Mainstream media is at it again.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times points out that beer is more popular than wine as Americans’ booze of choice.  It appears a Gallup poll found 39% of American drinkers prefer beer while 35% favor wine. This doesn’t seem much like news as that’s been the case for nearly every year in the two decades of the poll.

Depiction of my style preference over time.

If you’re curious, this graph (and not the one on the right) shows the spread up to2011 when beer and wine were statistically tied.  Given the sampling error of +/- 4 percentage points, one could argue there’s no significant preference expressed in this year’s poll either.  What’s more interesting – and actually news – is what’s causing the fluctuations? I don’t know the answer.

Of course, we’re talking the total universe of beer here, not just the craft segment. What caught my eye in the LA Times article was this sentence:

Craft varieties, however, have enjoyed double-digit gains amid the growth of beer gardens and a new consumer focus on premium options.

Growth of beer gardens?  That’s definitely not a trend I would have predicted.  The link in the sentence takes you to another Los Angeles Times’ article from October 2011 describing the opening of several “German-influenced beer gardens” in Southern California.

Hmmm . . . I’m sure these beer gardens are quite the scene, but I hazard a guess they’re not responsible for the double-digit gains “craft varieties” have experienced recently.  Overstating things just a bit, are we?  In Montana, I think we call these things patios.

Then again, such overstatements are not reserved for mainstream media.  Food and Wine published an article yesterday quoting Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver as saying “[e]ven though craft beer is more popular than wine in the US, every major newspaper has a wine column, and almost nobody has a beer column. What’s wrong with this picture?”

There’s no statistic (i.e. retail sales dollars, retail sales volume, etc.) that will support the claim that craft beer is more popular than wine.  His second point, however, certainly rings true and better serves to make his point that craft beer suffers from a lack of education and mainstream press.

Be constructively critical of what you read, my friends.  If you need me, I’ll be out planting a beer garden.