Breweries in New Mexico produce a wide range of beers in different styles that are marketed locally and regionally. Brewing companies vary widely in the volume and variety of beer produced, from small nanobreweries and microbreweries to massive multinational conglomerate macrobreweries.
In 2012 New Mexico's 35 brewing establishments (including breweries, brewpubs, importers, and company-owned packagers and wholesalers) employed 90 people directly, and more than 6,400 others in related jobs such as wholesaling and retailing.[1] Altogether 34 people in New Mexico had active brewer permits in 2012.[2]
Including people directly employed in brewing, as well as those who supply New Mexico's breweries with everything from ingredients to machinery, the total business and personal tax revenue generated by New Mexico's breweries and related industries was more than $131 million.[1] Consumer purchases of New Mexico's brewery products generated more than $69 million extra in tax revenue.[3] In 2012, according to the Brewers Association, New Mexico ranked 12th in the number of craft breweries per capita with 27.[4]
For context, at the end of 2013 there were 2,822 breweries in the United States, including 2,768 craft breweries subdivided into 1,237 brewpubs, 1,412 microbreweries and 119 regional craft breweries.[5] In that same year, according to the Beer Institute, the brewing industry employed around 43,000 Americans in brewing and distribution and had a combined economic impact of more than $246 billion.[6]