I spotted this on Business Wire. It is, granted, mostly a promotional press release for Samuel Adams, but it does have some interesting information.

Ring in the New Year with Craft Beer

Move over Champagne, Craft Beer is the Drink of Choice for this New Year’s Eve

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cheers to the New Year with a full-flavored craft beer. A recent survey conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media found that men prefer craft beer as their drink of choice when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.[...]

“Beer has been bringing people together for festive occasions long before champagne was even invented,” says Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. “2007 was a great year for appreciating craft beer, so I’m not surprised that more people will be raising their steins to ring in 2008.”

Wine and chocolates are no longer the chosen gifts for holiday hosts and hostesses. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said they’d prefer to be given craft beer as a host/hostess gift. [Me too! -- Ed.] [...]

For people planning to stay in this New Year’s Eve instead of fighting the crowds or the weather, full-flavored craft beer is the preferred beverage to keep warm. When asked what their preferred beverage was when avoiding the winter weather outside, respondents said:

Craft beer	35 percent
Spirits	29 percent
Wine	14 percent

The findings presented are the result of 315 telephone interviews of men ages 21-34, conducted using a national random digit dialing system methodology from December 13 to December 15, 2007 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. The survey was conducted among a representative sample of men 21 to 34 years of age in the continental United States. Survey data were weighted for sample balancing by age and census region. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus/minus 6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Harumph. I don’t even fit into the demographic for this survey. And, I wonder, are 21- to 34-year-old men buying the majority of booze? Interesting anyway.