More beer!

Some stats on beer from Newsweek magazine combined with some scintillating commentary:

The most beer is consumed yearly per capita in which state?
New Hampshire - I would not have guessed that.

How about the least?
Utah - Not much of a surprise there. However New York State is number three, least that is.

Of the top ten beer companies in the U.S., I've only heard of five. On the other hand, the top two companies combined enjoy more than a 75% market share in the U.S., and I've definitely heard of those. One's based in St. Louis, the other in Milwaukee, but neither are owned by American companies anymore.

You need to enter your age in order to access the web sites of some of the beer companies. Is it illegal for anyone under 21 to read about beer? I wonder if anyone lies.

Pabst, a brand that almost disappeared not too long ago and a company almost continuously in transition, is number 5 with a 2.7 market share in the U.S.

Montana proportionately employs more brewers than any other state, 3.2 per 100,000. However less than 1,000,000 people live in Montana which means about 30 people work as brewers in Montana.

Beer was virtually tied with milk as the third most popular beverage in the United States in 2010 with a per capita yearly consumption of 20.7 gallons. Soft drinks come in at a staggering 44.7 gallons and bottled water at 28.3 gallons. Americans drank 18.5 gallons of coffee per person in 2010, 2.3 gallons of wine (a little surprising) and 1.5 gallons of the hard stuff. Despite the high number for soft drinks, we drank 16% less of it than we did ten years ago.

In terms of beer consumption around the world, the United States comes in at number 15, between Slovakia and Denmark. Now get this, of the top beer drinking countries of the world, the Czech Republic is number one and Ireland number two. So how could I not love beer? It's my heritage. Extending this, Germany is number four right behind Austria. My wife is mostly German, meaning my children have even more beer running through their veins.

Nazdravy, Sláinte and Prost to all.