America's Most Popular Beers by State

Beer loyalty runs deep. Whether it's a hometown classic, a light lager that's always in the fridge, or an import reserved for special occasions, many Americans love beer, and many have a go-to favorite.

Those preferences fuel a U.S. beer market worth roughly $113 billion each year. And with more than 9,700 breweries operating nationwide, drinkers have no shortage of options — even if the same familiar brands often rise to the top.1

But do your neighbors share your taste? To find out, we analyzed a year's worth of search data to identify the favorite beer in every state, rank America's most popular brews, and reveal which states love beer the most.

Here's where beer loyalty runs deepest — and which brews come out on top.

• Wisconsin is still America's beer capital. For the second time in a row, the Badger State tops our rankings, proving that cheese may be famous there, but beer still does plenty of the heavy lifting.
• If you're looking for America's beer belt, head to the Midwest. Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Missouri all rank among the nation's top 10, while every Midwestern state finishes in the top 20.
• The beer map flips once you reach the Pacific. While the Midwest dominates the top of our rankings, Alaska, Washington, California, Oregon, and Hawaii all land in the bottom 10.
• Maybe it's a coast thing. The bottom 10 also includes Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi, leaving Utah as the lone inland exception. Curious.
• Some states never abandon their hometown favorites. Colorado chooses Fat Tire, Washington picks Rainier, Massachusetts sticks with Samuel Adams, Missouri favors Budweiser, and Wisconsin toasts Miller Lite. National brands may dominate store shelves, but local favorites still know how to defend home turf.
• Colorado's brewing influence extends well beyond its borders. Not only does Fat Tire win at home, but Coors claims New Mexico, Coors Light tops North Dakota, Blue Moon wins Alaska and Utah, and Keystone brands spread across the Great Plains.
• Michelob Ultra is America’s favorite beer — and wins three states. The light lager takes the top national ranking while also leading Alabama, Nevada, and Oklahoma.
• Stella Artois wins more states than any other beer. The Belgian lager claims the top spot in 12 jurisdictions: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
• America keeps it light. Michelob Ultra may be America's favorite beer, but it isn't alone. Bud Light, Coors Light, Busch Light, and Miller Lite all finish in the top eight, while Bud Light also leads the way in Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
• The East Coast has a taste for Guinness. Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland all choose the Irish stout, giving it one of the map's clearest regional clusters.
• Maine picks Pacifico. The Mexican lager somehow found a fan club on the Atlantic coast.

For the second year in a row, Wisconsin tops our beer-loving state rankings. With a search interest score of 98.53, the Badger State finishes nearly 12 points ahead of second-place Wyoming. Apparently, all those cheese curds need something to wash them down.

The Midwest didn't just win — it crowded the podium. Seven of the top ten states are Midwestern, and every state in the region finishes within the top 20.

That pattern has deep roots. German immigration transformed American brewing during the 1800s, and much of the Midwest became known as the country's "German belt."2 Cities throughout the region developed a culture built around breweries, taverns, beer halls, and beer gardens. Milwaukee became home to Pabst, Blatz, Schlitz, and Miller, while St. Louis produced another brewing giant in Anheuser-Busch. More than a century later, the Midwest still wears that brewing heritage proudly.

Pennsylvania's seventh-place finish fits right into that story. It's home to Yuengling, America's oldest operating brewery, which has been making beer since 1829.3 Combined with the state's strong German brewing heritage, it's another reminder that some of America's oldest beer traditions are still going strong.4

Wisconsin's victory feels especially fitting because Milwaukee has long been known as both "Brew City" and the "Beer Capital of the World."5 Brewing helped shape the city's economy, neighborhoods, and reputation. The industry has changed considerably since the days when its biggest breweries dominated the country, but the cultural attachment clearly hasn't disappeared.

Wyoming, on the other hand, is an interesting No. 2. Despite having the smallest population of any state, it boasts 11.2 craft breweries per 100,000 adults — the fifth-highest concentration in the country.6 Maybe Wyomingites are simply a beer-loving bunch.

