11,002,163 barrels of American beer went into kegs in 2024. That's the last time the federal government will ever tell you.

Every month, TTB publishes what brewers report: how much beer was made, and how much left the brewery with tax paid. For decades one line in that file split the second number in two — beer that went out in bottles and cans, and beer that went out in kegs. Kegs are draft. Draft is beer poured in a room with other people in it. It is, more or less, the taproom's number.

Download the file today and the keg line stops in 2024. Not because it fell — it barely moved, 11,373,802 barrels in 2023 to 11,002,163 in 2024, a 3.3% dip, holding at about 7.4% of all taxable removals both years. It stops because nobody is required to report it anymore.

Barrels of beer removed in kegs, taxable: 2023, 2024, and 2025 — straight from TTB's own annual data file.

The dash is not a rounding error, a redaction, or a collection that came in late. There is no keg row for 2025. There will not be one for 2026.

Give TTB its due: this is not a cover-up, and it isn't stupid. It's a pilot program whose entire point is less paperwork for brewers, and a brewer filling out fewer boxes on TTB F 5130.9 at 11pm is a real, unglamorous good. The 2025 total is still there — 139,219,800 barrels of taxable removals, against 147,839,727 in 2024. You can still see that beer is shipping less. You simply can no longer see how it shipped.

That's the trade, and it's worth naming out loud, because the keg share was doing quiet work. It was the only national, non-commercial, non-survey measure of whether Americans still drink beer together — not the trend pieces about third places, not a marketing firm's panel. A number, collected the same way every year since long before anyone worried about the answer. Starting with 2025, it's gone, and no one voted on it.

Fair caveats. These are taxable removals — beer leaving a brewery with tax paid — not retail sales, not what got poured; a keg removed in December is drunk in January, and some never sells. The keg line was never perfectly clean either: a "removal method not specified" bucket ran alongside it (4,330,326 barrels in 2024), so 7.4% is a floor, not a decimal-precise truth. TTB's Beer National Report was last updated 06/24/26 and the annual file 06/03/26; 2025 figures reflect what brewers filed and can revise. And the pilot is a pilot — it covers participating brewers, and if it's ever unwound, the keg line could come back. Nothing here says it will.

Sources (primary, verified today): TTB Beer Reports — the Tax Simplification Pilot Program passage is quoted verbatim from that page (Beer National Report updated 06/24/26). All barrel figures are read directly out of TTB's own Beer Yearly Data CSV (updated 06/03/26), derived by TTB from the Brewer's Report of Operations (TTB F 5130.9) and the Quarterly Brewer's Report (TTB F 5130.26): 2023 kegs 11,373,802 and total taxable removals 152,535,302; 2024 kegs 11,002,163, bottles & cans 132,507,238, unspecified 4,330,326, total 147,839,727; 2025 total 139,219,800 with no container-type rows present. Percentages computed from those figures.

11,002,163 barrels of American beer went into kegs in 2024.

That's the last time the federal government will ever tell you.

For decades, TTB's monthly beer report split taxable removals two ways: beer that left the brewery in bottles and cans, and beer that left in kegs. Kegs are draft. Draft is beer poured in a room with other people in it. It's the taproom's number.

Download the file today and the keg line stops at 2024. Not because it collapsed — 11,373,802 barrels in 2023, 11,002,163 in 2024, holding at about 7.4% of all taxable removals. It stops because nobody has to report it anymore.

TTB, verbatim: "Under the new Tax Simplification Pilot Program, participating brewers will no longer provide to TTB specific reporting on removals by container type (bottles/cans or kegs). As a result, beginning with its 2025 statistics, TTB's reporting will reflect taxable removals by total volume only."

And give them their due — it's a pilot built to cut paperwork, and a brewer filling out fewer boxes at 11pm is a real good. The totals are still published: 139,219,800 barrels in 2025, down from 147,839,727. You can still see that beer is shipping less. You just can't see how it shipped.

Here's what I keep turning over. That keg share was the only national, non-survey, non-commercial measure of whether Americans still drink beer together. Same method, every year, collected long before anyone was anxious about the answer.

Starting with 2025, it's gone. Nobody voted on it. Most people won't notice for years.

If you run a brewery: download Beer Yearly Data this week. 2024 is your permanent baseline now — and a benchmark that can never be recalculated only gets more valuable. Then ask your state ABC whether they still break out draft, because that series just became the important one.

Read the source, not the coverage.

FIRST SOURCE · one verified original-source finding, composed for one reader · this edition: independent craft breweries