breweries scattered throughout. According to the Brewers Association site, the Golden State has over nine hundred breweries, giving users plenty of beers to check in, regardless of location.
With the plethora of options, it should be no surprise that California stands near the top of states with the most check-ins. The state has consistently ranked number two behind Pennsylvania since January 2019, which is as far back as the data goes.
Over the five-plus-year span, California has logged 21,780,586 check-ins at 200,786 venues. That’s second in the nation, more than 6 million check-ins behind Pennsylvania, which is first with a little over 28 million check-ins over the same span.
Over the past year, California still ranks number two behind Pennsylvania with 2,921,090 check-ins at just over 69,000 venues.
And over the past three months, California’s 646,520 check-ins sit second only to 913,769 from Pennsylvania.
Overall, check-ins are trending down in California, with a dip of nearly 539,000 over the past year and a decrease of more than 94,000 in the past ninety days.
Most check-ins across the state happen in three regions: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, finishing one through three, respectively, over the past year, as well as the previous ninety days. Over the past three months, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim had 179,517 check-ins; San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley had 119,578; and San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad had 117,245 check-ins. No other region reached 50,000 check-ins.
Despite the recent dip in check-ins, there is, without question, an appetite for craft beer throughout the state. Let’s see exactly what beers drinkers in California checked-in the most over the past few months.
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The 12 Most Popular Beers in California – Last 90 Days
Photography courtesy of @russianriverbrewingofficial
Drinkers in the U.S. tend to enjoy hoppier beer styles—evident based on all the market trends and data from Untappd’s 2023 Year in Beer. The data suggests that Californians are the biggest hopheads of them all.
Ten of the top twelve beers checked in throughout the state are IPAs, with Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, Pliny for President (2024), and Blind Pig first, second, and fourth, respectively. Firestone Walker’s 805 (third) blonde ale and Modelo Especial (seventh) light lager are the only two non-IPAs in the top twelve.
- Pliny the Elder (IPA – Imperial/Double) – Russian River Brewing Company
- Pliny for President 2024 (IPA-American) – Russian River Brewing Company
- 805 (Blonde-Golden Ale-American) – Firestone Walker Brewing Company
- Blind Pig (IPA-Imperial/Double) – Russian River Brewing Company
- Space Dust (IPA-American) – Elysian Brewing Company
- Celebration (IPA-American) – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
- Modelo Especial (Lager-Mexican) – Grupo Modelo
- Pliny the Younger 2024 (IPA-Triple) – Russian River Brewing Company
- Celebration 2023 (IPA-American) – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
- Vacant For Winter (IPA-American) – Pizza Port Brewing Company
- IPA (IPA-American) – Lagunitas Brewing Company
- Sculpin (IPA-American) – Ballast Point Brewing Company
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About The Author
Giovanni Albanese
Giovanni is a content writer for Next Glass, contributing to the Ollie blog. He is a writer by day and a brewer/business owner by night, owning and operating Settle Down Brewery & Taproom in Gilroy, California.
Giovanni is passionate about a number of things, including history, documentaries and sports, but none more than reporting/writing and brewing beer. After receiving a radio broadcasting degree then a journalism degree from Salem State College in his home state of Massachusetts, he relocated to California in 2008.
Then, his writing career kicked off – covering sports, business, politics and more along the way – while concurrently dabbling in home brewing. The home brewing turned pro in 2021 when he launched SDB Brewing Company. Settle Down Beer officially opened in February.
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