Essay - Beer & Liquor Sales Alcoholic Drink Is Generally Divided in...

Beer & Liquor Sales

Alcoholic drink is generally divided in three different categories: beer, wine and liquor (or hard liquor). While ***** and wine are produced by a "fermentation" process, ***** is ***** by d*****tillation. Beer and ***** contain less alcohol (3 to 6 % in most beers, and 7 to 14% in most wines) while the alcohol content in liquor such as whiskey, vodka, brandy and rum is usually in the rage of 40 to 50%, i.e., 80~100 pro*****. In this paper we will focus on beer and liquor sales, with particular reference to the United States. O*****r topics that will be explored in ***** research paper include a brief history of beer *****nd *****, the ********** era and the effect it had on these industries, marketing tools used by the beer ***** liquor industries, as ********** as the brief histories of some famous brands. In conclusion, a personal opinion about the topic and summary of the research is presented.

The Beginnings

***** exact origins of ********** ***** are rather obscure, but ***** historians and anthropologists suggest that, even though our ancestors may not have understood the process of fermentation at the time, alcoholic drinks were made ***** drunk as early as 10,000 years (or perhaps ***** 25,000 years) ago. Some experts ***** even suggested that the beginning of agriculture could be attributed to ***** desire of ***** humans to produce beer rather than food.

The discovery ***** making of liquor through the distillation process, of c*****se, came much later. Never*****less, the Chinese are known to have distilled a bever*****ge from rice as early ***** 800 BC. Europeans and Arabs are also said to ***** produced distilled alcoholic drinks in the early days but production of distilled liquor remained limited until ***** the 8th century AD. Improvement in distilling techniques gradually led to greater production of distilled spirits and various governments realizing the potential of earning revenues ***** the sale ***** liquor placed controls on the ***** and sale of liquor. In ***** countries, revenue from liquor *****s has been the bedrock of their ec*****omies. For example in Russia, revenue from vodka sales was more than 40% ***** all state revenue in the last century. More recently, towards ***** end of the Soviet era, vodka ***** constituted 15-20% ***** the value of ***** retail trade turnover.

***** brewing and fermenting techniques for large-scale manufacture of beer also developed concurrently. Beer drinking was a German, Anglo-Saxon, ***** Nordic tradition since ***** than 2000 ***** and most developments in fermentation ***** took place in Germany during the Middle Ages. It was not until the Industrial Revolution in Europe that large-scale production of beer became possible and it became an important industry.

Beer Industry in the Un*****ed *****

The native Americans were already familiar with alcoholic drinks similar to beer when Christopher Columbus landed in America in the 15th *****. However, ***** German immigrants were mainly responsible for establishing the ***** industry in ***** USA. Germany, ***** long considered the center of