Here is the key sentence in the article.
…an acceleration in the long-term decline of so-called domestic-premium brands, which include Bud Light and rivals Miller Light and Coors Light…
So, are people drinking less beer or are they drinking less piss beer? Could it be that people are having two Hazy Imperial IPA’s with 8+ ABV instead of a six pack of Coors Light? I am taking this headline with a grain of salt.
EDIT: I found my glasses.
Who the hell thinks those three are premium?
If that’s premium what isn’t premium? Steel reserve? That’s just malt Coors with different marketing. Micky’s? That’s just malt Miller with different marketing. 10 barrel? That bud light wearing 2010’s hipster clothes.
I think we’re giving these brand too much credit with the word premium.
They gave it the title of premium, not the consumer. If they labeled it as waste runoff it wouldn’t sell as well.
Hey, hey, hey! Don’t disrespect Mickey’s.
Mickey’s is good… I like steel reserve too… I also enjoy imperial IPAs.
M 👁️ L
👋 😊 ♣️
Below those are brands like keystone and Natty Bo.
Rolling Rock, Natural Ice, Busch, stuff like that. Yes, you can get worse than Bud Light. You can get even worse if you are willing to leave beer and go into malt liquor.
Cletus
People who drink keystone, busch, and natty
You ever had Milwaukees Best?
I don’t even like alcohol. I still know that those are piss beers.
Hey now, those Clydesdale horses worked hard to convert water into
pissBudweiser.
Article has a vague accusation that soda-based drinks are to blame without covering any of the other possibilities here
I thought soda consumption is also down? And the fizzy alcohols had leveled off or declining as well? I am curious myself.
Probably talking about LaCroix and that other stuff
I’m more of a once a week Porter, Ale and Hard Cider drinker, but it’s still a Microbrew.
Grain a salt is right: People just don’t like the taste of that crap anymore, not with so many options on the market now.
Coors/Bud/MGD/Corona? I haven’t had one in years.
A Four Noses or Cerebrus Hazy is so much better than the domestic swill it’s not funny. We have so many more options these days that I’m glad it’s hurting the big guys. They’ve been making crap pilsners for decades.
I’m sure the weed legalizing has had an impact as well. I have completely stopped drinking in favor of weed. Saves my liver and no hangover.
Saves the brain, too. Not saying weed is exceptional, but alcohol fucks the brain up.
I just don’t do either anymore. Feels really good
Just water, thanks, homie
You mean like, from the toilet?
It’s what bodies crave.
THC in weed hurts short term memory and can cause paranoia. I just stick with CBD.
CBD isn’t psychoactive so it’s not gonna be the same for most people, but good on you! Honestly probably just drinking water is really the way to go for health. There is probably an argument for psychoactive substances relieving stress (which is a potent detriment to health) but there are also healthier ways to do that
Nothing fun is good for us. Just use substances in moderation and you’ll most likely be fine
Psychedelics are fun and also beneficial with appropriate use. I can’t handle weed because of the paranoia, believe it or not. Just like any other substance, they can be abused and overdone.
I eat shrooms recreationally but have also used them to replace my antidepressants with phenomenal results. It took a ton of experimentation and time, but I have found a balance. Disclaimer: This is a high risk maneuver and could end very badly for some personality types. In some ways, they function exactly like S/SRIs but at a much grander scale. It turns out that psilocin can be more effective than serotonin itself. (Here is a great presentation that has some notes regarding that: https://youtu.be/cxE9qnocJEY?si=69CKRAUJd01cOCPh)
Unfortunately, some people just can’t handle them. Seeing reality disolve around you can be a disturbing thing to witness if you are not fully prepared for it. However, if a person is able, a few heroic doses and the correct set and setting will produce significant life changes for the better and the effects will last for years.
Sorry you got downvoted. Mushrooms are incredible medicine. One day they too will be legal just like weed.
I don’t remember hearing that before. Must be a conspiracy man
It’s true. Same as weed can make you psychotic.
However, what they don’t usually tell you if they you’d had to have the psychosis latent, but the weed triggers it. Just as a car crash could, a loved one dying, or even just getting frightened by a loud sound. Hey, even getting drunk can cause it - alcohol also causes psychosis while being intoxicated. Source: my sister who stopped drinking around 40, who realized that it fucked her up. I could tell when she’d have over single beer.
If you’re ever unsure if you have psychosis latent, be careful!
Woosh
But thanks
Sorry, I’m stoned. Noticed your second sentence just now 🤣
No worries friend, it’s a good way to be.
