A lot of people like good beer!

"It's 5:01...somewhere"

One of the main reasons I continue to brew is that I really like good beer.  I spend a fair amount of time discussing new and different beer styles, beers we have tried, brewing techniques and equipment.  I enjoy many parts of beer.  Turns out, I am not the only one.

The Brewers Association has released a report yesterday saying that the beer business is going well in the US, particularly craft beer.  Per a Gallup Poll, beer has a strong growth trend in the alcoholic beverage preferred by adults in the US.  The growth has been at the expense of wine being the preferred drink.

Also interesting, and confirmed in our house, we are drinking less imported beer, and of the increased consumption in 2008, 50% of the growth was from craft breweries.  5.8% of all beer by volume and 10.5% of beer by dollar value was from craft beer in 2008. 

What does this all mean?  We are buying more beer overall, we are buying more domestically produced beer, our increased consumption is mostly in craft beer, and we are paying a lot more for it.  I can vouch for all of those.

If Mrs. Brew Meister and I are any indication, 2009 should be a good year as well.

Cheers!