COVID Rates Down? Bottles Up!

Many of us are already planning to celebrate an end to the pandemic in the near future. What will you be toasting your vaccination with?

As of May 3rd, nearly one-third of the country was already fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Both President Biden and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci are optimistic that America will be able to turn the corner on this pandemic in 2021. While it’s vitally important that we continue to wear masks in public and avoid large gatherings right now, there’s reason to hope that we might be able to visit one another safely again in the near future. With a good deal of luck, that might mean vaccinated Americans can enjoy small, safe parties again at some point this summer. Even if that doesn’t turn out to be the case, many of us are still fantasizing about cookouts, pool parties, and of course, pulling our favorite beers out of a cooler.

So what brews do Americans want to enjoy most at the post-COVID parties of tomorrow? We took a look at the most recent voting activity on our list of The Best Beers For A Party to find out what people across the nation love to drink most in the summer heat and the company of friends. Here are the refreshments that people in the six major regions of the US would serve their vaccinated guests at the end of the pandemic.

Northeast and West Coast: Blue Moon

It looks like people on the West and East Coasts are looking forward to drinking something a bit sweeter than your typical domestic brew this summer. Blue Moon is a Belgian-style wheat beer that’s easily accessible throughout most of the country, but is still considered a little fancier than most of the other beers you might find at a convenience store, so it’s not totally surprising that America’s “coastal elites” would gravitate toward them. Besides being #1 overall on our list of party beers, Blue Moon is also the #5 choice on our list of The Best Beer Brands, which has well over 60,000 votes.

The South: Pabst Blue Ribbon

Those below the Mason-Dixon line picked a beer that you’re probably used to seeing floating in a kiddie pool full of ice water. PBR is an affordable favorite that’s a little heavier than similar domestics like Budweiser, Miller Lite, and Michelob. Less pretentious than European-style beers like Blue Moon and Stella Artois, Pabst Blue Ribbon is actually considered a luxury beer in China — but in the American South, it’s just the one of the simple pleasures people are looking forward to sharing with friends and loved ones in the coming months.

The Mountain West: Samuel Adams

Though this popular Boston lager is strongly associated with Massachusetts, Samuel Adams happens to be the most popular party beer in the Mountain West region, which stretches from Nevada to North Dakota. Sam Adams Boston Lager is a truly festive brew, according to Ranker voters everywhere: not only is it #6 overall in our list of The Best Beers For A Party, but it’s also the #1 Best Keg Beer. It makes sense that Mountain West voters are saving this beer for the end of COVID, because they’ll need some friends to hold them over the keg before they can drink it properly.

The Southwest: Shiner Bock

The Southwest United States is more than just Texas, but the country’s second most populous state clearly has a lot of pull in the region. Brewed in Shiner, TX, the dark lager Shiner Bock is the #1 choice of voters in both Oklahoma and Texas, enough to make it the most popular choice overall in the region. The love of the Lone Star State pushed Shiner Bock to #16 overall on our list of The Best Beers For A Party, and that affection from Texans also likely has a lot to do with the popular lager’s #8 spot on our list of The Best American Domestic Beers.

The Midwest: Stella Artois

While Stella Artois is sold by Missouri-based company Anheuser-Busch, the Belgian-brewed beverage is still something of a surprising choice for the Midwest, the home of popular domestic brews like Budweiser and PBR. As with the Southwest, it looks like the region’s most populous state tipped the scale in the Midwest: Illinois made Stella its #1 choice for a post-COVID party while other populated Midwestern states like Ohio and Michigan did not.

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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