More on beer’s decline (vs. wine and spirits)
Americans are drinking less brew. Producers are making less, too. Meanwhile, wine has closed a 20-point favorability gap with beer in the just 20 years. Since the mid-1990s, beer volume has declined by nine percent while and spirits have soared (now even hard cider is staging a comeback after a century-and-a-half slump).
More >> The Atlantic.
Spirits are more interesting than they were (and vodka’s cheaper, after the recession forced a reality check). Wine is more reasonable; thank Two Buck Chuck and the continuing Aussie grape glut. Light beer no longer satisfies, and craft doesn’t pick up all of those abandoning it. So long as craft continues to grow…and maybe has a price correction of its own…beer’s going to pick up soon, I’m thinking, and we, the better beer drinkers, have nothing to worry about.