Two companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, are responsible for selling more than 90% of the beer in the US. Americans consume about 6.3 billion gallons (23.85 billion liters) of beer per year and spend an estimated $200 billion US Dollars per year on beer. Anheuser-Busch InBev produced three of the top-five selling beers in the US in 2011, and MillerCoors produced the other two. In 2011, small, independent craft breweries accounted for about 6% of all beer sales in the US, up from roughly 1% 15 years earlier, and that percentage was projected to keep rising.
More about beer in the US:
- New Hampshire has the highest beer purchase rate in the US, about 43 gallons (162.77 liters) per person every year. This thought to be the result of Vermont and Massachusetts residents purchasing beer in New Hampshire because of its lower tax rate on alcohol.
- The top two US beer companies sell 18 different brands in the US alone, in addition to 210 brands in 42 other countries.
- Wisconsin is the state with the highest drinking rate, with more than 67% of the state's drinking-age population having an alcoholic drink in any given month.