February 15/Washington/The Beer Institute -- New Beer Institute data shows that retail beer sales rose more than 2% in 2011, highlighting beer’s continued strength within the alcohol beverage sector.
The growth in retail revenue, especially from restaurants and convenience stores, puts total retail sales at more than $98 billion last year. This latest trend is further confirmation that beer continues to be the preferred alcohol beverage of Americans, and still enjoys the largest share of revenue and volume when compared to wine and hard liquor.