Beer is the new wine in US

Beer is the new wine in US

Wine prices have increased steadily. In a declining economy wine is pricing itself out of consideration.

Wine and Beer

Wine prices have increased steadily. In a decling economy wine is pricing itself out of the market.

Beer has always been the preferred drink of the ignorant, red-neck alcoholic.

If it weren’t for beer, some people would die of thirst...

... and we’d all be better off.
:cool:

A sop-head’s dream come true...
:mad:
Beers With More Alcohol Catch On
Saturday, Jul. 26, 2008 — Tucked in a corner at the Deschutes Brewery, barrels that once aged fine wines and whiskeys are nurturing beverages that are challenging drinkers to think of beer more like wine.

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High-alcohol brews like Black Butte XX and The Abyss, known in the trade as big or extreme beers, are among many craft beers that are grabbing a growing market share in the United States from their mass-produced and heavily advertised counterparts. Even at prices ranging from $4 to more than $100 for a single bottle.

“We are looking for what we like to term that `Wow Factor,'" said Deschutes CEO Gary Fish. “We want somebody to take a drink, stop, look at the glass and say, 'What was that?'" Sales of premium beers, which include the household names of Budweiser, Coors Light and Miller High Life, have been nearly flat�up just 1.9 percent last year according to Information Resources Inc., a retail research firm.

As consumer tastes change and rising costs for ingredients pinch their profits, the nation’s biggest brewers are looking for relief in consolidation. No. 1 Anheuser-Busch is being taken over by Belgian beverage giant InBev SA. No. 2 Miller Brewing Co. and No. 3 Molson Coors Brewing Co. are combining U.S. operations.

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