Sunday, June 22, 2008

Top Beer Brand Sales 2007

In a former career I was a brewer for Goose Island brewery in Chicago.  Back then we often talked about our beer output at the pub being somewhere between 2,500-3,000 barrels of beer per year. [1 barrel of beer = 31 gallons which is two standard kegs you see behind a bar or at a keg party]  For comparison, I would talk about the Budweiser company producing 97 million barrels per year on the brew tours.  Today the craft beer industry is still a tiny fraction of the total beer market.  

So I took a look at where things are today with beer sales.  Again, Market Watch magazine is a great source for these stats.  Here are the top beer brands in the US for 2007 in million barrels (31 gallons or 2 kegs).
  • Bud Light (Anheuser-Busch) 41.2 million barrels
  • Budweiser (A-B) 23.2
  • Miller Lite (Miller Brewing Co.) 17.9
  • Coors Light (Molsoon Coors Brewing Co.) 16.3
  • Natural Light (A-B) 9.1
  • Corona Extra (Crown Imports [Constellation/Grupo Modelo]) 8.1
  • Busch (A-B) 6.5
  • Busch Light (A-B) 6.0
  • Heineken (Heinekin USA) 5.0
  • Miller High Life (Miller Brewing Co.) 4.9
  • Other beers made up for 66.6 million barrels
So total beer sold in the US for 2007 was 204.8 million barrels.  AB accounted for 86 million barrels of the top 10 beer sales.  Once again they prove, they are the king of beers.  You can see all the AB brands listed here.  Keep scrolling down to see them all! - Salamanzar