I do not condone binge drinking or underage drinking of any sort. I do, however, condone hating on Europeans, and if the US and UK were to square up in a keg-stand-off, the US would easily dominate.
Talking strictly in numbers, even though the US has seen a decline in the number of people who consume alcohol, according to recent polling from Gallup, and we tend to drink less liters on average than the earlier colonists, our stuff is just more potent.
In the UK, the average person tends to drink about 10.9 liters a year, while in the US, that number is only 9.8. Since beer is the most popular drink of choice in the US, and the second most popular in the UK, that will serve as the basis for comparison.
The average alcohol content, or alcohol by volume (ABV) of a beer purchased in the UK is 4.4% and anything above 6% is considered “strong,” according to a study published in 2020 by Public Health England. Beer above that 6% threshold only accounts for about 2.6% of total beer sales in the UK.
In the US, our average sits at 5% for beer, and although it varies by state, some places in the US consider beer with a 7% to be “strong.” Even with states like Utah that limit the sale of beer to those only 4% and under in state-run liquor stores, we are still out-drinking the UK. Craft beer, which tends to have higher ABV overall, accounts for just under 14% of the market in the US. We seem to be partial to quality, not quantity, when it comes to alcohol.
To be fair, this argument is working in averages, and in reality, there is no upper limit to the ABV content of beer in the UK, but most consumers opt for lighter ABV choices, like lagers and ambers. In the US, we prefer pale ale and India pale ales (IPA) [source] more than any other styles which come with a higher ABV because of the higher hop content. The average lager sits between 4-5% ABV while the average IPA is between 5-7.5% ABV.
When I imagine the average drinker in both places, the stereotypes in my brain play in to confirm my deeply held bias. In the UK, I imagine a gaggle of white, male European football fans huddled around the TV at the end of the bar in a pub while they watch their club play. They’re a tad scrawny, and for some reason have buzz cuts. Don’t ask me why, it’s just what my mind’s eye conjured.
In the US, I imagine a white mustachioed man in a ratty ball cap and a puffy vest. He’s a member of his local brewer’s club and frequents the circuit of craft breweries in his area. Even though his typical drink of choice is a PBR and a cigarette, he’s a snob that can’t resist the feeling of superiority he gets when he smells his beer before he downs it and describes the hop varietal that was used in the brewing process.
The craft brewing scene really took off in the US in the early 2000s and that trend is only just now starting to hit the UK. Craft breweries tend to produce higher ABV beer styles like IPAs than the stuff sold by big corporations like Anheuser-Busch. They’re known for household names like Budweiser, Michelob and Stella Artois–light lagers that taste like wet bread. Although those beers still dominate the market, the craft beer sector is far larger in the US than in the UK.
This is all in good fun and it goes without saying that the UK performs better than the US in many other facets. They have socialized healthcare, a more manageable work-life culture and children there don’t have to worry about being slaughtered by a domestic terrorist during math class. So, we will take this win, and even if the UK consumes one liter more than us on average, they can’t hold a pint to America.
