Who has the Top Selling BeersMany American wrongly assume that Budweiser is the top selling beer in America. The actual fact is that Bud Light has overtaken Budweiser in sales volumes in 2001 and has been retaining its number one position ever since. Bud Light enjoys abut 16% of the total beer market in US. Bud Light is also sold in Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden, and Columbia. Even with the sale in these 7 countries, Bud Light managed to be the top selling brand in the world until the Chinese brand, Snow, overtook it in the last 2 years. The ranking of 10 top in US are as follows, according to available data.

1. Bud Light2. Budweiser3. Miller Lite4. Coors Light5. Corona Extra6. Natural Light7. Heineken8. Michelob Ultra Light9. Busch Light10. Miller High Life

Top Selling Beers in Canada

Canadians normally boast that the beers consumed by them are better in quality than that of Americans. However, some of the top brands in the United States rank as top selling beers in Canada also. In Canada, Budweiser heads the rankings, with Coors Light in the number two position. Molson Canadian is in the third place. The most popular Canadian brand can be mentioned as Labatt Blue.

Best Selling Beers in Brazil

Brazil is not a country normally associated with beer. Still, Brazil has the fifth highest population in the world with more than 200 million people. The local brand of Brazil, Skol, controls about one-third of the market in top selling beers. Brahma and Antartica, two other brands produced in Brazil have market shares of about 20% and 14% respectively. Ironically, all these three brands are produced by InBev, created by the merger of AmBev with Interbrew. Even though Anhauser-Busch is considered the largest beer company in the world, facts reveal that InBev is the largest brewer in the world today. This statement is made due to the reason that the brewing volumes of Tsingtao of China are not clearly available.

Best Selling Beers in Mexico

Mexicans prefer Corona as their number one choice and Corona also tops the rankings in imported beers in US according to latest data available, overtaking Heineken. Tecate and Dos Equis are ranked in the second and third places in top selling beers in Mexico. The largest selling light beer in Mexico is Tecate Light, even though its market share is not that significant.

Top Selling Beers in Germany

Germany is supposed to be the country that is obsessed with beers. The country possesses about 1,300 breweries, second only to US. Still, only the large companies dominate the beer market of Germany. Krombacher leads the pack, followed by Bitburger, Warsteiner, and Becks. Becks is the largest exported beer from Germany. The strict law of Germany, known as Reinheitsgebot purity law, limited the potential ingredients that can be present in beers. This has prevented imports of foreign brands into Germany, even though the European Union forced that country to repeal that law.

Best Beers in United Kingdom

The United Kingdom citizens have preferred ales in place of lagers for the past several centuries. However, lager beers have been gaining ground in Britain also and the sales of regional ales have been affected seriously by big national lager brands. Carling, previously known as Carling Black Label, is the largest selling beer in Britain, which is originally from Canada. Equally surprising is the fact that the Australian beer brand, Foster’s Lager, is in second place in the United Kingdom, followed by Stella Artois of Belgium and Carlsberg of Netherlands.

Top Sellers in Japan

Normally people associate Japanese drinking with sake, a local brew. The real fact is that sake has only around 8% share of the alcohol market, while beer market share is nearly 60%. Four large Japanese brewers dominate the Japanese beer market. Among the top selling beers in Japan, Asahi Super Dry heads the list, followed by other brands like Kirin, Sopporo, and Suntory.

Top Selling Beers in Australia

Australia is famous for its Foster’s Lager, which is known all over the world and is the second largest imported beer in England. Unfortunately, the largest selling beer in Australia is not Foster’s Lager but Victoria Bitter, lovingly named as VB. However, the irony is that VB brand is also owned by Foster’s. VB is holding the top position in Victoria, with Melbourne as its capital. New South Wales with Sydney as its capital prefers Toohey’s as the top beer brand. Queensland with capital city of Brisbane is dominated by XXXX

Types of BeerThe types of beer that dominate today’s world has evolved from centuries of beer making. They differ in not only taste and color but in the processes taken to craft this unique mixture of yeast hops, water and malted barley, and or wheat corn and rice which is most commonly used with the malted barley.

The process of making beer is a relatively simple one as the starch (malted barley, wheat, corn, rice, or a combination) steeped in water until enzymes in the malt break down the starch, producing what is called “wort“, a sugary substance. Hops is then added to the wort for flavoring and its preservative attributes. At this point many beer makers add in characteristic flavorings such as fruits and herbs. Now the yeast is added which begins the fermentation process. The yeast acts in the same way as it does in the wine making process where the yeast consumes sugar in the mixture and produces alcohol and waste products.

