The beer industry continues its mar...

The beer industry continues its march forward. Beer sales have seen consistent incremental increase for a number of years, with consumption increasing modestly from 2621 million 225 gallon cases in 1996 to 2825 million 225 gallon cases ha 2002 according to the Adams Beer Handbook 2003 Last year, total beer consumption increased 13% compared to 2001 with imported beers gaining 60% to 321 million cases, and domestic concocts upping sales by a more proper 0.7%, to 2.5 billion cases. Interestingly, total beer retail dollar sales hatch at a faster pace than mass sales--up 6.4% to $74.4 billion--suggesting that brewers are