• by Todd Wasserman , April 12, 2023

Millennials are driving sales of beer down to the point at which distilled spirits has displaced beer for the first time, at least according to one survey.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States released a report that found that the market share for distilled spirits (42.1%), exceeded that of beer (41.9%).

That growth contrasts with a 55.7% share for beer in 2000. (At the time, the share for distilled spirits was 28.7%.)

Sales of beer were affected by price hikes that occurred in October 2022. In the 12 weeks before Christmas, beer prices rose an average of 7% higher than the year-earlier period, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by Bump Williams Consulting Co.

But U.S. beer sales volumes have been falling for years as people switch to wine and spirits. A 2018 poll of more than 2,000 adults found that “a plurality of Americans prefer liquor drinks.”

In the poll, millennials said they preferred distilled spirits, with 50% saying they would choose cocktails or straight liquor over beer or wine.

A 2022 report by YPulse found that White Claw, an alcoholic seltzer, was the top beverage among millennials, with the first beer brand, Bud Light, coming in at No. 6.

Beer Market’s Insights estimated that beer had fallen from a 58.7% share of absolute alcohol consumption in 2000 to 46.1% in 2021.

“The shift continued in 2022, when the U.S. beer industry sold only 2.5% more beer than it did in the year 2000, despite a 21-plus population that’s probably around 25% larger,” said Christopher Shepard, senior editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights. Shepard said he’s a millennial and when he went to school, “beer was an older person's drink. Craft changed many millennial minds about beer, but far from all of them.”