Most beer today can be classified into two distinct groups separated by the type of yeast used to produce them, namely lager or ale.

The main reason for using the different types of yeast to create the different types of beer is temperature. Beer that uses a type of yeast that ferments best at warm temperatures is known as ales where using the yeasts that ferment at colder temperatures produces lagers.

In the following pages we will delve into the specific types of beer in each category and explore some specialty beers that have come about recently that fall outside of our two main categories of lagers or ales.

You may also want to explore our tasting room where you can read about some of the thousands of beers that are hitting the marketplace as the micro-beer industry explodes.

Every beer drinker has a favorite brew. Some people are beer purists, drinking only imports and beers they consider “fine ales”. Some people drink beer according to their own personality. Some choose a beer by social class or even their job. Beers vary in how popular they are by region, price, country and season.

The best way to figure out what brands are most popular are to look at two groups: international beers and American beers. Most countries don’t place the taboos on alcohol consumption that American does, and so America keeps the most comprehensive statistics. These statistics are often broken up into “import beers” versus “local beers”.

International Beers

Gaining ground since 2000 in the international category is Corona Extra, made in Mexico. Corona is a lighter, sweeter beer, and is the number one import beer in America. They introduced Corona Light, and that only increased their share of the beer market.

Not surprisingly, Heineken takes a place in the top five import beers, coming in a close second to Corona. They also introduced a light beer to their line, but it hasn’t helped their share of the market like Corona Light did for Corona. Heineken is a slightly more bitter beer brewed in Germany originally. Heineken now has a brewing plant in the United States.

Following these are Labatt Blue and Tecate. Labatt is a Canadian beer that is not as bitter as Heineken, and Tecate is another Mexican beer, slightly harsher than Corona in flavor. Technically Labatt is in third place and Tecate is fourth, but they have such a close share of the market it is nearly a tie.

Guinness, from Ireland, holds fifth place in market share. It has had trouble gaining ground in the American market, even though it is hugely popular in Europe, because of its heavy, dark, robust flavor and weighty texture. It is one of the most nutritious beers available, and requires a nitrous distribution process that is completely different from the CO2 required by most American beers and imports.

Bringing up the rear of the top ten international beers we have Foster’s Lager from Australia, Beck’s from Germany, Amstel Light (from the makers of Heineken), Bass Ale (part of the Guinness family of brewers), and Modelo Especial (from Mexico). Recently, Amstel Light has been moving up in popularity as people become more aware of their weight and seek out more robust light beers.

American Beers

The number one seller in America is Bud Light, by Anheuser-Busch, with Budweiser trailing behind in second place. Most of the American beers have a similar light texture, pale color and unrefined, slightly bitter taste. People tend to drink American beer according to location, job or social standing more than any other reason.

Third on the list is Coors Light. This beer has remained strong thanks to a sharp marketing department that finds ways to overcome it’s lack of taste by idealizing its brewing location, but the ability of Bud Light’s marketing department to make Americans laugh keeps it on top.

For a while Miller Lite had the lion’s share of the American Beer market thanks to a catchy slogan in the 70s and 80s (Tastes Great! Less Filling!). It hasn’t been able to compete with Bud Light’s campaigns for a while, and the Budweiser Superbowl commercial juggernaut has become incredibly hard to beat, keeping Miller Lite in the number 4 spot.

The fifth position on the list is held by Natural Light. This is another in the long list of Anheuser-Busch beers. It is also one of their most reasonably priced beers. This price break keeps it in its higher position on the list ore than anything else.

The American beers bringing up the end of the line are Busch, Busch Light, Miller Genuine Draft, Miller High Life and Michelob Light. Two of those are also Anheuser-Busch creations, giving Anheuser-Busch a massive share of the American beer market. Every other beer on the list except for Coors Light is made by Miller Brewing Company.

As Anheuser-Busch and Miller continue to up the ante in their battle for total beer domination, sending more and better commercials our way, improving packaging and making minor changes to their beer line, Americans are making a sea change in their buying habits. As international beers get more popular, American beer companies are being forced to become more interesting (witness the introduction of Miller Amber and Budweiser E). Only time will tell if American beer makers can hold on to their massive market share.