Domestic Beer Down 1.2% for 2009

Dear Client: In the worst performance in recent memory, domestic beer shipments were down 1.2% for 2009, according to estimates by Lester Jones at the Beer Institute. That's over a two point swing from 2008 (were domestics were up 1%), and a loss of 2.2 million domestic barrels for the year. While December taxpaid shipments were down "only" 1%, the industry simply couldn't make up for lost volume in the Fall. Domestic shipments were chugging along semi-okay for the first