Americans' Beer Preferences Are Mapped via Twitter

roseofbattle

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Apr 18, 2011
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Americans' Beer Preferences Are Mapped via Twitter

Research found that geotagged tweets about beer and wine accurately represented the histories and practices of beer and wine production in the United States.

University of Kentucky geographers examined beer preferences in the United States through an examination of the "beer space" on Twitter. Researchers set out with the goal of comparing the Twitter maps with the history of various regions and the cultural practices of beer production.

One million tweets sent between June 2012 and May 2013 from US residents (not including Alaska and Hawaii) were collected for their containment of the keywords "beer," "wine," and a range of top-selling or well-established brands of cheap light and pale lagers. The tweets were selected from DOLLY (Digital OnLine Life and You)'s database repository of the University of Kentucky, which has collected six billion geotagged tweets sent worldwide since December 2011.

Examination of the tweets showed a dominance of brands like Bud Light and Coors Light on Twitter, with Bud Light being more popular in the eastern parts of the U.S. while people in the west, especially in Colorado and surrounding states, prefer Coors Light. Tweets from the Midwest often included Miller Light, and the Southern border regions spoke of Corona and Dos Equis.

The researchers also examined wine-related tweets, many of which originated from the wine production regions of Washington, Oregon, and northern and central California. People living in the eastern and western coasts of the U.S. were more likely to tweet about wine than beer, while residents of the Midwest, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were more likely to tweet about beer.

The findings are presented in more detail in a chapter written by University of Kentucky geographers Matthew Zook and Ate Poorthuis in The Geography of Beer.

Source: Science Daily [http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/pressreleases?SGWID=0-11002-6-1459541-0]


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Eclipse Dragon

Lusty Argonian Maid
Legacy
Jan 23, 2009
4,259
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United States
In before American beer is shite
(which we already all know anyway.)


My father used to be a drinker of Busch Light, not because it tasted good, but because it's cheap.
Recently though, he's started drinking (and much preferring) Dos Equis.

I suspect cheapness also has something to do with why Bud and Coors are so popular.
 

hentropy

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Feb 25, 2012
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Eclipse Dragon said:
In before American beer is shite
(which we already all know anyway.)


My father used to be a drinker of Busch Light, not because it tasted good, but because it's cheap.
Recently though, he's started drinking (and much preferring) Dos Equis.

I suspect cheapness also has something to do with why Bud and Coors are so popular.
"American" beer isn't shite, mass-produced pale lagers are generally shite, no matter the continent they come from. Germany might be marginally better at it but most of it is pretentiousness. American craft beer, on the other hand, is not only great but also quickly growing and diversifying as one of the fastest growing industries in the US.
 

Objectable

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Oct 31, 2013
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Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk. If you were a man, you'd drink Rum, but... you're just a shit who even can't challenge a woman. I'm not sayin' you couldn't beat me... but you might as well take off those pants and punt on a skirt! Put ribbons in your hair and go to ball, eh?
 

remnant_phoenix

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Apr 4, 2011
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hentropy said:
Eclipse Dragon said:
In before American beer is shite
(which we already all know anyway.)


My father used to be a drinker of Busch Light, not because it tasted good, but because it's cheap.
Recently though, he's started drinking (and much preferring) Dos Equis.

I suspect cheapness also has something to do with why Bud and Coors are so popular.
"American" beer isn't shite, mass-produced pale lagers are generally shite, no matter the continent they come from. Germany might be marginally better at it but most of it is pretentiousness. American craft beer, on the other hand, is not only great but also quickly growing and diversifying as one of the fastest growing industries in the US.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say "The kinds of beer that the average American seems to prefer (based on sales) are shite."

Because they do. And it is.
 

AgedGrunt

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Dec 7, 2011
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While it's not really surprising, it doesn't seem to measure preferences, it measures Americans on Twitter who had these keywords in their tweets. So while they're talking about these brands it's not necessarily what they prefer.

Maybe just as valid, I wouldn't measure people who would tweet about drinking as compared to normal people that, you know, go do some drinking and don't care about that petty crap. For sure if they're tweeting about Coors or Bud, it would be downright embarrassing to think anyone cares.
 

Flatfrog

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Dec 29, 2010
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Objectable said:
Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk.
Speak for yourself. I can put away spirits all night with no ill effects at all, but one beer has me light headed and two has me throwing up.
 

Rellik San

New member
Feb 3, 2011
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Ey up lads, y'call tha' piss water beer, thou needs a proper drink ta gag yer thirst proper.

