Coronavirus reopenings help beer market grow | Fox Business

Hard seltzer, beer sales surging amid coronavirus

FOX Business' Grady Trimble explains why hard seltzer and cheap beer are seeing a boost in sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As the nation pushes reopening plans further, the beer market is growing but sales are falling short in year-over-years comparisons even in states that eased coronavirus restrictions early.

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Overall, beer sales throughout the U.S. grew 18 percent in the first weekend of June, but sales were down 41 percent from the same weekend last year, according to data from BeerBoard, an industry data and insights platform that manages over $1 billion in retail draft beer sales from 45,000 products.

Among the states, beer sales are down in Florida 3 percent and sales in Texas is down 10 percent, Tennessee is down two percent and South Carolina is down seven percent. Among the states that reopened early, beer volume in Georgia went up 9 percent.

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Despite the volume change, BeerBoard reported that consumers are buying beer increasingly as locations reopen. In early May, 16 percent of the open dining establishments had been pouring beer. That number has more than quintupled by the weekend of June 19, which reached 84 percent in beer pour.

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The top five beer styles that are being bought are light lagers, lagers, IPAs, Belgian witbiers or white ale and wheat or hefeweizen.

Domestic beers remain on top followed by craft beers and import beers. On the weekend of May 22, domestic beer volume share was at 53.9 percent and tap percentage was at 30.7 percent; craft beer volume share was at 27.7 percent and tap percentage was at 49.7 percent; import beer volume share was at 18.4 percent and tap percentage was at 19.6 percent.

By the weekend of June 19, domestic beer volume share grew to 54.5 percent and tap percentage grew to 35 percent and craft beer volume share grew to 30.4 percent and tap percentage grew to 53.2 percent. The import beer volume share for this weekend shrunk to 15.1 percent while the tap percentage shrunk to 11.8 percent.

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