Beer sales down 2.2 percent in 2017

The beer industry trade group, Beer Institute (BI), recently reported that US brewers lost ground to the tune of 3.8 million fewer barrels (4.5 million hl) in 2017. They only shipped 170 million barrels (199 million hl) beer, as opposed to almost 174 million barrels in 2016.

According to the BI, the 2.2 percent drop in beer shipments in 2017 represents the largest annual domestic beer volume decrease in 63 years. It is believed some of the losses can be attributed to consumers switching to imported beers, but evidence for that has to wait for beer import reports to come out later. Others blame the growth in wine and spirits consumption for the decline in beer sales.