Well boys, we have to say that we’re a little disappointed in your beer drinking abilities these days since a recent report by the Beer Institute claims that beer consumption in the United States is down for the third straight year.

The good news is that while some of you lightweights where sucking down Vitamin Water and energy drinks, the true grit of the American population was still guzzling an estimated 6.3 billion gallons of beer in 2011. To put that into perspective, that is nearly 30 gallons of beer for every citizen in this country legally old enough to buy the stuff.

And while places like Connecticut (21.8 gallons) and Utah (19.2 gallons) would rather consume foo-foo drinks than run the risk of getting callouses from twisting off too many bottle caps, there are some states that undoubtedly drink more beer than others.

New Hampshire, for example, is the leading per capita beer consumption state in the union, which can likely be attributed to the fact that the state has lower taxes on the beverage. Because of this, people in neighboring states will often choose to make their beer purchases in New Hampshire than from their home state, according to Beer Institute Chief Economist Lester Jones.

To find out more about which states consume the most beer, researchers from the Beer Institute analyzed beer sales figures in every state and then divided them by the number of residents 21-years-old and over.

Top 10 Per Capita Beer Drinking States (Per Capita)

1. New Hampshire - 43.0

2. North Dakota - 42.2

3. Montana - 40.6

4. South Dakota - 38.0

5. Nevada - 36.5

6. Wisconsin - 36.2

7. Vermont - 34.7

8. Texas - 34.6

9. Nebraska - 34.6

10. Delaware - 34.3

Drink up, fellas - we've got to do better than this next year.

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