What a wholesome interchange. Just when I’m about to prep a fat bowl.
You don’t have to have a latent disorder for a drug to cause it, but often times drugs do trigger it if you do. There are plenty of people who have gotten e.g. an anxiety disorder or bipolar from heavy use of weed who had no family history of such things. Personally I do have a family history of bipolar and I already have GAD and a little OCD so I try to avoid it altogether, but I occasionally smoke with friends (I’m talking once every few months, which is still probably risky).
Nah I’ll stick with the THC.
Or take the middle ground and get type 2 weed and take it slow.
Type 2 weed?
That person is making shit up
I think that many people are switching to hard liquor because of the state of things, as well. My town alone has seen like a 7-800% increase in alcohol sales since covid.
Can confirm, gave up crappy low cal water beer for vodka. Less carbs, better buzz.
I mean just vote against Trump in 2024 and the world’s gonna be fine…?
That solves the most immediate threat. But the seas are still rising and a major party seems reluctant to return to slowly impeding progress
Trump is just a puppet.
The POTUS is just a puppet
Now your lungs are taking the hit—do shrooms.
Stop making so many mediocre IPAs. Other styles do exist.
It’s insane. I swear that some liquor stores I go to have a craft beer section that’s 90% IPAs… and another 5% that are basically IPAs with cutesy names like “Super Duper Pale Ale.”
IPAs are the easiest to make, that’s why every small brewery makes one
The problem is they’re mediocre
Sometimes mediocre will become better with time. If they do not make it mediocre they will likely make none rather than make outstanding right away.
Idk if that’s true, they oxidize easily. I would say brown ales or pale ales would be easier. IPAs sell, that’s why every small brewery has one
Why would they be easier to make?
IPAs also hide the off flavours that would be easily detected in a larger or pils.
But there are tons of other ales. It’s not like it’s just IPA or you have to lager.
They take less time to brew than a pilsner so when you only have a small capacity you can churn out more product if you’re targeting IPAs. This is generally why (beyond the general trend) microbreweries will opt for IPAs over lagers.
I’ve brewed both styles. You’re right that lagering adds a step and not doing it adds significant time to the brewing process, but in terms of the volume at a brewery, that’s really only a one-off time delay. After it’s in a brewing rotation, lagering doesn’t add time to a production schedule. It’s more about storage space and equipment at that point.
IPAs can be significantly more difficult to brew, so if you’re talking about a one-off brew, IPAs are harder to make WELL but faster to brew. Pilsner is easier to make well, but can take longer and/or require an additional step (lagering).
The recipe is two parts tylenol to one part bud light, judging by the flavor profile of most IPA’s I’ve tried.
Pale ales are easier and cheaper to make than IPAs. They make IPAs because they are popular, not because they are easy.
Had the same thought to myself at the Sprouts today. All I wanted was a stout. Not even a Guinness anywhere, but an entire wall of IPA’s and then the rest were hard seltzers.
beer shipments
That’s the problem. A lot of people are living in and around cities now. We buy beer at the brewery. Do these figures include 1st party sells? Distributors have always been a necessary evil and many states have laws saying you must go through a distributor for selling elsewhere, but many breweries are just doing taprooms now to not have to deal with that. I’d like to see those stats if they exist.
I do understand that many people are buying seltzers now, myself included.
It also doesn’t help that the craft beer scene turned into a competition to push the most over the top bitter IPAs possible. A lot of the appeal of craft beer went away for me when 3/4 of the taps became unremarkable IPAs. A good IPA is wonderful, but the vast majority of what you run into isn’t that.
It’s only marginally more interesting than when the landscape was dominated by lagers.
Hops are really awesome when used correctly, but many breweries just toss in hops to cover up bad bases. I’m lucky to have a few breweries around me that make really goods stouts and sours.
I mean… over roasting your malt and using Brett covers those flavors too
At least around me that has improved. Ten years ago it was just a dick-measuring contest about who could make the bitterest beer. Once you hit 90+ IBUs you’re not even pretending to make something good.
Since then, craft breweries here have course corrected. Most of them here are focusing on making a well- balanced IPA as their flagship, then experimenting with sours, stouts and saisons.
