Founding Contributors

A North American craft staple for base and specialty malts, extracts, and adjuncts.

Briess Malt & Ingredients — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

One of the largest malting companies in North America and a major supplier to both macro and craft brewers.

SuppliesBulk base malts. Operates a malting facility at Alix, Alberta producing malt from Alberta barley.

Tally's TakeFamily-owned since 1847 and still malting at enormous scale. A remarkable number of American beers start in a Rahr silo.

Rahr Malting Co. — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

The oldest malting company on the US west coast, opened the year after Prohibition ended.

Tally's TakeFounded the year after Prohibition ended, because somebody had to rebuild the supply chain before anyone could rebuild the breweries.

Great Western Malting — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Wholesale distributor of malt, hops, yeast and adjuncts across North America — the single order most small breweries place.

Tally's TakeIf you want to know what a brewery actually brews with, look at who delivers it. BSG sits between thousands of breweries and the farms, which makes it one of the quiet chokepoints of North American craft beer.

Brewers Supply Group (BSG) — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Founders Grower-owned network

Grower-owned hop supplier from the valley that produces the majority of U.S. hops — Cascade, Citra, Mosaic and more.

SuppliesCryo Hops, hop extracts and proprietary pellets including Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe. Canadian branch based in Brossard, Quebec.

Yakima Chief Hops — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Global hop grower, breeder and merchant running its own breeding programme alongside farms in the US, Germany and China.

Tally's TakeThey grow it, breed it and sell it. Very few hop companies control the whole line from field to pellet.

Hopsteiner — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Fifth-generation Willamette Valley hop farm and processor, and an early adopter of certified-sustainable growing.

Tally's TakeA family hop farm that survived Prohibition, which killed almost every other American hop grower outright.

Crosby Hop Farm — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Major Yakima Valley hop grower, also producing apples and cherries on the same ground.

Tally's TakeThe Yakima Valley grows the large majority of American hops. Farms like this one are why the IPA exists at the scale it does.

Roy Farms — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Grower, breeder and processor of hops; the American arm of the BarthHaas group and a major hop-variety breeding programme.

Tally's TakeMost of the hop varieties in a modern IPA came out of a breeding programme, not a wild field. Haas runs one of the ones that decided what the last twenty years tasted like.

John I. Haas — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Founders Chris White

Pioneered liquid yeast for craft. WLP001 California Ale Yeast is arguably the most widely used craft yeast in the world.

SuppliesPure liquid yeast cultures, enzymes and fermentation nutrients. Distributed across Canada.

White Labs — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Founders David Logsdon

Pioneered liquid brewing yeast for craft brewers; its strain library (e.g. Wyeast 1056) underpins countless flagship American ales.

Wyeast Laboratories — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Craft yeast laboratory known for its thiolised strains, which release tropical aroma compounds locked in malt and hops.

SuppliesThiolized yeast strains, kveik cultures and hazy IPA blends. Distributed across Canada.

Tally's TakeThiolised yeast lets a brewer pull tropical aroma out of the grain itself. It is one of the genuinely new tools of the last decade.

Omega Yeast — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Supplies liquid yeast in pitch-ready volumes sized for commercial batches rather than repitched from smaller packs.

SuppliesHigh-cell-count liquid yeast pitches, organic cultures and custom banking. Distributed across Canada.

Tally's TakeSelling yeast in a full pitch instead of a starter sounds mundane. It removed a whole category of small-brewery infection risk.

Imperial Yeast — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Bioengineering company producing yeast strains modified to generate hop-derived aroma compounds during fermentation.

Tally's TakeEngineered yeast that makes hop aroma without the hops. Whether that is clever or heretical is exactly the argument worth having.

Berkeley Yeast — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Founders Raymond C. Ward

The gold standard for brewing water testing. Breweries send samples to find their mineral baseline before adjusting for a style.

SuppliesBrewing-water analysis and consultation.

Water testing for brewing — Ward Laboratories ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

Independent laboratory providing beer and spirits analysis, contamination screening and quality testing.

Tally's TakeIndependent labs are how a small brewery finds out its problem is wild yeast and not the recipe.

