Popularity of beer at record low

Well, great. That’s exactly what brewers needed. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing their beers, pollster Gallup comes along and tells them: “sorry guys, consumers have gone off beer.”

According to a Gallup Poll released 28 July 2011, beer beat wine by just a point this year as the most preferred alcoholic beverage.

Among those asked which alcoholic beverage they would most often drink, 36 percent said beer was their pick. Wine was the preference of 35 percent of respondents. Only 23 percent said liquor was their top choice.

Most worryingly, the preference for beer declined the most among young adults, a group which used to consume the most beer. Their preference dropped to 39 percent today from 51 percent in 2010. By contrast, middle-age adults‘ preference for beer fell just three percentage points (to 41 percent from 44 percent), and older adults‘ fell two points (to 27 percent from 29 percent).

The preference decline among young adults (18 – 34 year olds) seems most unusual. We are talking about a 12 percent drop in a year. So it could easily jump back up just as fast.

But brewers should not bank on it. It’s the long-term trend that should give them sleepless nights.