http://www.demographics.com:80/Publications/AD/98_ad/9803_ad/ad98035.htm
 
FYI:
>
> American Demographics, March 1998
>
> New Frontiers
>
> The Line Between Beer and Wine
>
> by Brad Edmondson / Map by Berna Miller
>
> Beer is a blue-collar beverage, and wine is white (collar). That's why
> some of the nation's top beer markets are also among the poorest
> counties, and why some of the best counties for wine merchants are bad
> for beer.
>
> Where are America's kings of beer? They could be in (1) Chattahoochee
> County, GA (population 15,800), where each resident aged 21 or older
> spent an estimated $296 on beer for home consumption in 1997,
> according to data from National Decision Systems (NDS) and Claritas.
> That is one 12-pack a week for everybody, or 38 percent higher than
> the median for all U.S. counties ($215). Most of Chattahoochee County
> is within Fort Benning and its 21,500 active-duty soldiers, who tend
> to go home thirsty.
>
> Beer sales are driven by young men. Spending on beer for home
> consumption is 41 percent higher than the national average among
> householders aged 24 and younger and 23 percent higher than average
> for householders aged 25 to 54, according to the Consumer Expenditure
> Survey (CE). And spending on all alcoholic beverages is 55 percent
> higher than average among single male households. But while
> Chattahoochee ranks third in the nation in estimated spending on
> take-home beer, it also ranks third from last for such spending on
> wine.
>
> The top-ranked county for wine is (2) Los Alamos, NM (pop. 19,300),
> where estimated spending on wine for home consumption is $88 per adult
> resident, compared with a U.S. county median of $47. Many more
> Americans drink beer than wine, and vinophiles are highly concentrated
> in upper-income groups. Households earning $70,000 or more spend
> triple the national average on wine, while householders earning less
> than $50,000 spend less than the national average, according to the
> CE. Los Alamos, the super-isolated home of a national research lab on
> nuclear energy, had a median household income of $72,300 in 1997,
> compared with a U.S. county median of $27,600.
>
> What's remarkable is that some of the worst markets for beer are full
> of upscale consumers. Fourth from last in NDS's beer-spending rankings
> is (3) Sarasota County, FL (pop. 301,000), with a median household
> income of $38,100. The main reason is Sarasota's aging population: its
> median age is 49.4, compared with a U.S. county median of 36.5.
> Another important reason is cultural. Despite the growth of
> high-priced brewpubs, beer is still a blue-collar beverage.
> Construction workers and mechanics spend 58 percent more than the
> average wage-earner does on beer at home, according to the CE. Service
> workers, operators, fabricators, and laborers also spend more than the
> average worker on beer. But salespeople, the self-employed, and
> clerical workers spend less than average. Managers, professionals, and
> technicians also spend less than the average worker does on beer, even
> though they hold the highest-paying jobs.
>
> The beer-wine line means that some of the nation's top markets for
> beer are also among the nation's poorest places, like (4) Starr
> County, TX (pop. 55,900). Still, money and social connections don't
> explain everything. The NDS/Claritas model is based primarily on
> demographics, because no surveys exist that compare the effects of
> religion, values, and attitudes on the spending habits of people in
> every U.S. county. The model says that (5) Madison County, ID (pop.
> 25,000) should be the top-ranked county in the U.S. for per-adult
> spending on beer drunk at home. Madison does have 8,000 young adults
> attending Ricks College. But there is only one state-owned liquor
> store in the entire county. The reason is the Mormon church, which
> dominates life in much of the rural West. Sometimes the beer-wine line
> is drawn by a higher power.
>
> (estimated spending per resident aged 21 and older on beer for home
> consumption, U.S. counties, 1997)
>
> (estimated spending per resident aged 21 and older on wine for home
> consumption, U.S. counties, 1997)
>
> Sources: Consumer-Facts and Pop-Facts databases by National Decision
> Systems and Claritas, San Diego, CA (800) 866-6510; Consumer
> Expenditure Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics; and ArcView 2 (mapping
> software) by ESRI, Redlands, CA.
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