New Hampshire is another curious addition to the top ten, and there may be an explanation. The Granite State has no general sales tax, making it a popular destination for cross-border alcohol shopping. Some reports suggest that beer sales are boosted by out-of-state shoppers.7 Beer run, anyone?

Then the map flips.

Which states appear to love beer the least?

Nine of the bottom ten hug the coast. Every Pacific state — Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii — appears on the list, joined by Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi. Utah is the lone inland exception.

But low search interest doesn't necessarily mean these states lack a beer culture. In fact, several have some of the country's most developed craft brewing scenes. Alaska ranks among the national leaders in breweries per capita, while Oregon and Washington also place near the top.6

That creates an interesting mismatch. Our analysis focused on the top 36 nationally ranked beers, most of them widely distributed national or international brands. Craft beer alone clearly isn't the whole story — Wyoming proves that — but it may help explain why several West Coast states rank lower than expected. In places with hundreds of local breweries and countless local labels, attention may simply be spread across many smaller brands that weren't included in our study.

In other words, being surrounded by breweries might lead to a robust, yet very diverse beer interest and fewer people searching for Bud Light.

Utah's placement is a little easier to understand. A significant portion of the state's population belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose health teachings call for members to abstain from alcohol. A smaller audience for beer naturally leaves fewer people searching for it.

Here’s the full ranking, including each state’s relative search interest score:

The beer map tells a surprisingly regional story. Some brands dominate entire sections of the country, while others barely leave home. Imported beers carve out unexpected territory, hometown favorites refuse to disappear, and a few states make picks that are almost impossible to see coming.

Take Stella Artois. It claims more states than any other beer, winning 12 jurisdictions across the South, East Coast, Midwest, and Pacific. Its territory now stretches from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to New York, Illinois, Arizona, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C. That’s a pretty impressive footprint for a Belgian beer.

Guinness, meanwhile, forms a noticeable regional pattern. The famous Irish stout wins Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland, creating a distinct cluster along the East Coast. New England has some of the country’s highest concentrations of residents with Irish ancestry, though that alone probably doesn’t explain its popularity farther south in Maryland.8 Either way, Guinness has clearly found a loyal East Coast following.

International beers with a following

The map also reveals just how international America's beer tastes have become. Brands with roots outside the United States lead in 22 of the 51 jurisdictions we analyzed, with Mexican beers leading the charge.

That reach didn't happen by accident. Research suggests Mexican beer's success in the U.S. has been fueled by trade, immigration, and decades of expanding distribution.9 Whatever the reason, these results show those brands have moved well beyond the border.

And most Americans may associate Italy with wine, but Italian beer leaves a mark on our map as well. Montana stands alone in choosing Italy's Peroni, another sign that imported beers have found loyal followings far from the country's largest coastal markets.

Imported beers may have a wide reach, but domestic brewers still dominate large parts of the map. No state illustrates that better than Colorado. Fat Tire wins at home, while Coors claims New Mexico, Coors Light tops North Dakota, Keystone and Keystone Light spread across the Great Plains, and Denver-born Blue Moon wins both Alaska and Utah. Few states have exported their beer culture as successfully.

Hometown heroes

Colorado isn't the only state showing some hometown loyalty:

• Wisconsin stays loyal to Miller Lite
• Minnesota sticks with Hamm's
• Massachusetts backs Samuel Adams
• Missouri picks Budweiser
• Washington remains faithful to Rainier
• Pennsylvania favors Rolling Rock

Winning a state doesn't necessarily mean it's the only local beer people there care about. Rainier missed first place in Oregon but still ranked among the state's most-searched beers. Kona remained one of Hawaii's strongest searches despite Stella Artois taking the top spot, and Coors continued to draw plenty of interest in Colorado even though Fat Tire came out on top.

That makes sense. Research on craft beer consistently finds that place matters. People often value beers brewed close to home, helping regional brands maintain devoted followings even when they don't dominate statewide searches.10 11 Vermont's preference for Canada's Labatt Blue fits that regional pattern, too — the state looks just across its northern border for its favorite.

