Do you still drink beer?

I'm posting this on Sports & News, rather than Anything Goes, because it is tied to a recent news story - the decline of beer sales in the United States.

Apparently, according to an article in my print edition of Business Week, this is largely due to the increased sale of hard liquor. I'm, frankly, surprised.

This is going to sound like the New Yorker critic who didn't know anyone who voted for Nixon, but nobody I know drinks hard liquor. I do, a little bit, but that's mostly because I like to play around with bartending, mostly so that I can serve people cool drinks when I entertain. And then, when I do entertain, guess what everyone wants?

Beer.

Some of the stories about the decline of beer note that flavored vodkas and whiskeys have had a lot to do with beer's demise. My wife doesn't drink at all, so I'm probably just missing the boat on this trend, which I suspect is largely female-driven.

Anyway, here is a recent related story on nine beers that have seen a huge decline in sales:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/09/beers-we-no-longer-drink/3915505/

 

We've had the same 12-pack in our pantry for five years. My wife has an aunt who comes over once a year or so and she always says, "You guys always have my favorite beer for me. We've never told her that it's been the same 12-pack all along.

 

I have a friend in the industry and he says the sales of brown spirits has taken off the past few years. Whiskeys are huge right now. They're having trouble keeping up with demand on the production side.

 

Not nearly as much as I used to. Mostly because the fiancee doesn't drink it, so it makes more sense to keep things we'll both drink around the house, which is mostly wine and occasionally the hard stuff.

 

I like whiskey quite a bit. I feel like it's so stigmatized, though, among people of a certain age. When I make a drink with whiskey in it, I can just see my wife's eyes looking at the bottle. I tell her, "There's as much liquor in this drink as there is in a bottle of beer." If I had a beer, she wouldn't even notice.

 

Sales of those nine beers are down because those nine beers are piss water. We had a Super Bowl party, the adults drank an appropriate amount of beer, and at the end of it we poured the Bud Light down the drain. Somebody bought it, nobody drank it, and it was just going to sit in my fridge for the next 12 months.

This story makes me happy.

 

I have a friend who drinks Miller 64. We had our party at our house, and he drank probably 10 of them. His wife complains about "how much" he drinks. I had to explain to her, "Those 10 are equivalent to my two."

 

Purely anecdotal, but I don't know anyone in my circle (which is a pretty decent size) that stigmatizes whiskey. Although we could all just be alcoholics.

 

That's interesting ... as I drift into Middle Age, beer and wine are all I ever drink anymore. And usually it's just a beer or two with dinner, on the weekend.

It's been a while since I've had a mixed drink ... especially at home. There's not a bottle of liquor in this house. And my Long Island iced tea days are long gone.

But among younger people I know who go out regularly, they do go for the martinis or whiskey.

The nine declining beers in DW's link probably are only popular at "dive" or townie bars anymore.

 

I think it's generational. I'm 53, and grew up on beer and wine coolers. My father, who was 34 years older, drank hard liquor.

Things have seemed to swing back toward liquor. I wonder if that has anything to do with it being advertised on television, which it wasn't in my younger days.

 

She thinks I'm going to get drunk off of it. In fairness, I have given her reasons over the years to think this.

 

If I were at a bar or party and those were the nine beers offered, I'd order hard liquor too.