Bridges serious homebrew and pilot-scale pro systems with precision, design-forward stainless equipment.

Blichmann Engineering — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Brewhouse and fermentation equipment used from serious homebrew to pro pilot systems.

SS Brewtech — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

US builder of custom craft brewhouses and cellar tanks, founded as American craft brewing began scaling up.

Tally's TakeFounded right as craft breweries stopped being able to buy secondhand dairy tanks and started needing real ones.

Premier Stainless Systems — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Manufacturer of brewhouses, tanks and automation for craft breweries and distilleries.

SuppliesBrewhouses from small craft configurations upward, with configurable vessel and heating arrangements.

Tally's TakeAutomation is what lets a ten-person brewery hold a recipe steady across a hundred batches. It matters more than the copper does.

Brewhouse Equipment — ABE ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

Supplier of membrane filtration, carbonation and beer recovery systems used to clarify and stabilise finished beer.

Tally's TakeCrossflow filtration is why a bright commercial lager is bright. It replaced diatomaceous earth, which nobody misses.

Pentair Food & Beverage — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Filtration and separation technology, including membrane filtration used in place of traditional beer filtration.

Tally's TakeCrossflow filtration let breweries stop using diatomaceous earth — a genuine health and waste improvement nobody markets.

Pall Corporation — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Manufacturer of small-format canning lines that made in-house canning affordable for craft breweries.

Tally's TakeCheap, reliable small-batch canning lines did more for craft distribution than any marketing campaign ever did.

Wild Goose Filling — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Builder of high-speed canning systems for mid-sized and large craft breweries.

Tally's TakeThe step up from a starter canning line — the machine a brewery buys when the beer is selling faster than it can fill.

CODI Manufacturing — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

US-based manufacturer whose depalletizers are widely used in Canadian craft breweries for handling bulk empty cans.

SuppliesCan depalletizers, packaging line automation and conveyance systems.

Depalletizers And Conveyance Systems - Ska Fabricating ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Founders The five Ball brothers

The world's largest maker of recyclable aluminum cans, supplying most craft and macro beer cans globally.

SuppliesAluminium beverage cans.

Tally's TakeThe undisputed global king of the aluminum can. If you are drinking a craft beer, there is a massive chance you are holding their handiwork.

Beverage Cans — Ball ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

A major distributor of glass, cans, and packaging components to the beverage industry, smoothing volatile packaging supply chains.

Saxco International — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

One of the world's largest can makers, founded by the inventor of the crown cork bottle cap.

Tally's TakeThe company was founded on the crown cap — the seal that made bottled beer possible in the first place. It then went on to make the cans that replaced the bottles.

Crown Holdings — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

The world's largest manufacturer of glass containers, supplying beer bottles across every major market.

SuppliesCommercial amber glass bottles and bulk glass fulfilment. Operates multiple Canadian facilities.

Tally's TakeEvery heritage brewery that insists its beer belongs in glass is depending on a handful of furnaces like these. The romance of the bottle is an industrial supply chain.

O-I Glass — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Global supplier of pressure-sensitive label materials and adhesives used across the beverage industry.

Tally's TakeNobody photographs the label stock. But the reason a can survives an ice bucket with its artwork intact is a materials decision made here.

Avery Dennison — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Dedicated global supplier of premium labels to the alcoholic beverage sector, including pressure-sensitive and shrink-sleeve work.

Tally's TakeSpecialists in making a bottle look like it costs more. That's not cynicism — label craft is one of the few places small breweries can outspend their size.

Multi-Color Corporation (MCC) — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

One of the world's largest paper and corrugated packaging producers — the multi-packs, carriers and shipping cases behind beer distribution.

SuppliesCustom printed cardboard carriers, flats and retail display cases.

Tally's TakeThe six-pack carrier is a piece of engineering nobody thinks about until it fails in a parking lot.

Smurfit Westrock — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Supplier of cleaning and sanitation chemistry built specifically for brewery clean-in-place systems.

Tally's TakeBrewing is ninety percent cleaning. The chemistry that makes that possible never appears on a label.

