Despite a decline in volume by 2.0 percent to 200.2 million barrels (238.7m hl), consumer spending on beer in the United States in 2018 increased by +5.0% and totaled US$117.3 billion.
Spendings in the overall beverage alcohol category were also higher by US$12.4 billion and totaled US$253.8 billion – an increase of +5.1%, according to a report by bw166.
The increase can be attributed on one side to an increase of 2.4 million people in the legal drinking age population in the U.S. that reached 240.7 million people in 2018, and on the other side by higher consumer spendings on individual products.
This can be especially seen in the beer segment, where craft beer although still on a small level substituted cheaper mainstream beer. The average retail price for a case of beer increased to $31.29 (excluding on-premise markups).
Consumer spending on Wine totaled US$72.2 billion, (+4.91%) and those on Spirits US$64.3 billion, (+5.6%).
