From The Editor: A Toast To You!

Welcome to our Drink UP! Issue, where we celebrate all things alcoholic drinks!

Before we dive in, let me go over a few economic facts about the alcoholic drink business…

It is projected that in 2023 that revenues from sales of alcoholic drinks will amount to $283.8 billion. 

The market will grow by 5.5% over 2022. 

The largest segment in this market remains the beer business. That alone should net revenues of about $120.6 billion.

Only 6.3% of all alcoholic drink sales will be generated online. 

The average per person consumption of alcoholic drinks in the U.S.A. is 96.46 liters. 

One trend that is on the rise is the presence of independent breweries, such as Urban Growler and Modist — two of which are featured in this issue. While national sales for beer are down by 3%, the share of independent breweries is now at 13.2% of total beer sales. 

No matter what we drink, we always had a history with alcoholic beverages. The bars were our first sanctuary even before the Stonewall Riots. After all, our liberation movement exploded because of a raid at a bar.

Until a few years ago, the first question anyone had to find our people led them to the bars. Now, we socialize everywhere — at home, the nearby restaurant, etc. 

We still love our drink, but our choices have been elevated and diversified. Minnesota even has a burgeoning viniculture that only a few outside of our region know about.

We also offered our own distilled drinks and are creative when it comes to microbreweries. In regard to the latter, we asked a local retailer about what’s hot in the distilled drink world. 

In putting together this issue for you, I am reminded that there is a level of responsibility required when talking about this subject. So, I ask for some leeway when being judged on our approach to this issue. 

In my advance research, I found that there were no real and honest breakout statistics regarding the LGBTQ+ market and the alcoholic business. Instead, I found that any reference to LGBTQ+ alcoholic consumption is related to the affects in our community. While they were higher than average in total alcoholic consumption and abuse, several reports show improvement in terms of lower rates of alcoholism in our community. 

Therefore, I have this one caveat for you. If you drink, please do so responsibly. We want you here to read the next issue and the many others after that. 

For those of you who enjoy a good drink, let me assure you that this issue of the magazine is a no judgment zone. So, let’s toast and celebrate our local drink scene! 

NOTE: All data quoted in this column are from statista.com