A brewery near me is owned by a guy from India, and has been very creative with spices reminiscent of different foods from that region, that I just haven’t seen anywhere else! Maybe it’s a sour or has tamarind or a juicy IOA with different fruit notes, or a mango lassi dessert beer, etc
That sounds awesome! Does he only sell within the confines of Michigan? I’m in Chicago myself, that sounds like an amazing brewery y’all have there
Sorry if implied Michigan …. Massachusetts
No worries dude, that could’ve been my bad for all I know
Where is this brewery, my good sir?
https://www.mightysquirrel.com/
Of course now they’re going to make me a liar with their current selection but I see a lager with lemongrass and an ipa with pineapple and mango.
Thank you for sharing. Their stuff does look very interesting and something I’d want to try!
As a lover of pale ales and browns, has been a tough few years. I used to love IPAs but the flavor is mostly played out and predictable for me at this point
Oh god I love those sorry, it’s probably my fault. A regular old bitter IPA or with citra is perfect for me, and lately everywhere I go has like 10 beers I want. It’s amazing and I’m very happy.
I wish there were more bitter ales. 90% of what I find are hoppy IPAs. I’m long past sick of it. Sometimes I just want a good pint of bitter ale.
That might have been the case 10-15 years ago (and I guess maybe it still is in some areas that are slow to follow the trends of craft beer) but these days that’s just not the case for most of the small scale craft beer.
Sure, IPAs have become the iconic style of American craft beer and they’ll likely be overrepresented in the US craft market for at the very least the next several decades, but for the past 5-10 years things have moved away from there over saturation that those who dislike the style still like to pretend dominates the scene.
Since the peak of ultra-bitter-IPA-mania, we’ve seen similar (if smaller) fads/trends for sours, NEIPAs, and most recently hazy IPAs (the latter two of which are not in the excessively bitter trend of the IPAs most think of). We’ve also seen fruit beers and seltzers take over, maybe even beyond the degree that IPAs ever did.
In the meantime, we’ve seen these extreme hop bombs relegated to the sidelines of the modern craft beer scene. My personal theory being that lots of brewers wanted to get in on that trend, tried, and found out just how tricky it can be to craft a good imperial IPA, and once people found good ones with wide availability, they stuck with them and the rest of the market dried up. While there’s nuance within hop bills, it’s still all hops. With fruit beers, it’s far easier to do something that nobody else is doing.
It might have something to do with weed being easier to get. Where I live it’s easier and faster to get weed than it is to get beer, especially on sunday.
Alcohol is expensive and makes you feel like shit. Who does that to themselves by choice when there’s alternatives?
It only makes you feel like shit if you want to get wasted irresponsibly. I like beer and outside of some college benders I’ve never felt like shit after. Stay hydrated folks.
Because beer tastes great
After you’ve acquired the taste. It was social pressure that got me to acquire it, but if that social pressure is dropping, it doesn’t surprise me that fewer pick it up because beer tastes kinda awful at first.
Acquired taste, or gaslighting your taste buds?
I don’t really care about the social pressure anymore but I do like a beer on occasion. Though it is more about the overall experience of drinking a beer rather than the taste itself, which I’d personally say is at best not bad and generally tolerable.
I enjoy the buzz from alcohol and I rarely drink enough to make me feel like shit. While I’m generally a social person, I also enjoy that it is a social lubricant, while I find other highs to not be nearly as social, and often even anti social.
I respond poorly to weed and well to alcohol. Bodies are different.
Yup. I’m smoking on new years. Not drinking.
Where do you live?
This is part of why alcohol companies spend insane amounts of cash towards anti legalization efforts
The DEA, or Distiller’s Enforcement Apparatus, is an army of masked thugs licensed to rob, defame, kidnap, or kill those suspected of preferring other drugs over alcohol.
A 4 pack is $12. I’m just going to get a bottle of whisky instead.
that’s gonna be some good whisky.
Depending on the size of the can, At $2-3 per standard unit of alcohol, would put it at like $40-60 for the equivalent whisky bottle. So, yeah it could be.
There’s a bourbon called ancient age which is made by Buffalo trace. Sells for $11 a bottle here. It’s not fancy, it’s just a perfectly decent bourbon for a very low price.
But a bottle of whiskey and a four pack of craft beer have different amounts of alcohol, so you could end up getting a much nicer bottle of whiskey.
Liquor store chain in my area sells 30 packs of Hamm’s for $13.99. 6 of those is more than a 16 gallon keg and costs ~80 bucks, cheaper than just getting a keg
That is crazy cheap. I can’t buy name brand soda for that price.
$12 is a steal. A 7% IPA in Jersey will run you 16-22$. Yeah, and add to that that the craft beer market is just oversaturated, I think I’ll pass.
Right there with ya.
