“Moderate amounts of safely dosed alcohol [are] at the heart of what makes humans humans” and “beer is the safest way,” “the best delivery device for ethanol that we’ve invented” and “the key to our ability to socialize.” Such a resounding rallying cry for beer was not delivered by an industry advocate, a brewer or a PR specialist during last week’s Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville. It wasn’t proclaimed from the mainstage during the general session, broadcast over loudspeakers or shouted from the top of the Music City Center. Ironically, it was delivered quite soberly by a philosophy professor from Canada.

University of British Columbia professor Edward (Ted) Slingerland made those bold claims for CBC attendees after carefully unpacking the extensive research detailed in his book, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, published in 2021. Recall, Ted shared his basic take that “beer is better” during discussion at Beer Institute meeting last fall. In presentation at CBC, he walked small brewers thru his primary findings, once again pointing out that prevailing policy discussions about alcohol focus solely on “costs” with “nothing in the benefit column.” But that’s “just inaccurate.”

“No Safe Level” Claims and Recent Dangers Alcohol is increasingly demonized in global and local policy debates, as Ted alluded to. Public health advocates continue to argue that there is “no safe level” of alcohol consumption and that harm begins at the first drop. Policymakers in Europe and Canada have leaned on these arguments to support minimum prices and higher taxes, marketing restrictions and mandatory cancer warnings, as well as formal recommendations to reduce consumption to just 1 or 2 drinks per wk. The same arguments underpin pushes for tax hikes in NM, OR and other states, which only got stronger after the pandemic. (Sibling-pub Alcohol Issues Insights covers these stories in much more depth.)

“Problem drinking got really bad” during the long periods of social isolation brought by Covid, Ted acknowledged. That’s in part because alcohol has “always been a social drug.” For many millennia of human experience with alcohol, there were 2 important “safety features,” his research shows. “People can help other people control their drinking,” which they’re “not very good at doing when they’re alone.” Natural fermentation limits of yeast provide the other safety feature, keeping alc bevs at very low ABVs (think 2-4%) for most of human history. We only started distilling at scale around 300-400 yrs ago, an evolutionary “blink of an eye.”

Old Problems and Older Benefits Humans have known that alcohol can cause harm for a long time, too. In our “earliest writings,” we were “already complaining” about alcohol misuse. Yet “both genetic and cultural solutions to the problem with our taste for alcohol” have not been successful, Ted asserts. That points to “benefits on the other side,” namely “creativity and cooperation.” Both flow from the way alcohol downgrades the brain’s prefrontal cortex. That opens up more “mental flexibility” and makes us both less inclined and less able to effectively deceive each other. Alcohol has historically been present for important agreements, business deals and team building functions. It became a tool “for fundamentally suspicious apes” to “relax” and cooperate, Ted explained.

Beer’s Strengths Rooted in Low-ABV Social Drinking Slingerland’s research into ancient civilizations, brain chemistry and modern social dynamics revealed the benefits of low ABV bevs and social consumption, findings he turned into policy recommendations that should benefit beer. Notably, while Ireland and Scotland work to restrict alcohol affordability and advertising, a new tax credit for draft beer in the UK is perhaps the current policy most closely aligned with Ted’s take. And the US draft beer biz could use a serious boost these days.

Can’t escape that drinking low-ABV bevs socially is the basis of both core beer occasions and craft’s strongest sector. Americans and folks all over the world long turned to beer, first and foremost, at large cultural gatherings, sporting events, concerts and festivals. Taprooms providing contemporary community gathering spaces remain the healthiest piece of the US craft beer biz.

But Market Moving Elsewhere Taprooms remain strong and lots of beer is still sold in stadiums and concert venues, but consumers don’t seem particularly enamored of low-ABV bevs these days. Arguably, alternating between a 6-7% ABV IPA and a non-alc beer works effectively the same as consistently drinking a (far more uncommon) 3-4% beer. But craft’s biggest gains continue to be put up by beers at double the strength in bigger packages, sold to-go in ones and twos. More broadly, beer has been out-matched by the stronger stuff, distilled spirits, for over 2 decades.

In the last 15 years, average beer consumption per 21+ adult (excluding cider, FMBs and seltzers) declined by about a quarter, we estimate. Since 2007, total US industry volume dipped 3-4%, while FMBs, seltzers and cider collectively gained about 10 share. So beer volume fell more like 13-14%. Meanwhile, the 21+ population increased by close to 20%. Craft also gained about 8 share in that time, but avg craft consumption per adult ended 2022 about where it was in 2017. And 3,000 more breweries competed for those pints than did in 2017, per BA estimates. (Consumption stats and more are available in Craft Update 2023.)

Headlines about alcohol’s ills keep popping up. Younger adults are more likely to be skeptical of alcohol, outright. Consumers that do drink seem most interested in going bigger and stronger. In this moment, can craft brewers harness the ancient, intrinsic benefits of beer and bring some much-needed new energy to one of the world’s oldest intoxicants?

Sure, the founders' Mormon parents weren't crazy about the name at first. But Bucked Up is riding oddly effective branding, an unusual and transparently disclosed ingredient list and wide flavor variety to emerge as another energy player that's helping fill the void left in indie channel by recent exit of Celsius and C4 entries. (Launched 2 years ago, the brand name refers to ingredient harvested from antler horns that's proved to be beneficial for muscle repair function as offered in co's first supplements.)