The Most Popular Beer in the World Isn't What You Think

Beerconomy 101: The most popular beer in the world isn't from Germany, England, USA or Mexico.

That honor goes instead to Snow. Never heard of it? This Chinese brand — according to new research — is the most popular beer in the world. Bloomberg reports that "Chinese drink about 110 billion pints a year, roughly twice as much as Americans. And last year, more than twice as many pints of Snow were consumed than Bud Light."

Chinese beer scored in the top two spots with Snow and Tsingtao, with sports bar staple Bud Light in third place. The Budweiser brand isn't technically American. In 2008 Anheuser-Busch was bought by Belgium-based Inbev. That means that the only true American beer that ranks in the top 10 is Coors Light, based in Colorado. 

Meanwhile, the newly formed Inbev-Anheuser-Busch owns half of the top ten beers in the world, as well as a number of other beers including Stella and Corona.

Here is the full list of the top ten best-selling beers 2013:

1. Snow

2. Tsingtao

3. Bud Light

4. Budweiser

5. Skol

6. Yanjing

7. Heineken

8. Harbin

9. Brahma

10. Coors Light

In just a few short years, beer consumption has radically changed. Below is the list of top sellers in 2011. 

Image Credit: Visual.ly

The expanding international market is being driven by new names. The U.S. may still reign supreme when it comes to who drinks more beer per person, but China's total beer consumption is echoing their growing economy. Over the past 20 years, per-capita beer consumption in the U.S. is on the decline.

Image Credit: Bloomberg Source: Euromonitor International and World Bank

This story has been updated.