When it comes to beer, most people think of Germany, and they’d be right. But for the title of #1 European beer exporter, not so much: Germany has lost the title to Belgium.
Last year, Belgium rose to the top spot, with 15.8 million hectolitres of suds flowing out over the borders; that’s about 420 million gallons, with Germany just behind at 15.75 million. The Netherlands was third with 14.4 million. The year before, Belgium was in third place, two million hectolitres behind Germany and 400,000 behind the Netherlands.
Ready for more surprises? When we take out the export qualification and stick with total production and total consumption, Germany’s not in the top of either!
Top Ten Producers (size of country’s population obviously counts)
- China
- United States
- Brazil
- Germany
- Russia
- Mexico
- Japan
- United Kingdom
- Poland
- Spain
When it comes to how much beer people drink, there are more surprises, because this one is per capita, so population doesn’t matter). Here’s the Top Ten of drinkers
- Czech Republic – 142.4 litres per capita
- Seychelles – 114.6
- Austria – 104.7
- Germany – 104.7
- Namibia – 102.7
- Poland – 99
- Ireland – 97.5
- Lithuania – 97.1
- Belize – 94.7
- Romania – 92.1
Those Czechs really know how to put their pilsner to good use!