With the COVID-19 pandemic now entering its third year, we are all familiarized with the adverse effects of the virus. Despite issues with a broken supply chain and what seemed like world-wide decreases in sales, the alcohol industry was able to hold strong over the course of the pandemic. According to a research study conducted by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, sales at alcohol retail stores increased substantially. When looking at the first three quarters of 2020, alcohol sales increased by 20 percent over the first three quarters from the previous year.
With the abundance of choice American consumers have when browsing the shelves of their local liquor stores, beer remains a nationwide favorite. In fact, according to Beer Serves America, the beer industry alone contributed over $331 billion in 2020 alone — equivalent to almost two percent of the GDP generated by the United States that year. In fact, Americans drank on average almost twenty-six gallons of beer per adult aged twenty-one or over in 2020.
