Beer is so 1992.
Millennials are driving a decline in beer's lead as the most preferred type of alcohol, according to a recent Gallup poll. The percentage of adults under 30 who pick beer over wine or liquor has dropped from 71 percent in the early 1990's to just 41 percent today. While beer narrowly remains the most popular drink of choice when compared to wine and liquor, young Americans are shifting towards liquor increasingly. Twenty-eight percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they prefer liquor today, compared to 13 percent of that age group who said they preferred liquor in a 1992-1994 survey.
Overall, Americans are about split between between beer and wine as their preferred drink, 36 to 35 percent. But beer's dominance over wine dropped 20 points since 1992, Gallup noted.
The poll found that 53 percent of men say they prefer beer over wine and liquor -- but that's an 11 point drop from 1992. One-in-five women said they like beer the most, while 52 percent of women said wine is the best.
So why the big shift?
Derek Thompson at The Atlantic has a couple theories, namely that Americans are more health-conscious, and that liquor only started advertising in 1996. Morgan Chalfant at Red Alert Politics guesses it could be the rise of Trader Joe’s Two- and Three-Buck Chuck. We could suggest we're a classier generation that watches too much "Mad Men," or heard Lil' Jon shout "Shots! Shots! Shots!" too many times. But we'll let you make up your own mind.
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