ST. LOUIS -- American lagers rule in the Midwest, while IPAs are preferred in the Northwest and dark beers are the leaders in parts of the South and East.
It's been 83 years since Prohibition ended, and in celebration of National Beer Day on April 7, Let’s Grab a Beer created a “Brewnited States” beer heat map showing beer styles that are exceptionally popular across the United States, based on IRI data.
Here are the conclusions they reached about the preferred beers in each region or state:
- America loves lager. It’s the nation’s most popular beer style. Nationwide, there’s a lot of love for classic American lagers, making lager the most popular beer style in America. Most Midwesterners and Southerners overwhelming choose lagers, which include Budweiser, Bud Lite and Coors Light, as their beer style of choice. In fact, lagers represent more than 80% of all beer sold by volume.
- New York: European Lager. New York shows off its cosmopolitan heritage with a fondness for European lagers, which are extraordinarily popular in the Empire State.
- Colorado: Wheat. Coloradans are sweet on wheat beers. With Colorado’s proud heritage of wheat production, it should come as no surprise locals pour “prairie gold.” Wheat beer is more popular in Colorado than the rest of the country.
- Southwest border states (California, Nevada, New Mexico): Mexican Lagers. On the Southwest border, they serve up cerveza. Not surprisingly, Mexican lagers are extremely popular in this part of the country, bordering Mexico.
- Alaska: Dark Beer. Alaskans won’t see sun in winter and enjoy midnight sun all summer, but like their beer dark year-round. Dark beers are unusually popular in the last frontier.
- Click the Download button below to view the infographic full-sized.
Other beer information uncovered by Let’s Grab a Beer, an Anheuser-Busch-driven beer-appreciation website.
- Tina Fey is the celebrity Americans would most like to have a beer with, narrowly beating out Jimmy Fallon this year.
- The majority of working Americans 21-years-old and older and nearly three out of four millennials (72%), would like their work to close early on National Beer Day.
- Beer is more popular among millennials (55%) than mixed drinks (35%), wine (30%), vodka (27%), whiskey (24%), champagne/prosecco (19%), gin (8%), tequila (1%) and rum (0%).
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