Birko Corporation — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Global hygiene and cleaning company supplying sanitation programmes to food and beverage plants including breweries.

Tally's TakeAn infected batch costs more than a bad recipe. Sanitation suppliers are insurance nobody thanks.

Diversey — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Global supplier of cleaning, sanitising and water treatment chemistry to food and beverage production.

SuppliesBrewery cleaning chemistry, sanitation and CIP and water-related systems.

Tally's TakeAsk any brewer what the job actually is and they'll say cleaning. This is who sells them the means to do it.

Craft Brewing Solutions — Ecolab ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

Founders Peter McCausland

Major supplier of beverage-grade CO2 and nitrogen systems powering carbonation tanks and tap lines.

Tally's TakeA massive supplier powering brewery carbonation tanks and pub tap lines. They provide the crucial gases that bring draft beer to life.

Airgas (Air Liquide) — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Small-scale carbon capture built for breweries — recovers fermentation CO2 for reuse instead of venting it.

Tally's TakeFermentation produces the CO2 that breweries then buy back in cylinders. Capturing it closes the loop, and the sustainability story writes itself.

The global standard for draft dispense — tap handles, couplers, and commercial line-cleaning hardware.

SuppliesKeg couplers, draft towers and line-chilling glycol systems.

Tally's TakeThe global gold standard for draft dispense equipment. Their hardware is essential for pouring the perfect commercial pint.

Micro Matic — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Manufacturer of draft dispense systems, faucets and back-bar refrigeration for bars and taprooms.

Tally's TakeA Milwaukee company making bar equipment since 1917 — which is to say, they kept going straight through Prohibition and out the other side.

Perlick Corporation — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Runs a shared pool of millions of steel kegs so craft breweries can ship nationally without retrieving their own steel.

SuppliesShared keg management and circular keg logistics.

Tally's TakeThe logistics masters of the craft beer world. They make nationwide distribution possible with their massive shared keg pool.

Keg Solutions — MicroStar Logistics ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

Founders Chris Piper

Supplies over half of US craft breweries with screen-printed apparel, growlers, and glassware.

SuppliesCustom printed taproom glassware, taster glasses and branded merchandise.

Grandstand — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

One of the largest glassware manufacturers in the world and the source of the shaker pint used across North American bars.

Tally's TakeThey made the shaker pint ubiquitous, which beer writers have been complaining about ever since. It stacks, it survives, it wins.

Libbey — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Founders Paul Fichter

Dominates draft branding — engineers the custom 3D tap handles that market breweries in crowded bars.

Taphandles — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Craft beer marketing and SEO agency working exclusively with breweries and beverage brands.

Tally's TakeA whole agency category now exists just for brewery marketing — which tells you how crowded the taproom market got.

Get Hoptimized — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Boutique branding and experience agency for beer, wine, spirits and cannabis brands.

Tally's TakeFounded on the observation that small beverage brands couldn't get a serious agency to take their call. Still largely true.

Beer Marketeers — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Point-of-sale and taproom management platform built specifically for breweries, taprooms and cideries.

Arryved — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Founders Josh McKinney & Greg Forehand

Brewery management software integrating ingredient tracking, tank management, and accounting from grain to glass.

SuppliesInventory, production, sales, accounting and keg tracking.

Ekos — The All-In-One Beverage Management Software ↗ · checked 2026-08-15

Brewery management software covering production planning, inventory, compliance reporting and sales. Also trades as Ollie Order for B2B wholesale ordering and fulfilment.

SuppliesInventory syncing, B2B wholesale ordering, invoicing and logistics management.

Tally's TakeExcise reporting and batch traceability are where small breweries actually drown. Software like this is why fewer of them do.

Draft-line monitoring and analytics platform tracking pour volume, waste and tap performance for bars and chains.

Tally's TakeMeasuring what actually comes out of the tap versus what was ordered turns out to reveal a great deal about a bar.

BeerBoard — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

The oldest brewing school in the Americas, training brewers and sensory analysts for over 150 years.

Tally's TakeA great many head brewers in North America passed through Siebel. Formal brewing education is older than most people assume.

