Shanken News Daily has a bunch of numbers about 2013 beer sales. Sometimes they use cases and sometimes barrels, but if my math is right then Blue Moon White continues to outsell Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale put together, and by more than 20 percent.
All Blue Moon brands sold 1.98 million barrels (which is more than 27 million cases), and Blue Moon White accounted for 83 percent of that. Boston Lager sales grew to 10.4 million cases and SNPA to 8.1 million. Anheuser-Busch’s Shock Top Belgian White slipped a bit, but still sold 7.7 million cases, not that much less than SNPA. Although sales of Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Extra IPA grew 18 percent to 2.4 million barrels, that’s is a lot less than 7.7. One more bit of data: Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy was up 24% to 5.5 million cases.
I’m actually astonished that a wheat beer beat out a lager and a hoppy pale ale.