Beer is the most consumed and popular alcoholic beverage sold in the United States. According to the Beer Institute, 90 million Americans drink beer.1 And, by some estimates, underage persons drink as much as 20 percent of all the alcohol consumed,2 and probably at least as much as that in beer. In 2002, we downed 6.4
billion gallons and spent more than $74.4 billion on beer – more than we spent for liquor and wine together ($42.2 billion for liquor, $20.5 billion for wine).3 Anheuser-Busch, with its dominant share of the domestic beer market, gained record net sales (that is, gross sales ($16.3 billion) less beer excise taxes ($2.2 billion)) of $14.1 billion in 2003.4 Read More....