the shrewdness of apes

coming on the heels of last week's beer-related banter, Slate published a piece on how beer sales are lagging for the largest breweries, with Anheuser- Busch down 2.7% from a year ago and Molson Coors down 2%. the causes are laid out as follows:

[breweries are] facing the same difficulties as other manufacturers. Costs for raw materials and energy are rising, and they're having difficulty passing costs along to consumers. But beer companies are also butting up against some powerful demographic and cultural trends that may flatten sales for years to come......Americans increasingly tipple with wine and hard liquor. Health-conscious baby-boomers, fretting about waistlines and heart murmurs, are eschewing high-carb beer for cardiac-friendly merlot (or, post-Sideways, pinot noir). According to the Wine Institute, U.S. wine sales have risen smartly in recent years, from 558 million gallons in 2000 to 627 million gallons in 2003. Meanwhile, the young and hip—traditionally the biggest consumers of beer—are looking for harder stuff. Club-goers want less Molson Ice and more Maker's Mark.

that's all well and good , but their leaving out the obvious effect that my Bud boycott is having. now that i'm on the anti-Molson bandwagon as well, it can only be a matter of time before i have the whole malted-barley-and-hops industrial complex on it's knees. in the meantime, i'll happily stick with the Brooklyn family of beers (they're 100% wind-powered, y'know). no word yet on whether this news will bring the WhiskeyDrinker out of self-imposed blog exile.