The Millennial-Driven Beer Slump Is About to Get Worse, Because Generation Z Also Prefers Booze

Damn these youngsters!

As millennials continue to kill beer sales, a new threat to the thirst-quenching industry has emerged thanks to the next generation. 

A report from Berenberg Research suggests that Generation Z will continue to drive the beer slump down even further. 

Like their predecessors, 16 to 22-year-olds prefer liquor to beer. 

“Generation Z marks a turning point, being the first generation to prefer spirits to beer,” analysts led by Javier Gonzalez Lastra wrote in the report, which was based on a survey of more than 6,000 participants across the U.S.

Worse yet, they’re drinking less of everything—beer, spirits, wine, moonshine and everything in between. 

Business Insider has further details: 

Berenberg found that respondents in their teens and early 20s were drinking over 20% less per capita than millennials did at the same age. And 64% of Gen Z respondents said that they expected to drink alcohol less frequently when they grew older than today’s older generations do.  

That could just be wishful thinking, especially since they haven’t yet figured out how to deal with a hangover. 

Gen Z respondents said they drank less because of health and hangover-related concerns as well as because of worries about being judged by friends or parents, according to Berenberg analysts.  

Where were those “health concerns” when they were choking down Tide Pods?