| FEATURE NEWS |
| #1 Beer Consuming College Louisiana State University fans weren’t sure what to expect from this football season. They couldn’t have anticipated that the Tigers would win the national championship. But there was one thing they did know: They were going to drink a phenomenal amount of beer. LSU fans consumed a record of nearly 55,000 beers in one October game then the very next one smashed it asTiger Stadium sold 60,687 beers,. LSU has always been at the top of the polls when it comes to boozing.There is now data to support their claims of drinking superiority after the first season that the Southeastern Conference allowed member schools to sell alcohol in their football stadiums. It was a policy shift worth millions of dollars to LSU: he first statistical evidence for LSU’s drinking aptitude came in 2011, when the Tigers played at West Virginia, one of the first schools in the country that sold beer. The stadium sold $255,396 worth of booze that day—or 82% higher than the average of the other games in 2011. It was an astonishing number at the time. It’s only proven to be more exceptional since then. |
| Pabst Whiskey Denver will be the first city to taste Pabst Blue Ribbon whiskey.The “5-second aged whiskey” will be released in select markets across the country later this summer and fall, but of all the places in America, PBR chose Denver to first glean what we can only imagine will be a truly magical elixir. Or something like that. Whether compliment or insult, Denver earned the whiskey’s debut because of good distributor relationships and fortuitous timing, according to representatives for the brand.Bottles will go for $25.99, although prices may vary slightly depending on the retailer. Believe it or not — and the correct answer is “believe it” — this is PBR’s first foray into spirit- making. Find where it’ll be sold near you on PBR’s website, pabstblueribbon.com. Record Number Last year, there were a record 8,246 craft breweries, according to preliminary numbers from the Brewers Association, which in recent years expanded its definition of “craft brewer” to make the designation available to more beer makers. |
January 2020
| Big Beer Sliding Fast When it rains, it pours, the old saying goes, but unfortunately for the U.S.'s biggest brewers, beer drinkers aren't pouring as many of their pints as they once did. Instead, they've turned to craft beer and, increasingly, Mexican imports. In its third-quarter earnings report last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev saw its own production and sales fall. The megabrewer said North American volumes fell over 6% to 31.9 million hectoliters, while revenues were down 5% to $4.3 billion. Year to date, they're down almost 4% and 2.5%, respectively, suggesting the downturn is accelerating. In particular, global Budweiser sales were down 2.2% in the third quarter, but if you removed U.S. sales from the picture, they were actually up 4.4%. Similarly, Molson Coors also reported a decline in volumes and sales in the U.S. he brand was, however, able to gain market share in the U.S. premium light beer segment, the 12th consecutive quarter it had done so. While big beers like Budweiser and Miller Lite continue to see sales slide, craft beer, which despite the decline in its growth rate is still actually growing, now represents over 12% of the total U.S. beer market. The industry trade group Brewers Association says there are now more than 6,000 breweries operating in the U.S., more than at any time in the country's history, and 95% of them are regional and craft breweries. But the megabrewers are still that -- mega. The Brewers Association's annual list of the biggest brewing companies in the U.S., based on beer sales volume, not surprisingly found Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, and Pabst Blue Ribbon to be the three biggest brewers, though D.G. Yuengling & Son reprised its position as the largest craft brewer and the fourth-largest brewer overall. |