Constellation Brands Inc. said Monday it will pay $1 billion for California craft brewer Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits—a record sum for a U.S. craft-beer company.

The deal signals that the craft-beer industry, which has a roughly 10% market share in the U.S., has crossed a threshold and become a big business that large brewers expect to continue to grow in the years to come. It is the fourth and largest craft deal this fall and follows acquisitions of California craft brewers by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, MillerCoors LLC and Heineken NV, which bought 50% of Lagunitas Brewing Co. in a September deal that valued the brewer at more than

The rise in craft acquisitions has been driven by changing consumer tastes in the U.S., where drinkers are spurning low-price lagers and light beers in favor of flavorful India Pale Ales. The Brewers Association, which represents more than 3,000 craft brewers in the U.S., expects the craft-beer industry to become 20% of the nation’s $100 billion beer market by 2020.

Large brewers are responding to U.S. consumer trends differently. AB InBev last week announced a roughly $108 billion acquisition of its rival SABMiller PLC, adding businesses in Africa and Latin America to the portfolio of the world’s biggest brewer. The deal also helps AB InBev by reducing its dependence on the U.S., where Budweiser and Bud Light have been losing volume.

In contrast, Constellation is acquiring Ballast Point as part of a move to deepen its interests in the U.S. beer industry’s growth areas: Mexican imports and craft beer. Constellation, based in Victor, N.Y., started as a wine business in the 1940s. It became the third-largest U.S. brewer in 2013 after acquiring rights to Corona, Modelo Especial and other Mexican beers from AB InBev during the Belgian brewer’s acquisition of Grupo Modelo.