Beer

I still remember hearing "COLD BEER HERE....GET YOUR COLD BEER HERE!" as the red-aproned, beer-concession vendor walked up and down the big cement stairs at the baseball and football stadiums in Cincinnati where I went to school.    I also recall how good a cold beer tasted when consumed on a hot day at the zoo.  Another place where a cold beer seemed to make a lot of sense was at Chuck-E-Cheese's with pizza while the kids worked up a frenzy playing all those noisy and colorful games.  Watching the passersby on busy Division Street in Chicago from a window seat at a tavern, and sipping an ice-cold microbrewery beer, really can't be beat.   Well maybe it can.....drinking an ice cold Tsingtao beer in a frosty glass to wash down a spicy meal of dry-braised jumbo shrimp stir fried with green onions, hot peppers, garlic, and ginger over steamed rice.....or enjoying an ice-cold Guinness Stout while waiting for the waiter to bring out my sampler plate of lamb curry, tandoori chicken, and spicy samosas.  A hot summer day, sitting around the pool and grilling bratwurst.....and having some cold brews with friends....that is a lot of fun too!

Did you know that America's beer distributors directly employ more than 130,000 people in the United States and add 54 billion dollars to America's gross domestic product annually? Beer distributor activities contribute more than 10.3 billion dollars to federal, state, and local tax bases. Yes, it is true, according to a study just published by the Center for Applied Business and Economic Research at the University of Delaware.

According to the federal government's Alcohol, Tax, and Trade Bureau (TTB), there were over 2,031 breweries in the United States in 2012. Of those breweries, 66% produce only between 1 and 1000 barrels of beer (31 gallons in a barrel) per year and only 16 breweries (less than 1%) produce over 6 million barrels a year.    According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association's beer factsheet citing the Brewer's Almanac, this 2,031 number of breweries in 2012 compares to only 48 breweries in 1961, 350 breweries in 1971, and in 1981 there were 1,499 breweries.

 In 2010, Anheuser-Busch had the largest market share at 49.3% followed by Miller-Coors with 30.2%.The next largest market share is Crown Imports (e.g. Corona) at 5.3%.    In 1971, Anheuser-Busch had 29% market share followed by Schlitz at 19% and Fallstaff at 13% market share.

There are over 13,000 different beer labels available to American consumers in a highly regulated distribution system.  This system includes:

• over 2,000 U.S. breweries (with operations in every state), 
• about 3,300 licensed, independent beer distributors in the U.S.,
• and over 548,000 licensed alcohol retailers.

This system ensures the integrity of the product as well as the responsible sale of the product and, of course, the collection of taxes.

According to a Gallop Poll in July 2010, the U.S. drinking rate hit a 25-year high with over 67% of U.S. adults drinking alcohol.  Over the past ten years, the "beverage of choice" among U.S. adults consuming alcohol has remained relatively steady with

•  over 40% preferring beer,
•  about 33% preferring wine,
•  and about 25% preferring distilled spirits. 

Over the past 30 years, the percentage of U.S. adults who do not consume alcoholic beverages has remained rather steady at about 33%.

So what is your beverage of choice?  I prefer wine.  More about that later....