Siebel Institute of Technology — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

Home of the Anheuser-Busch brewing programme and the research that produced the beer flavour wheel under Michael Lewis.

Tally's TakeThe vocabulary used to describe beer flavour was largely built in a university lab, not a taproom.

UC Davis Department of Food Science — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

Non-profit founded in 1985 that certifies beer judges and publishes the style guidelines used by homebrew and commercial competitions worldwide. Judges advance through ranks — Recognized, Certified, National, Master — on a combination of examination scores and points earned judging at sanctioned competitions. Its style guidelines are the framework most modern style classification descends from, including much of the vocabulary used across this archive.

Tally's TakeA volunteer organisation that quietly ended up defining what a beer style is. Worth remembering that these categories were written down by people, at a particular time, and are revised — a style guideline is a description, not a law of nature.

Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Founders Ray Daniels

For-profit certification programme for the hospitality and beer-selling trades, founded by Ray Daniels, covering draught system design and maintenance, beer storage and freshness, styles, off-flavour identification and food pairing. Four ascending levels from Certified Beer Server to Master Cicerone, the last held by only a small number of people worldwide. The name is a registered trademark.

Tally's TakeIt exists because beer arriving at a customer in poor condition is usually the bar's fault rather than the brewery's — a whole profession built on the gap between what was brewed and what gets poured.

Cicerone Certification Program — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Founders Rooted in Charlie Papazian's American Homebrewers Association (1978)

The US craft industry's advocate and watchdog. Owns the 25% ownership definition and administers the Independent Craft Brewer seal.

Brewers Association — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-16

A Californian state beer competition cited across the archive's award records.

SuppliesJudged competition for California breweries.

One of the largest beer competitions in the United States, run by the Brewers Association.

SuppliesNational judged competition and festival.

Great American Beer Festival October 10-11, 2026 ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

An international competition run by the Brewers Association.

SuppliesInternational judged beer competition.

The World's Most Prestigious Beer Competition | World Beer Cup ↗ · checked 2026-08-17

A United States beer championship cited in the archive's award records.

SuppliesNational judged beer competition.

A United States beer competition cited in the archive's award records.

SuppliesJudged beer competition.

American magazine and video publisher covering brewing technique for both homebrewers and commercial brewers, with clone recipes worked out with the breweries that own the originals, single-ingredient deep dives and a long-running interview podcast. Also publishes a separate business title for the trade.

Tally's TakeThe rare publication that treats a homebrewer and a head brewer as the same reader, which is roughly the assumption this archive makes too.

Craft Beer & Brewing — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Founded 1979 and the longest-running American beer magazine, publishing long-form cultural and historical writing rather than recipes. Its print edition ceased and the title changed hands in the late 2010s; it has continued online under new ownership, and its back catalogue is a significant record of American brewing from the 1980s onward.

Tally's TakeWorth knowing that the magazine which documented the American craft era for forty years nearly disappeared itself. Its archive is exactly the kind of thing this project exists to keep track of.

All About Beer — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

The magazine of the American Homebrewers Association, published since the late 1970s and distributed to members. Technical homebrewing content, competition coverage and the annual member poll of favourite commercial beers.

Tally's TakeA members' magazine that helped build an industry: a large share of American craft founders were AHA members before they were brewers.

Zymurgy — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Consumer-facing American magazine built around a blind review panel scoring beers on a 100-point scale, alongside brewery profiles and food pairing. Positioned toward the drinker choosing what to buy rather than the brewer.

The Beer Connoisseur — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Founders Trent Musho

Homebrewing video channel built around controlled single-variable experiments — the same wort fermented with different yeasts, budget rigs against automated ones — presented for small-space brewers rather than garage setups.

TheBruSho — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23

Equipment manufacturer whose video channel became the better-known half of the business, publishing full brew-day walkthroughs on electric systems including historical recipes. A supplier that is also a publisher, which is worth flagging when reading its reviews of equipment.

Tally's TakeWhen the company selling the kettle is also the channel reviewing the kettle, the review is marketing. Useful content, read accordingly.

Clawhammer Supply — official site ↗ · checked 2026-08-23