I also wonder how liquor sales are as well.
My wife and I are obviously only one couple, so this is confirmation bias, but alcohol in general just isn’t as appealing anymore. With all this general stress we’ve been going through (struggling with inflation, insane work hours, insane work conditions) alcohol is causing more migraines, sucky morning-after-drinking symptoms, high calories, expensive prices, there’s just no good reason to drink as much as we used to. And it’s not like we drank that much earlier in our lives as well.
Tie this all together with marijuana availability which has none of these cons except for high taxes, then alcohol doesn’t sound as appealing anymore.
I also wonder how liquor sales are as well.
Up a staggering amount. The US is in the throes of an alcohol-abuse epidemic.
If that’s the case, keep on keeping on alcohol drinkers. 🫡
As long as nobody is drunk driving, being a public nuisance, or hurting people in any way then I won’t tell people how to live their lives.
Although, I feel the same way about any drug really. There’s enjoying yourself and then there’s hurting yourself.
No beer for me, just drugs please.
I just want weed. I didn’t even think of buying alcohol for new years, but I did purchase a screen for my pipe.
You son of a bitch, I’m in.
Meanwhile my drinking has hit personal record highs this year. Yay depression.
18 days sober today for me! You can do it friend.
Even if you don’t stop completely, and instead only drink socially as opposed to alone I think you’ll feel a lot better. I know I did! Plus, the feeling of waking up every day 100% sober with no hangover is better than all the drunken nights. Whatever you choose, good luck…
I peaked during the pandemic and was also depressed. It’s a difficult cycle to break but I got out of it. If you want to chat about it let me know.
Please, be careful with that, alcohol usually makes depression worse
I don’t know you, but I understand how tough depression is. Just remember when things get bad that this stranger on the internet loves you. I want to see you happy and I’m sure you’ll make it there :)
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Because it’s expensive, calorie intensive and takes longer to drink than something like whiskey or vodka.
If I’m thirsty, I’ll drink water. If I want to get drunk, I’ll drink whiskey. Beer is the middle ground that just isn’t worth it anymore.
There are some that taste good. But it’s only every once in awhile for me.
Best I can understand, beer is more of a social drink than anything. Slow enough to get most people wasted that they can easily drink for the 2-4 hours they’re at a party or event for without getting too badly drunk
The beer fests near me are filled with selzers, ciders and stuff like mead. As someone who doesn’t like beer, I think it’s a positive change to have alternatives for different tastes.
I think beer is gross, personally, so this isn’t a post about me but reading the comments it is interesting to see beer drinkers here decide against it due to cost and wanting other choices. I have news for you guys there are cocktails and other great alcohols that cost as much as your 7 to 10 dollar beer and they taste fucking great.
Well, I personally get intoxicated a bit even by sweets, and also feel worse from sugar. While beer (IPA-s mostly) makes me feel better and not that much drunk.
Ah, and that “good alcohol” you’re talking about makes me nervous, shaky, paranoid and it’s as if my hangover always started when others are only becoming drunk.
Metabolism can be different from person to person.
sweet drinks are fine to have 1 or 2 of, but the sugar content will fuck your stomach up badly. learned that the hard way
You say “gross”, now that’s an intriguing choice of vocab…because it’s just a watery liquid, it doesn’t have a texture like snot or slime or similar typically “gross” things. I’m not saying you’re wrong in your dislike of it, the taste, smell, etc. but could you elaborate what you think is “gross” about it?
Beer tastes like carbonated ass with added bread flavouring. That specific enough for ya?
This is why I go for cider. Replaces the weird bread taste with apples.
And because it’s like 8%, I only need half as much to get tanked up.
Beer can be different. Though TBF I only drink two kinds of beer - one is a really flavorful craft IPA which I’m unaware of being exported from Russia, another is the cheap alcohol-free thing my dad let me taste when I was 6 or 7, which gives memories and isn’t too bad.
Smell and taste is terrible. I rather have a coke with amaretto if I HAVE to drink. Never saw the appeal of beer. Plus who has money to spend on this kind of stuff. Least soda is sweet and cheaper than water.
Beer is like soup. There’s tons of different ways to make it. There are sweet (like candy sweet, not just soda sweet) beers if you want them. The issue is you have to find them. There was a big movement towards sour beers for a while, which turned into a race for the sweetest beer and ended horribly in my opinion, but those are more rare than during that period now. There’s also beers that taste like pickles, wine, or just about whatever else you could want. There really isn’t a “beer” flavor, though there is a lager or pilsner flavor which is the typical cheap beer.
