Guinness Is the 'Most Popular' Beer in the United States, According to YouGov

Guinness' Irish stout is the most well-known and favorably-viewed beer in America, according to YouGov.

What do you do to commemorate the most popular beer in the United States? You raise a glass of it, obviously. Market research firm YouGov surveyed over 1,400 Americans between April and June (Q2), to find out how aware they were of 75 different brands of beer, and to ask them how favorably they rated each one.

They’ve just published their results, and the most popular beer — which YouGov defines as “the percentage of people who have a positive opinion of a beer” — is Ireland’s own Guinness. The 264-year-old brew was known by 98% of those surveyed, and 58% of respondents had a positive attitude towards the beer. Both of those numbers have increased since Q2 of 2022, when it was known by 91% of respondents and had a “popularity” rating of 50%.

The top ten most popular beers — again, based on the respondents’ opinions of the brews — were Guinness, Corona, Heineken, Samuel Adams, Blue Moon, Budweiser, Modelo, Corona Extra, Stella Artois, and Coors.

Among Millennials, the top five most popular beers were Guinness, Modelo, White Claw (we know… but YouGov calls it a beer), Bud Light, and Blue Moon. For Gen X-ers, the top five included Guinness, Corona, Heineken, Stella Artois, and Samuel Adams. And the top five for Baby Boomers were Samuel Adams, Guinness, Heineken, Corona and Blue Moon.

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The top ten most popular brews varied slightly from last year, when they were Guinness, Heineken, Corona, Samuel Adams, Budweiser, Miller, Blue Moon, Stella Artois, Bud Light, and Dos Equis.

The most widely known beer — its “fame” measurement — was Bud Light, with 98% recognition, but only 42% popularity. Bud Light has been called out by right-wing media outlets, political figures, and personalities due to its one-time sponsorship of an Instagram video posted by transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. As a result of the one-off partnership, some customers have boycotted the beer brand, and sales of its beer have fallen in recent months.

According to USA Today, in both May and June, Modelo Especial eclipsed Bud Light as the top-selling beer brand in the U.S. (Bud Light was the second-best selling beer in both months.) In YouGov’s survey, Bud Light was rated as the 15th most popular beer brand down from number nine last year.

Bud Light had a 42% popularity rating among YouGov’s respondents this year, but in Q2 of last year — well before any boycotts or controversy — Bud Light still only had a 42% popularity rating. In Q3 of 2021, it bottomed out at its lowest popularity, with only 35% of respondents indicating that they had a favorable opinion of the beer.

As for Guinness, it first appeared on this side of the Atlantic in October 1817, when the excellently named John Heavy ordered eight hogsheads — just over 52 gallons — worth of Guinness West India Porter. They were delivered to him in South Carolina, according to the Guinness Brewery Annals, although the exact location and any additional details about Mr. Heavy have been lost to time.

In 2018, the Diageo-owned beermaker opened the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Baltimore, Maryland, its first U.S. brewery in over 60 years. A second Open Gate Brewery is scheduled to open in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood later this summer. Guinness doesn’t brew its iconic stout in the U.S. — it still comes from Ireland — but that doesn’t mean you can’t order one in honor of another year as America’s top brew.

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