The Most Popular Beers in the World

China is the world’s largest market for beer, and China’s Snow lager is the best-selling beer in the world, pumping out 103 million hectoliters (about 2.7 billion gallons). The second best-selling beer in the world is China’s Tsingtao at 52.5 million hectoliters (about 1.4 billion gallons). China also accounts for the sixth and eighth best-selling beers in the world.

The United States places three brews in the top 10 best-sellers: Bud Light at number two and Budweiser at number three, both from Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), and Coors Light from Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) at number 10. Perhaps surprisingly, Corona, where ownership of the brand is split between AB InBev and Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ), does not make the top 10. Constellation owns the brewery in Piedras Negras near the Texas border and has perpetual rights to the Corona and Modelo brands in the United States. AB InBev owns the rights in the rest of the world.

The data come from a report at CompareCamp.com.

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Of the 10 countries we identified as the heaviest drinking countries in the world, the Czech Republic (number nine) is the world’s top consumer of beer at nearly 239 bottles per capita (633 milliliters, or about 21.4 ounces per bottle) and Romania (number five) ranks 10th in beer consumption with about 131 bottles per capita. At 14th, every person in the United States drinks 122 bottles of beer.

Here’s the list of the world’s top 10 brews by country of origin and brewer:

1. Snow (China; SABMiller/China Resources Enterprise Ltd. joint venture)
2. Tsingtao (China; Tsingtao Brewery)
3. Bud Light (U.S.; AB InBev)
4. Budweiser (U.S.; AB InBev)
5. Skol (Brazil; AB InBev)
6. Yanjing (China; Yanjing Beer Corp.)
7. Heineken (Netherlands; Heineken)
8. Harbin (China; AB InBev)
9. Brahma (Brazil; AB InBev)
10. Coors Light (U.S.; Molson Coors)

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that AB InBev is preparing an offer of as much as $122 billion to acquire SABMiller, the second largest brewer in the world. A tie-up between the world’s two largest brewers would almost certainly result in the sale of SABMiller’s MillerCoors joint venture in the United States and AB InBev’s joint venture with China Resources. Even so, about one of every three beers consumed in the world would be an Anheuser-Busch InBev beer.

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