Yeah that probably what I am used to seeing. I have had draft beer but I can’t tell difference so I assume I am lost cause there. Same goes for red wine for me they all taste basically the same. It’s like difference between 7up and sprite.
Draft beer just means it’s coming from a keg, not a style difference. You may not find beer you like, but if you’ve only tried the typical beer you get at a bar or whatever then yeah, it won’t be good. I’d say go to a brewery and ask for help. The bartenders will be happy to help and they’ll let you taste whatever you want before ordering. You can also go to a taphouse or something, but they won’t be as helpful probably and you also probably can’t get tastes.
O weird people always act like draft is so much better.
I’m confused by this, how is soda cheaper than water? In the us, water comes out of my faucet ridiculously cheaply, and virtually every restaurant will give you water for free while charge for soda. At least with beer you get a buzz, why anyone would ever choose soda is beyond me. Well, I get it, it’s sweet. But it’s really just absolutely empty calories.
Ah water bottles versus faucet. I Believe you live in a place that doesn’t have terrible tap. Plus I can’t upgrade the place I live in to resolve that ugh. Sugary water taste good by default plus you can offer it to anyone unlike beer. Buzz is also a side-effect which soda codes not have. I can drink 50 Cana of soda and still drive home.
Plus I can’t upgrade the place I live in to resolve that ugh.
If we are talking about living in a place where the water is literally nonpotable, maybe you’re correct. But if it’s simply that you don’t like the taste then this isn’t about it being more expensive. Additionally, if this is the case, you can just buy a filter, which would produce way better tasting water at a fraction of the cost of soda.
My point about beer giving a buzz is that it actually provides something that water does not. If you are looking for caffeine from a soda, there are way better ways of getting it without getting all those empty calories as well. If you just need to hydrate, water is pretty universally the best choice (when it comes to vs soda, although maybe a tiny bit of soda would be better than just water if you are seriously deplenished from an intense workout. . .although so is a bit of beer).
I mean, you do you, I was just curious as to how in the world soda was cheaper than water. I’m not even sure it’s cheaper if you just buy it bottled as well. I’m curious as to your math. I just did a quick check on walmart, and the water is less than a cent per ounce, while the cheapest coke I saw was about 2.9 cents per ounce. . and that required having a 2 liter bottle, which would require using it rather quickly.
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No joke, it’s all the seltzer marketing that gets people to spend way more on way less alcohol.
It was successful as fuck. Just look at all the streamers shilling it.
How is it spending way more on way less alcohol? In my area a 12 pack of Trulys is comparable to a 12 pack of Corona and they have roughly the same alcohol content
A 8 pack of seltzer here is $20 and 12 pack of beer $15.
8 pack of seltzer… $20
Christ. 12 packs of seltzer here are like $16, beer not much cheaper maybe $14
I should clarify. That’s the vodka seltzer not the malt stuff.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think hard Seltzer is technically classified as beer?
It says “BEER” on the back of White Claw cans.
Can you clarify your point?
If I was making hard seltzer at scale, I’d consider two options:
-
Cut some Everclear 97% and some flavorant into water, and throw 30psi of CO2 on for it a few days (expensive)
-
Ferment some dextrose, rack it off the yeast cake, add some flavorant, and throw 30psi of CO2 on it for a few days (cheap)
My hombrew club hated me.
What you are doing probally does not sound as romantic as what they are doing. 🤣
The way they’re produced en masse is that high alcohol “beer” is brewed for maximum sugar content and minimal flavors, and then it’s aged, filtered, and in some cases concentrated for shipment.
Usually this neutral malt alcohol base is used on site at around 14% but if it is to be shipped it’s usually concentrated to liquor levels for economy of scale.
When it’s time to make a seltzer it’s not “brewed” as such, but simply blended with industrial scale batching equipment. Basically a big tank of water with a pipe loop that runs the contents of the tank in circulation, and has ports for adding flavoring and the alcohol base.
Once the batch is at the right flavor and ABV it can be held in storage or sent to canning/bottling, with compressed CO2 injected into the liquid line just before the point where it goes into the can or bottle.
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Yet even as overall volume consumption declined, the largest beer makers remain financially resilient thanks to prices that climbed alongside — or even surpassed — broader inflation, Steinman said. Beer drinkers also continued to shift toward more expensive beer brands, especially imports like Modelo Especial, which became the No. 1 beer in America in 2023.
So people aren’t willing to pay higher prices for worse product.
