Area beer sales leader laments 'drinks with umbrellas'

The national beer industry has had a sour time of late, as people’s alcoholic beverage habits shift to other, fancier, more flavorful drinks, according to an Aug. 1 page one Wall Street Journal story.

Alcohol beverage drinkers picked beer 49.7% of the time in 2017, down from 60.8% in the mid-90s, according to Beer Institute data, reports the Journal. Budweiser parent Anheuser-Busch InBev reports that in 2016, 43% of alcohol consumed by young drinkers was beer, a drop from 65% in 2015.