In all seriousness, I actually like proper Bud to drink, it's an all day drink as opposed to a get wrecked drink.
 

loc978

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Sep 18, 2010
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remnant_phoenix said:
hentropy said:
Eclipse Dragon said:
In before American beer is shite
(which we already all know anyway.)


My father used to be a drinker of Busch Light, not because it tasted good, but because it's cheap.
Recently though, he's started drinking (and much preferring) Dos Equis.

I suspect cheapness also has something to do with why Bud and Coors are so popular.
"American" beer isn't shite, mass-produced pale lagers are generally shite, no matter the continent they come from. Germany might be marginally better at it but most of it is pretentiousness. American craft beer, on the other hand, is not only great but also quickly growing and diversifying as one of the fastest growing industries in the US.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say "The kinds of beer that the average American seems to prefer (based on sales) are shite."

Because they do. And it is.
This is generally true everywhere. Just as there are Americans who would fight me to the death over my disparaging of Coors, there are Germans who would do the same over my disparaging of Bitburger.

Then again, I just despise pilsners in general. I generally drank English beer when I lived in Germany... except for those rare occasions when I could make a trip to a local monastery.
 

Sarge034

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Feb 24, 2011
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Why ignore Alaska and Hawaii? We are people who drink alcohol and post about it on social media too... :(

OT- Personally I think the data is skewed. I prefer Corona, with Heineken coming in second, but I buy Bud or something else cheap for beer pong and the like.
 

TheIceQueen

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Sep 15, 2013
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Flatfrog said:
Objectable said:
Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk.
Speak for yourself. I can put away spirits all night with no ill effects at all, but one beer has me light headed and two has me throwing up.
It's a quote from an anime called Black Lagoon.

OT: The dominance of Bud Light and Coors Light are most likely from how cheap they are. Interesting to see how they are geographically split, though.
 

sketch_zeppelin

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Jan 22, 2010
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and this just confirms what I already knew. if you give people watered down piss and tell them its high quality beer for a low price and throw in the word America a few times, they will gladly drink it. As for wine? I don't drink much of it outside of mead and sake (which are considered wine by market standards) so I have no opinion about one way or the other.
 

mitchell271

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Sep 3, 2010
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Objectable said:

Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk. If you were a man, you'd drink Rum, but... you're just a shit who even can't challenge a woman. I'm not sayin' you couldn't beat me... but you might as well take off those pants and punt on a skirt! Put ribbons in your hair and go to ball, eh?
REAL MEN DRINK BOILERMAKERS
Beer with a shot of whiskey in it

It burns so good!
 

Rellik San

New member
Feb 3, 2011
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mitchell271 said:
Objectable said:

Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk. If you were a man, you'd drink Rum, but... you're just a shit who even can't challenge a woman. I'm not sayin' you couldn't beat me... but you might as well take off those pants and punt on a skirt! Put ribbons in your hair and go to ball, eh?
REAL MEN DRINK BOILERMAKERS
Beer with a shot of whiskey in it

It burns so good!
Why would you do that to perfectly good whiskey:

Actually interesting fact here; mixing 2 alcoholic drinks together does not increase the alcohol content it actually just causes the mean average to become the content. So mixing your whiskey with anything alcoholic is infact... the opposite of manly... it's shonen-ai.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Objectable said:

Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk. If you were a man, you'd drink Rum, but... you're just a shit who even can't challenge a woman. I'm not sayin' you couldn't beat me... but you might as well take off those pants and punt on a skirt! Put ribbons in your hair and go to ball, eh?
if your purpose is to get drunk then go straight to high concentration vodka.
altrough you did chose Rum, one of the easiers alcohols to process for human liver.

meanwhile, everyone else drinks for taste.
 

Happiness Assassin

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Oct 11, 2012
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I don't always drink beer, but when I do I make it a fucking micro-brew... 'cause all the big brand names taste like piss.
 

Racecarlock

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Jul 10, 2010
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Objectable said:

Beer? Pah. Beer's just like piss! No matter how much ya drink, ya don't get drunk. If you were a man, you'd drink Rum, but... you're just a shit who even can't challenge a woman. I'm not sayin' you couldn't beat me... but you might as well take off those pants and punt on a skirt! Put ribbons in your hair and go to ball, eh?
Never underestimate a japanese businessman!

*high five*
 

Covarr

PS Thanks
May 29, 2009
1,559
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Today I learned that the midwest has bad taste in beer. Even as cheap beers go, Miller Lite is a cut below the rest.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. Edit: Among the ones mentioned, that is. It's still better than Game Day Light, which has the distinct honor of being far and away the worst beer I've ever tasted.