Beer Institute estimated 14,169,000 barrels of beer were shipped in August, down from 15,290,205 barrels a year earlier.
The decline was attributed partly to out-of-stock issues on hard seltzers as well as trade-up by consumers to imports and FMBs as well as to higher sales by wine and liquor. Michael Uhrich, Beer Institute’s chief economist, estimates that despite the 7.3% volume decline, consumer retail spending on domestically produced beer fell just 1% in August.