There’s an old Irish toast: ‘To long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one!’ I can think of no better way to bring in the New Year than raising a glass of frothy-delicious craft beer from a homebrewer friend or relative, or small, independent craft brewery.

According to the 46,000-plus-member American Homebrewers Association, a division of the Brewers Association (an American trade group of brewers, breweries-in-planning, suppliers, distributors, craft beer retailers, and individuals concerned with the promotion of craft beer and home-brewing), more than 1.2-million Americans brew their own beer at home. And, as an industry, beer is massive.

The Brewers Association says U.S. retail sales of beer exceeded $107.6 billion in 2016, with craft beer accounting for $23.5 billion of that total. Directly and indirectly, the beer industry employs nearly 2.23 million Americans, providing more than $103 billion in wages and benefits. In NY, 269 breweries produced 1,000,785 barrels of craft beer in 2016 (2.1 gallons for every American over the age of 21), with a retail value of $3,439,000,000.   » Continue Reading.