Profile of an American Beer Drinker

I saw this is article by Lydia Saad in Business Insider and thought it was an excellent resource.  Although I am proud to always write original thoughts in this blog ... this is a 'cut and paste' . 

For only the second time in two decades, wine ties beer as the top choice when U.S. drinkers are asked whether they most often drink liquor, wine, or beer. Gallup now finds nearly as many U.S. drinkers naming wine (35%) as beer (36%), while liquor still registers a distant third at 23%.

The 36% of U.S. drinkers favoring beer in Gallup's July 7-10 poll ties for the lowest Gallup has recorded for the popular beverage since initiating this measure in 1992. The other low reading came in 2005, at the same time Americans' preference for wine temporarily surged to 39%. Beer regained a solid lead at the top spot, until this year.

The 35% now favoring wine and 23% liquor are near the record highs for these beverages, although preferences have generally fluctuated around the current levels since about 2003.

Preference for beer declined among all age groups this year, but it fell the most among young adults -- dropping to 39% today from 51% in 2010. By contrast, middle-aged adults' preference for beer fell just three percentage points (to 41% from 44%), and older adults' fell two points (to 27% from 29%).

Younger adults' decreased preference for beer is accompanied by slight increases in their preferences for liquor and wine. Additionally, 2% of young adults this year volunteered that they most often drink cordials, up from less than 1% in 2010 and in most prior years.

Men, Young Adults, Midwesterners Exhibit Strongest Beer Preference

Gallup continues to document strong demographic differences in drink preferences, particularly along gender, age and socio-economic lines.

Nearly half of male drinkers, 48%, say they most often drink beer, followed by liquor at 26%, while 51% of female drinkers prefer wine. This pattern is consistent with prior years, although the preference for beer is down slightly among both groups compared with 2010.

Older adults tend to prefer wine, while -- despite the recent decline among young adults -- the plurality of younger and middle-aged adults favor beer.

As a result of these distinctions by age and gender, there are extremely sharp differences in drink preferences between younger men and older women, with most of the former preferring beer, and the latter, wine. Older men and younger women have somewhat more varied preferences.

Geographically, beer enjoys its greatest popularity in the Midwest, while wine does best in the East and liquor in the South and West. Adults with no college education and those in lower-income households are also much more likely to favor beer. Nonwhites are more likely than whites to favor liquor.

Bottom Line

The predominance of beer as Americans' favorite drink has waned over the past two decades, but that decline was punctuated this year with a five-point drop in mentions of beer, from 41% to 36%. This was driven largely by a 12-point decline among younger adults. Beer's loss corresponds with slight gains in preferences for wine and liquor, both of which consequently register near their two-decade highs in 2011.

While meaningful, this year's shifts are not much different in magnitude from those seen in 2005 -- changes that proved temporary. Whether beer continues to lose ground to other forms of liquor or rebounds may depend on the future direction of young adults' drink preferences.

Session Beers have their Place!

Each year, I witness (and, must admit, enjoy) the craft beer breweries marketing hoppier and hoppier beers, as well as increasing the alcohol content and providing a more robust body.  I enjoy sipping on the ‘big beers’ such as the Imperial Stouts and the double or, now, ‘Quintuple’ IPAs, but I also like to sit down and have several lighter bodied, yet full mouth feel/full bodied and flavorful, micro crafted beers, especially in the summer.

Hence the session beer.

Simply put, a session beer is a beer with alcohol under 5%, hoppied, but well balanced with no single ingredient dominating your taste buds and not too complex a taste.  These are beers that are all grain craft beers, but you are able to drink several at one sitting.  I’m not talking about a light beer 'with only half the calories' nor a mass-produced BMC beer, but rather a beer with flavor, lighter month feel, and not taste like you are biting into a grapefruit, or a chocolate bar, or having an alcoholic cup of coffee.

Typically, the session beer is slightly more reasonably priced as well.  You will still enjoy the malted barley and hop taste, but able to drink several.  The session beer is also a good choice after you’ve had a big brew, say, with 100+ IBU and 8+% ABV.

The session beer is a nice alternative and most breweries market one!

Use the comment section below to list your favorite session beer.

Cooling Beer Fast

Ever forget to place beer into the refrigerator or cooler?  No one wants a warm beer, there's 'hope' for you yet....

 One fast way to cool down a few brews is

-Grab a large pot  (a cooler works well too if you have several beers to cools down)

-Fill the pot with some ice and plenty of water

-Pour a ‘palm’ full of sea salt into the ice water

-Place a few bottles of beer into the pot, stir gently with a spoon.

 ........ FYI  Did you know, Beer in cans cools faster?

-Within 5 minutes your beer will be very cold and refreshing!

-Bonus -  if you remember to place a mug in the freezer during this 5 minutes and pour the beer into the frozen mug - this will help!

