What is Tennessee’s Top Beer Brand?

Fact Checked by Michael Peters

Tennessee has followed a recent national trend by heading south of the border for its most popular choice of beer. Better yet, make that a cerveza.

With National Beer Day fast approaching April 7, BetTennessee.com wanted to know what beers have the highest brand awareness in the Volunteer State. Utilizing Google Trends, BetTennessee.com, your home to the best coverage of Tennessee sports betting, ranked the search volume interest scores in Tennessee from the top 10 American beer brands according to a recent survey from Statista. The top 5 from those results are the following:

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Top Beer Brands in Tennessee

BrandGoogle Trends Interest Score
Modelo38
Michelob17
Busch Light13
Bud Light9
Coors Light9

MORE: Best Tennessee sportsbook promos

Modelo Tops Tennessee’s Interest

In the middle of 2023, Modelo Especial surpassed Bud Light as the top-selling beer in America, according to retail beer sales data. Modelo, which is brewed near Mexico City by Constellation Brands, grabbed 8.3% of the sales market compared to 7.3% for Bud Light.

The Google Trends data for Tennessee also shows a growing interest in Modelo with a score of 38, which is more than twice as much as the next beer on the list in Michelob.

The data from Statista, which was developed in September 2023, shows Bud Light and Corona tied for No. 1 in brand awareness at 87%, just ahead of Budweiser and Heineken at 85% and Miller at 80%.

When it comes to beer brand popularity and consumption, Corona jumps on top. The Mexican beer leads Bud Light 35% to 33% in popularity and 31% to 30% in consumption. Bud Light took a sales and public relations hit in 2023 over some advertising that featured a transgender influencer. A recent report says Anheuser-Busch took a $1.4 billion drop in U.S. sales after that happened.

That trend continued leading up to the Super Bowl, despite a big new commercial with NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning — who has in the past been a spokesperson for Caesars Sportsbook Tennessee — and musician Post Malone. According to Nielsen Data in a Wall Street Journal report, Bud Light came in second with 7.3% of all beer sold in U.S. retail stores, while Modelo was No. 1 at 8.7%. The Wall Street Journal report said Bud Light is still the top-selling U.S. beer by volume.

While Anheuser-Busch might have lost the top spot in the country and in Tennessee in terms of interest, the company still carries the next three spots in the Volunteer State. After Michelob at No. 2, Busch Light is at No. 3 followed by Bud Light. Coors Light, which is started in Colorado and is now part of Molson Coors based in Chicago, caps the list at No. 5.

Author

Douglas Pils

Douglas Pils has been a sports journalist for 30 years in Texas, Arkansas and New York having worked for the San Antonio Express-News, the Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News and Newsday. He currently runs the Student Media Department at Baylor University.