We're Shocked: Young People Are Starting To Choose Wine And Liquor Over Beer

With the peak years of America's craft beer movement still going strong (after all, craft beer recently surpassed Budweiser in sales growth), it might come us a shock that the preference for beer amongst 20-somethings is actually slowing down in comparison with wine and liquor. According to new research by Morgan Stanley, beer consumption amongst millennials is pretty weak, while more and more young people are reaching for wine and liquor instead.

Between 2012 and 2015, the number of millennials who preferred beer over any other type of alcohol dropped from 33 to 27 percent. Those millennials who do adamantly cling to their pint glasses definitely prefer craft beer over bigger brand names, a trend that has caused Bud, Anheuser-Busch, and the gang to panic. Remember the series of Budweiser commercials during the Super Bowl that directly ridiculed the craft beer community? Well, it seems the bearded hipsters are the ones who are laughing now. A recent Budweiser study showed that 44 percent of beer drinkers aged 21 to 27 have never even tried Bud beer, and prefer to stick with smaller breweries.

In response to this trend, large beer corporations are desperately trying to get a leg up in the spirits market. Anheuser-Busch released a tequila-flavored beer called Oculto this past winter, Budweiser has been releasing new varieties of its Lime-A-Rita for quite a while, and Heineken has its own Dos-A-Rita. The analysis from Morgan Stanley analysts suggests that these companies can change the images on their bottles, but they're not fooling anyone.