Top 10 Most Popular Beers For St. Patrick's Day: Report

While St. Patrick's Day may have Irish origins, most of those dressed in green this Saturday will likely be choosing brews made in America.

Guinness, which is almost as synonymous with St. Patrick's Day as four-leaf clovers, is actually only the sixth most preferred brand to drink ahead of St. Patrick's Day, according to the YouGov BrandIndex's Buzz score. The "black stuff," as the Irish sometimes call it, is ranked behind domestic brands like Budweiser and Samuel Adams, as well as Dutch import, Heineken, according to the index.

But Guinness is considerably more popular in the cities that do St. Patrick's Day best, such as New York, Boston and Chicago, the index finds. In each of those cities that rank among the top 10 St. Patrick's Day destinations due to their high Irish-American populations, Guinness ranks second only to Boston-based brewer, Samuel Adams.

Even so, the company that makes Guinness predicts that close to 13 million pints of the stout will be poured around the world this Saturday, stltoday.com reports.

In fact, it's an especially good time for beer makers in general. Last year, U.S. beer sales rose 2 percent to nearly $100 billion. Much of that growth can be attributed to consumers drinking beer while out on the town, restaurant sales of beer were up 9 percent in 2011.

Here are the 10 most-preferred beer brands nationwide ahead of St. Patrick's Day:

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Comments

[Francesc69]

10:53 AM on 03/17/2012

Las pienso probar todas esta noche jeje.
http://elministeriodelacerveza.blogspot.com.es/

[majicmahon]

12:27 AM on 03/17/2012

I love this day. Only time where you have nothing green on you but the snot in your breather.....and for that...you get an "I'm Irish For The Day" pass. And I have a cold. How lucky is that?

[majicmahon]

12:21 AM on 03/17/2012

C'mon guys...ya been kissing the blarney now. Guiness 6th?? Where Smithwicks and Harp. For God's sake..we'd even drink Fosters b4 a Yank beer.

[richodg5]

05:03 PM on 03/16/2012

Alcohol , one hell of a drug.

[Demeralda]

04:42 PM on 03/16/2012

For Dos Equis to move into that list really says something about the coolest man in the world campaign.

[region4824]

12:02 PM on 03/16/2012

I like Patrick*s Day.

[bridge to somewhere]

11:00 AM on 03/16/2012

Those of us into craft beers usually buy local, low-volume, advertisement-free Ales.

Notice all of these brands are sold nationally, at high-volume, heavily advertised, and all but one are lagers. Of course the best American brews are not on this list...they are difficult to find, bottle or tap.

[J0E1]

11:52 AM on 03/16/2012

Exactly.  I can't believe how many people see this list and think that these beers are the most "preferred" beers on St. Pattys, instead of the most consumed (due to being served at every bar in the country)

[daigz]

11:48 PM on 03/16/2012

There's a beer store around where I live and they have an awesome selection. You can even buy single beers, which really opens up the opportunities to try a lot of different beers. Nevertheless, I still see people walk out of there with cases of Miller Lite..

[thewirah]

10:46 AM on 03/16/2012

No piss? This list is appalling, except for Sam Addams and Guinness.

[shamanbart]

09:37 PM on 03/15/2012

I'd add Harp or (a newbie) Guinness Black Lager. Maybe too sophisticated for the celebrating throngs of pseudo Irish.

[liberalbug]

09:12 PM on 03/15/2012

Man, America has bad taste in beer.

[mrpell]

10:55 PM on 03/15/2012

Hard to argue that. Funny though, my good friend has two German cousins that visit every year. These two hard drinking party animals (women) drink nothing but Bud when they are here. Go figure.

[J0E1]

11:49 AM on 03/16/2012

They think that's the only beer Americans drink.  I once asked a Spanish waiter at a London pub to surprise me because I wasn't familiar with some of the local beers on tap and he brought be a budweiser.

[daigz]

11:51 PM on 03/16/2012

From what I hear, Budweiser is actually doing quite a bit of campaigning overseas, as well as in South America, by establishing themselves as a "premium" beer. It almost like that brand of PBR that sells for $40 dollars a bottle, or something, in China. Silly, silly.

[J0E1]

11:51 AM on 03/16/2012

Yea ok... the only reason those top the list is because they are served at every bar in the country.  The best beers are local micro-brews that at best make it to a half dozen states.

[DarthMac]

08:01 PM on 03/15/2012

While there are two other beers that wouldn't give me a nasty headache, I generally drink Guinness or Murphy's on St. Patrick's Day.

[hottingers]

07:32 PM on 03/15/2012

Budweiser and Bud Light? Proves that people would_drink_urine_if_it_were_advertised_well.

[main945]

12:01 AM on 03/16/2012

Got that right. Beer drinkers are less fun too. spend to much time in the bathroom.

[daigz]

11:52 PM on 03/16/2012

Well that's just not fair. Sometimes they don't make it to the bathroom..

[legaleagle4]

07:08 PM on 03/15/2012

I'm of Irish ethnicity, and wouldn't be caught dead with anything but Guinness. Though if I could get a Caffrey's I might change my tune.

[LiberalScoop]

06:40 PM on 03/15/2012

MGD is okay. All the rest of those on the list are just embarrassing to think about selling to other countries (except Japan - their beer isn't exactly the best, except Kirin). Pacific Northwest micros for me, thanks. And, hey! Nobody thinks about Killian's Red? Man, that's Irish.

[DarthMac]

08:08 PM on 03/15/2012

Killian's is made by Molson Coors.

[LiberalScoop]

12:49 AM on 03/16/2012

I know. I'm just talking about that yak pizz mentioned in the article.

[Uhgg]

06:29 PM on 03/15/2012

What! Guinness number 6 and the rest are not considered beer now for my list
Beamish Stout
Guinness any
Murphy's Irish Stout
Ohara's Stout
Harp Lager
Smithwick's Irish Ale
Most Americans have No Taste in Beer, so I do have to thank for the time I spent in Europe and the Education I received on Barley Pop's(Beer,Bier,)

[mrpell]

10:57 PM on 03/15/2012

Americans don't have your taste in beer.