Millennials and members of Gen Z are making the alcoholic beverage industry nervous. A Gallup poll published in 2023 revealed that only 62% of adults between the ages of 21 and 35 drank alcohol at all, down from 72% in 2013.
Nobody seems quite sure why this should be the case but health concerns might figure into consumption decisions, as might the dramatic increase in the availability of appealing nonalcoholic cocktails and spirits. Budgetary concerns might figure into the equation as well — and for reasons still being analyzed by those concerned, COVID-19 seems to have altered drinking habits too.
When they do drink, millennials, like other age groups, enjoy plenty of beer — and not necessarily pricey craft ones. Beer remains the world’s most popular form of alcohol, and is ranked as the third-most commonly consumed beverage of any kind, after water and tea. (What else do people quaff? Here’s a guide to exploring the world through 35 signature drinks.)
So what beers do millennials enjoy most? To find out, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a study called “The Most Popular Beers (Q1 2024),” published by YouGov, an international market research and data firm. Defining millennials as those born between 1982 and 1999, the company computed both a beer’s fame (how many respondents have heard of it) and popularity (the percentage who have a positive opinion of the brand).
The site further explains that “The positive popularity score…is calculated by taking the proportion of people who view something positively and showing it as a percentage of all of the people who have given any opinion about that thing, including ‘have heard of’.…Our sample mirrors the demographics of the US and the data is weighted to be nationally representative.”
Scroll down to see the beers millennials like most, ranked.
One thing is clear from these results: With a few notable exceptions, millennials favor lager-style beers — light in color and body and sometimes also in calories.
15. Samuel Adams
- Fame: 91%
- Popularity: 54%
The signature brand of the Boston Brewing Company, Samuel Adams is named for one of America’s Founding Fathers, a Massachusetts statesman and cousin of John Adams, our country’s second president. There are numerous different offerings bottled under the label, but the most common, sometimes called just “Sam Adams,” is the company’s Boston Lager, originally made according to a recipe from brewery founder Jim Koch’s great-great-grandfather, himself a brewer.
14. Negra Modelo
- Fame: 73%
- Popularity: 54%
Grupo Modelo is a major Mexican brewery, whose beers are now distributed in the United States by the Fortune 500 wine, beer, and spirits company Constellation Brands. The group’s most famous brand is Corona (see below), but the beers labeled Modelo have a dedicated following. Negra Modelo is a dark German-style lager, first produced in 1926.
13. Keystone Light
- Fame: 92%
- Popularity: 55%
Keystone is brewed by the Colorado-based Molson Coors, an American-Canadian corporation. Their light beer is fresh, clean, and nicely balanced — a handy thirst-quencher. The brand was once promoted with commercials that hailed it as a cure for “Bitter Beer Face,” and the company created a fictional spokesman named Keith Stone to help sell it.
12. Bud Light
- Fame: 98%
- Popularity: 55%
Once the best-selling beer in America, Bud Light — produced by the massive Anheuser-Busch InBev brewing company — saw its sales plummet after its marketing team sent custom cans of the brew to transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney in honor of her “365 Days of Girlhood” series. Conservatives across the country were outraged and called for a boycott of the beer, effectively “canceling” it — though apparently not for Millennials.
11. Michelob Ultra
- Fame: 91%
- Popularity: 55%
Another brand owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Michelob beer dates its origins back to 1896 when German-born Adolphus Busch created it as a premium offering. Michelob Ultra was introduced in 2002 as a low-calorie, low-carb option (it has 95 calories and 2.6 carbs per bottle). It’s a light lager, easy to drink, but some connoisseurs find it on the bland side.
10. Stella Artois
- Fame: 92%
- Popularity: 56%
This Belgian-made favorite was created by the Artois brewery in 1926 as a special beer for the Christmas season (“stella” is the Latin, and also Italian, word for “star” — a reference to the Star of Bethlehem or Christmas Star). Another product of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Stella Artois is a crisp, light lager with more flavor than many popular beers of this type.
9. Coors
- Fame: 94%
- Popularity: 57%
This legendary brew from the Molson-Coors company, officially called Coors Banquet, was first made in 1873. It developed a cult following in the mid-20th century, and because it was sold only in the Western states, it was frequently smuggled across state lines (this is the major plot line of 1977’s “Smokey and the Bandit”). That practice ended in 1991 when the company expanded distribution to all 50 states.
8. Heineken
- Fame: 97%
- Popularity: 57%
This internationally known pale lager has been brewed in The Netherlands since 1873. Known for its rich golden color and its pleasant malty sweetness, Heineken is sold in almost 200 countries. It has also been featured in a number of James Bond movies, with either Bond himself or subsidiary characters seen pointedly sipping it.
7. Modelo
- Fame: 89%
- Popularity: 58%
Mexico’s Grupo Modelo (whose beers are distributed in the U.S. by Constellation Brands) is known for its dark German-style lager, Negra Modelo (see above), but its basic lager, whose full name is Modelo Especial, has a strong following. In fact, after the right-wing-inspired boycott of Bud Light in 2023 (see above), Modelo Especial climbed to the No. 1 spot, becoming America’s best-selling beer.
6. Corona Extra
- Fame: 92%
- Popularity: 58%
The best-known brand produced by Mexico’s Grupo Modelo is Corona, available in several iterations. The most popular overall — across all age groups — is this one, one of the best-selling imported beverages of all time in the U.S. A light lager, typically served ice cold, it isn’t considered particularly good by critics. Readers of the influential site Beer Advocate give it a score of 57/100, meaning “awful.”
5. Guinness
- Fame: 95%
- Popularity: 58%
Now owned by the multinational Diageo company, Guinness, the definitive Irish beer, first brewed in Dublin in 1759, is a notable exception to the general millennial preference for light lagers. It’s a rich, dark stout with a dry, creamy mouth feel and an attractive bitterness leading to a long, savory finish. Purists say that the only way to drink Guinness is on tap, pulled long and slow by a knowledgeable bartender.
4. Corona Light
- Fame: 93%
- Popularity: 59%
This light Corona tastes similar to Corona Extra. Pale in color and rather insubstantial, though not unpleasant, it shows noticeable hops and a well-defined finish — and has only 99 calories per bottle. Consumer interest in beers with lower carb and calorie counts grew strong in the latter 1980s, and Corona introduced their version in 1989.
3. Corona
- Fame: 97%
- Popularity: 59%
It’s not clear what people were thinking of in ranking this beer. There’s no beer called simply “Corona.” The ubiquitous Corona is actually Corona Extra (unless it’s Corona Light). The only other beers sold under the Corona name here are the ultra-low-calorie Corona Premier and the seldom-seen, maltier Corona Familiar. Presumably, respondents who placed this at No. 3 were thinking of Corona Extra but were more familiar with it simply as Corona.
2. Dos Equis
- Fame: 89%
- Popularity: 60%
The other major Mexican brewery whose beers are readily found in the U.S. is the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, based in Monterrey. Dos Equis, a pale, light-bodied (though not reduced-calorie) beer is the company’s best-known brand in America (its other labels include Carta Blanca, Bohemia, and Tecate). The brand was famous for years for its ad campaign featuring a fictional, mythic character dubbed “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”
1. Blue Moon
- Fame: 91%
- Popularity: 60
Blue Moon, a product of Molson-Coors, is a Belgian-style witbier, or white beer — a variety that gets its name from its hazy white hue when it’s chilled (the result of yeast and wheat proteins in suspension). Blue Moon’s unique character, with a hint of sweetness and a citrusy tang, comes from the fact that it is brewed with Valencia orange peels. (Here’s a list of the 20 craft beers Americans like the most.)