Top Ten Best Selling International Beers

It might seem like an easy thing to google, "Top Best Selling International Beers", but unfortunately we live in a corporate world where big money protects it's own and they aren't talkin. Sales statistics are guarded by some ravenous intern with foam dripping from his lips, with little input on the web

Froth! The science of beer by Mark Denny gives us this clean cut international list from his book when it was published in 2009:

1. Snow
2. Bud light
3. Budweiser
4. Skol
5. Corona
6. Brahma
7. Heineken
8. Tsingtao
9. Yanjing
10. Coors

Articlesbase.com has the ranking come in slightly differently as of August 2012:

1. Snow
2. Bud Lite 
3. Budweiser
4. Skol
5. Corona
6. Heineken


Breaking it down by country gives a nice showing and run down indicating beer drinking habits and trends for some major beer consuming locations worldwide.

AMERICA

America may be a Busweiser faced country but we are also vain and scared of carbs, making Bud Lite the number one seller, with other run offs of the "lite" department sucking up the back end.


1. Bud Light
2. Budweiser
3. Miller Lite
4. Coors Lite
5. Corona Extra

CANADA

Canadians rarely pass up a chance to look down their noses at Americans because they feel nearly all their beer is better then the swill that us Yanks drink, and it's true that they do have some fine suds available in the great white north, but their top selling brand currently is Labatt Blue. With Coors in a cool second place, they have to admit that the American population's alluring love of mass marketed piss water is tempting. 

Doug the Crazy Canuck has a nice rounding up of what Labatt Blue tastes like, as Nitch hasn't experienced the brew herself, and most likely will avoid doing so, let's take Doug's word on it's greatness. 

1. Labatt Blue
2. Coors Light
3. Molson Canadian

Brazil

Many poeople don't immediately think of beer when they think of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world with almost 200 million residents. With almost a third of the total market being dominated by local bran Skol, the two runner ups mustering a combined 34% market share. Meanwhile Inbev slides its beastly head back into its hole with wads of cash dripping from it's lips as it owns all three top selling labels and loves them all equally.

1. Skol
2. Brahma
3. Antartica

Mexico

As to be expected Corona is the top selling beer in Mexico and boasts one of the top selling imported beers internationally as well with availability in over 150 countries. Pretty much everywhere Nitch has traveled, skunky Corona was available to the delight of uneducated locals.  


1. Corona Extra
2. Tecate
2. Dos Equis

Germany

Let it be known that most Germas will drink the local town brew instead of a big market beer with around 1,300 brewiers in the country and almost all of them serving up lager styles. The heavy hitters do take a big chunk of the cash, none the less and Becks flutters around the international market as a true german lager. 


1. Krombacher
2. Bitburger
3. Warsteiner
4. Becks

Netherlands

Here sleeps the dragon: Heineken. Dominating the country side and breathing its rank fire around the world, Heineken Pilsner no doubt takes first place in it's own nesting ground but also roams the world covering as many, if not more locations then Corona. Amstel slithers around after it's big brother, gobbling up the scraps for second place but hales from the nest of Heineken International with pride.



1. Heineken
2. Amstel
3. Grolsch

United Kingdom

Long know for its "warm beer", English souls have usually gravitated torward ales only, but lately have been swayed into the ice cold lager arena. Carling Black Label (shortened to Carling for ease of advertisting) was once a Canadian brand but now ranks the top of the kingdom.

1. Carling
2. Froster's
3. Stella Artois
4. Carlsberg

Ireland

Although domestic sales have been dropping a bit over the past few years, Guinness stout still rakes in a good half of the total Irish pocket book. It has been said that because they are such fans of the brew, beer lines are always clean and thus the beer is more fresh and pure in Ireland then anywhere else. London based company Diageo owns Guinness as well as the second place holder, a lager, Harp.

1. Guinness
2. Harp

Belgium

Home to the multi headed chimera InBev, Belgium holds to traditional lagers and local brews, but isn't that keen on drinking anyway as total beer consumption in the nation is constantly decreasing, exports are rising form year to year. In 2005, Belgian brewers for the first time in history exported more beer then was consumed in the country. While Stella Artois is by far the largest selling Belgian beer around the world, it only hold an 8% share in the country of its birth, being crushed by Jupiler. The lion, serpent and goat heads of InBev don't fight much though as they generate about 39 billion a year owning most top brands internationally including Stella Artois and Jupiler.

1. Jupiler

France

Although usually overlooked by the beer world as a wine and cheese guzzling lot, the french nuzzle close to Belgium and Germany with love and admiration, dabbling in the craft themselves. 90% of the market is large lager brands with one of the only beer exports being Kronenbourg 1664 taking a solid 40% domestic share market. Kronenbourg is owned by Carlsberg Group who also owns three of the top five best selling beers in France. What are top five best selling beers in France? Beats me, the internet has yet to yield an answer, but after hours of searching this is my best guess, with an email to the Brasseures De France waiting a response. 

1. Kronenbourg 1664
2. Kronenbourg (a lower alcohol and cheaper version of 1664)
3. Fischer
4. Kanterbrau
5. Pelforth

 Czech Republic

Being the world's number one per capita beer drinking country wouldn't be right without a good back story and the Czech Republic has just that: the city of Pilsen. While Pilsner Urquell is the most famous bran internationally, as it is considered the wrold's first golden ber, dating back to 1842, the "original source" beer gets run over by its cheaper local running mate Gambrinus. Not worries between the two as they are both owned by money gobbeling giant SAB-Miller.


1. Gambrinus
2. Urquell

Japan

Unlike France with their dedication to wine, Japan seems to hold no gripping love for its sake tradition as about 8% of the country's alcohol market is taken down in rice wine while beer holds almost 60%.

1. Asahi Super Dry

2. Kirin

3. Sopporo

4. Suntory

Australia 

While Australia as a country makes a good showing every year in the anual beer compution figures, the city of Darwin has the highest annual beer consumption per capita of any city in the world, the average resident drinking 230 litres or about 60 gallons per year. And it gets worse: there are NO craft breweries in the entire Northern Territory. Impressive as those facts are, here is another one "Foster's is Australian for beer" and yet it is barely even available down under. The beer scene is dominated by difference brans in each state, but the overall winner is Victoria Bitter, locally kown as VB, which is owner by Foster's anyway.

1. Victoria Bitter

China

By sheer volume, China has become the largest beer market. Although only about a quater as large as America's beer market in financial terms, China grew by 29% in volume terms in the five years to 2011. Market leader Snow has 21% of the total beer consumption in China while Tsingtao has the only aggressive export campaign and is the world's favorite Chinese beer. Despite the lower price of domestic beer, more Chinese are willing to pay more for premium import brands such as Carlsberg, Budweiser, Heineken and Skol. In 2011, import beer constituted 10% of China's total beer sales, an increase of 20%.

1. Snow

2. Tsingtao

3. Yanjing

4. Zhujiang