The state map tells us where each beer has its strongest following. The national rankings reward something different: broad, consistent interest across the country.

Michelob Ultra ranks No. 1 nationwide and claims three states: Alabama, Nevada, and Oklahoma. Rather than dominating one region, its popularity is spread broadly across the country.

That isn't just an oddity in our search data. Michelob Ultra became the top-selling beer in the U.S. by volume in 2025, overtaking Bud Light.12 It's a surprising outcome for a beer that didn't exist until 2002 and arrived long after the light beer wars between Bud, Coors, and Miller had already been fought.

America chooses the light version

Michelob Ultra's victory is part of a much larger pattern. Five of the eight highest-ranked beers are light beers:

• Michelob Ultra: No. 1
• Bud Light: No. 2
• Coors Light: No. 6
• Busch Light: No. 7
• Miller Lite: No. 8

More tellingly, every lighter variation outranks the older beer in its own family. Bud Light finishes ahead of Budweiser, Coors Light beats Coors, Busch Light tops Busch, Miller Lite outranks Miller High Life, and Michelob Ultra finishes 12 places ahead of Michelob AmberBock.

That represents the latest chapter in a story that began half a century ago. When Miller Lite launched nationally in 1975, its famous "Tastes Great, Less Filling" campaign tried to convince Americans that drinking a light beer wasn't a compromise. Competing breweries quickly introduced lighter versions of their flagship brands, and for decades they battled for dominance.

Half a century later, the debate is largely over. In our rankings, the lighter version wins every head-to-head matchup.

Research reflects that shift in consumer priorities. A 2014 study found that while taste remained the biggest driver of light beer purchases, health and weight management also played an important role. Participants placed greater value on reduced calories than reduced alcohol content.13

International brands have become American staples

The national rankings also show how international Americans' tastes have become. Belgian-born Stella Artois ranks third, Ireland's Guinness finishes fifth, Dutch Heineken comes in twelfth, and Italy's Peroni lands eighteenth. While some of these brands are now brewed domestically for the U.S. market, their identities remain firmly rooted overseas.

The biggest international success story, however, comes from Mexico. Corona ranks tenth nationally, Pacifico nineteenth, Dos Equis twenty-first, and Negra Modelo twenty-sixth. Together, they reflect a broader shift in the U.S. beer market.

Imported beer accounts for nearly 18% of all beer consumed in the United States, and Mexico supplied 82.5% of that import volume in 2024.14 Put another way, more than four out of every five imported beers entering the country came from Mexico.

Over the past several decades, Mexican beers have become fixtures in American refrigerators, coolers, and backyard barbecues. Our rankings suggest many Americans no longer think of Corona, Pacifico, or Dos Equis as "import beers" so much as simply beers.

Curious where your favorite landed? Here's the complete top 36.

To identify America's most popular beers this year, we analyzed Google Trends search data across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. over a 12-month span.

We began by identifying a broad and diverse list of the most popular beers in the country based on national search volumes over that same 12-month period and by performing disambiguation for any brands whose name could be involved in any non-beer-related search intent. We further examined that list using a year’s worth of Google Trends data to identify the 36 most prominent brews in the nation.

Using this Google Trends data, we investigated regional search patterns. To capture not only regional breadth and intensity of interest in beers but also significance of that interest, we applied a proportional weighting to the beer search phrases based on cumulative search volumes. The end result was a set of search interest index scores awarded to each individual beer and a search interest index score awarded to each state. In doing so, we established our rankings of the favorite prominent beers nationally and by state as well as the states with the greatest love of beer.

Innerbody Research is dedicated to providing objective, data-driven insights that help readers better understand health, lifestyle, and consumer trends. We created this report to explore America's beer preferences and highlight the regional patterns that make the country's drinking culture so unique.

You're welcome to reference or share these findings for editorial, educational, or noncommercial purposes. If you do, please credit Innerbody.com and include a link back to this page.