UBS Reports Increased Sales for Beer

Consistent with Beer Business Daily, UBS also reported stronger recent beer sales – especially with July 4th falling on a Monday and relatively nice weather across the USA.  The 4^th represented the first positive holiday for beer sales in over a year with volumes at 4.9% of annual sales. 

Unfortunately, sales for the entire second quarter were not kind to ABinBev or SABMiller.  Their sales were down -3% and -2.4% respectively.   Meanwhile, craft beer sales continue to grow with loyal drinkers buying more and new craft drinkers entering the market.

The news also reported that ABinBev and SABMiller would most likely announce a Fall 2011 price increase of 2 to 4%.  The Big Two need more revenue to cover increased raw material costs and feel the gap between their mass produced beers and the premiums is too wide.

... Did you know, more beer is sold for July 4th weekend than any other holiday?    Follow our Fun Beer Facts on Twitter by clicking on @Noreasterbeer Twitter

How does a Brewer produce a Craft Brewed Beer?

Glad you asked, because the micro craft beers are as close to a handmade beverage as is possible.  Beer brewing has been around for centuries, without many modifications in the process along the way.  Beer production all starts with malted barley. The barley is ground up and slowly added to a large tank, called the MASH TUN.  Mashing is the process that allows the barley to release starch, which produces sugar for the yeast to convert into Alcohol and carbonation.  Once the ground malted barley is in the Mash Tun, water is added, which is heated to 140-160 degrees F.  It is at this temperature that the enzymes present in the barley become activated.  The Mash Tun has large; slowly moving rakes that circulate to assure all the barley comes into contact with the hot water.  This process can take up to 90 minutes.

After this time, the brewer releases the ‘sugar water’ (the liquid is referred to as the MASH) into a LAUTER TUN, which acts as a large strainer.  This process holds back the grain and allows only the liquid to enter the brew kettle.  This process is similar to sparging tea through a tea bag into your teacup – holding the tea leaves behind.  The liquid is now exposed to more heat and is boiled (approximately 212F) .  It is during this process that the hops are added.  Generally, the bittering hops are added initially, and the aroma hops are added in this process at the very end.  The duration of the boil is generally one hour.

Once the boil is complete (now the liquid called the WORT) the beer needs to be cooled as fast as possible down to 70 degrees.  The brew master will take several tests during all the processes, with specific attention to temperature, time and gravity.  When the brewer is satisfied, and the wort is chilled to 70 degrees, yeast is added (or pitched).  Again, it is the yeast that creates alcohol, carbonation, and influences the taste. 

FERMENTATION starts the moment the yeast is introduced to the wort.  The beer is stored at very exacting temperatures in fermentation tanks for a minimum of a few weeks, and beer could ferment for years, depending on style.   Commercial brewers use very sophisticated temperature controls to maintain desired temperature. 

PACKAGING is the final process.  Although most micro craft breweries either bottle or keg their beers, cans are becoming more popular. 

I was wrong, there is one more step ….. TASTING is an important process as well.  The brewer must be comfortable that his beer is consistent from batch to batch, and the age old taste test proves the most successful …. Drinking the beer!!

What goes into Beer?

The German Beer Purity Law" referred to as Reinheitsgebot, is the original law for the production of beer.  It dictated that only water, hops, and barley could be used in beer (later yeast was added to this regulation).  Today, the larger breweries use corn and rice. 

Many of the innovative microbreweries are beginning to experiment with different adjuncts such as fruit, spices, and other ‘natural’ ingredients.  We find that merely adjusting quantities and varieties of the four primary ingredients as well as brewing time and temperatures can totally modify the taste of the beer. We note that if two breweries in two different areas of the world brewed the exact same recipe, the two beers could be very different with various hops, water, barley and yeast as well as time and temperature ranges.

WATER. Like so many other foods, is a key ingredient in the brewing process.  Water contains many elements and can be completely different tasting from town to town, city to city, and state to state. Water is something that must be checked constantly. It is important to use only the purest of water in the beer making process!

BARLEY is a grain that must be malted which means it is germinated by soaking it in water, than placed in an oven for baking it.  There are dozens of varieties of barley – all yielding very different beers.  Barley comes in both two row and six row varieties.  Barley provides flavor, aroma, appearance, and together with yeast, alcohol. 

HOPS provide the bitterness and balance to the sweet taste from the Barley.  There are many many types of hops, each producing a different aroma and flavor.  A hop is a flower that appears like a small, soft, green pine cone.   They grow on vines mainly in western USA, Germany, UK, Czech Republic and Australia.  It is important that the brewer knows what bittering, aroma, and flavor the hop will yield to conform for a well balanced finished beer.  Most craft beers have a combination of hops.

YEAST is seldom spoken about when describing a beer, but it is a very important component.  During the fermentation stage, Yeast converts the sugar from the Malted barley into alcohol and also carbonates the beer.  Yeast also adds to the flavor of the beer.  There are dozens of different yeast strains, and the brewer must be sure to use the proper yeast, or his beer will not be consistent.