![]() Then, this spring, light beer got an unwelcome turn in the spotlight when a right-wing campaign to cancel Bud Light picked up steam. Premium light beers have been losing market share for years, Watson told me. “People are drinking less beer, but they are drinking higher-priced beer,” Jones explained, as some mass-produced beers have gotten more expensive, and pricier craft beer now occupies more of the market. Now young people are turning 21 and entering a market filled with relatively affordable seltzers, canned cocktails, and ciders-not to mention EANABs, the name my college dorm used to describe Equally Attractive Nonalcoholic Beverages.įor those who do still drink beer, preferences are shifting in how much beer they want to buy and what kind. No longer are college kids just guzzling Natty Light and slapping bags of Franzia. Those who are drinking have a panoply of options to choose from. Young people “are just drinking less beer,” Watson said, and many seem to be buying less alcohol, in general. The next generation is not waiting in the wings to replace them. (Or, if you’re me, you might break out a hop water while chilling.) A retiree might enjoy an expensive bottle of wine with dinner, and a Millennial might mix cocktails for a birthday celebration. As Boomers age into retirement and Millennials enter their 40s, they are reaching for different drinks for different types of occasions. Demographic shifts also tell part of the story: The American population is older than ever before. For more than a decade, spirits have been gaining market share. Whereas beer prices have roughly tracked with inflation over the past 20 years, liquor has gotten relatively cheaper, Bart Watson, the chief economist of the Brewers Association, a craft-beer trade organization, told me. Part of the reason for the contraction in beer-volume sales is that people are diversifying their alcohol consumption, adding drinks such as spirits to the rotation. ![]() Lester Jones, the chief economist of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, told me that the market shrank by 3 percent in volume last year, continuing a downward trend that began around 2000, and we’re now in the midst of one of the worst years so far since beer’s decline began. Beer once held a hefty lead in the market over other alcoholic drinks. Changing consumer preferences, the high costs of doing business, and competitive pressure mean that the beer industry is not the retail big dog it once was. Canned cocktails, hard seltzers, ciders, nonalcoholic beers, CBD drinks, and hop waters share shelf space with traditional beer. In recent years, canned and bottled beverages of every stripe have proliferated. I thought I was just drinking sparkling water with a bit of flavoring! Did I feel a bit weird because I was tired, I suddenly wondered, or because there were supplements in my hop water? Would this drink make me a genius? I don’t really know what those are I can barely pronounce the latter. So imagine my surprise when I looked at the can and discovered that the drink contained adaptogens and nootropics. On Tuesday evening, I was lying on my chaise lounge, reading a magazine and sipping a new variety of hop water, which I had nestled into a koozie emblazoned with a crab and the words Don’t bother me I’m crabby. (They taste good and have the added benefit of making me feel virtuous.) Indeed, so much do I enjoy cracking open cold ones that I also often drink hop water, nonalcoholic seltzers flavored with hops. For me, drinking a beer is also about the pleasure of the ritual. It’s not just the taste of beer itself or the alcohol. It’s Friday, so I’ll go ahead and say it: I love cracking open a cold one. Alabama is defying the Supreme Court on voting rights.Trump’s legal turmoil just keeps getting worse.
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