Most popular beers of 2023

This week I figured I'd share Brave New Bar's most popular interview clip of 2023. Shaun McGuire, the interview subject, is very engaging, and the data he's tracked down through his own research really is fascinating.

Here's the video clip, along with the write up from the original newsletter write up. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Shaun McGuire owned a bar before he graduated college. At this point he's been bartending for about 20 years and now works at 3 places in upstate NY, in and near Peekskill.

About a decade ago he was living the industry high life: making great money, buying a new truck, being the local celebrity. But he soon found himself in a tough spot. He got divorced, he struggled, and generally felt like he wasn't taking his professional life—or his life life—seriously enough.

Bit by bit he climbed out of that nadir, and eventually got to where he is today: a curious expert who now coaches bartenders on work/life balance, finances, etc. (You can learn more about that part of his life on his website, philosophicallydrunk.com, and we'll also be diving into more of that stuff in the newsletter later this summer.)

For this week, I wanted to highlight some stats Shaun got from the multiple surveys he's run on Reddit's bartender forum (he just did so because he was curious). Very interesting stuff.

He's found that the average bartender:

• Is 28 years old.
• Makes about $33/hour.
• Has a gross annual income of $68,000.
• Usually works at only one location.
• Generally works 4 or more shifts per week.
• Only bartends. It's their only job.

But the datapoint that surprised us the most was this: 40% of respondents said they still see themselves bartending in 10 years.

We both found it surprising because you so often run into folks who are just bartending during school, to get to the next phase of their life, to make it through the summer, etc. You know there are career bartenders, but they feel relatively few and far between. Not so.

Does this seem to match with your team? We'd be very curious know, so please just reply to this email if you have any insight.

And check out the interview clip for more on Shaun's backstory as well as the survey data he collected:

I'm not really sure what to make of this year's list. Some of these tend to be on the list each year—Schlitz, Heady Topper, and Bass Ale are no surprise. (Only one of those is something I'd look for, but you can't argue with the data that they're reliably popular.)

But the fact that two Busch Light variants made the list is notable. And a couple of these beers—Icarus Drinking Crayons and Stateside Surfside Iced Tea I've just never heard of before.

Like I said, I'm not sure what to make of this year's list, but please let me know if you've got any takes.

And without further ado, here are the 10 most popular beers of 2023, from number 1 to number 10:

	Busch Light Peach Lager · 4.1% · St. Louis, MO
	Löwenbräu Original Helles Lager · 5.2% · München, Germany
	The Alchemist Heady Topper Double IPA · 8.0% · Stowe, VT
	Schlitz Pale Lager · 4.6% · San Antonio, TX
	Forge Irish Stout Dry Stout · 4.3% · Dekalb, IL
	Busch Light Apple Fruit Beer · 4.1% · St. Louis, MO
	Icarus Drinking Crayons NE/Hazy DIPA · 7.9% · Lakewood, NJ
	Stateside Surfside Iced Tea Hard Seltzer · 4.5% · Philadelphia, PA
	Bass Ale English Pale Ale · 5.0% · St. Louis, MO
	St. Pauli Girl Premium Lager · 4.9% · St. Louis, MO

Note: Data comes from pageviews to BeerMenus.com beer pages.

Why it works

Customers can order more quickly, meaning your bartenders can serve more customers, faster.

How it works

• On their own, without the help of the bartender, your customers can read your full-info Print Menu (includes beer descriptions, ABV, etc.) to hone in on what to order.
• Then they can step up, look at the TV Menu, and just say “I”ll have a number 4” to the bartender.

The interaction is finished and significant time saved—no asking what's on tap, no samples, no back-and-forth about what to order.

This time savings can add up quickly on a busy night, and the more time saved means the more folks served per hour. And that means more sales.

David Hayden of multi-state chain Up-Down says this phenomenon "works out to thousands of additional dollars on a Friday or Saturday night."

How can I do it at my business?

You could do this manually. Google the beers you have, copy the info you need, drop the info into your Print Menu doc and your editable TV Menu, then adjust the design as necessary.

Unsurprisingly, the past week was pretty light on news. I'm sure we'll be back with more next week, but there was one headline that a ton of outlets picked up:

• The Wall Street Journal is reporting that beer shipments for the year are going to be the lowest in 25 years. Cited causes: other beverages taking marketshare, more folks abstaining, and, most idiotic of all, the Bud Light boycott from earlier in the year.