Beer belt
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since May 2008 Reason: A sensible term in actual use, or just created in analogy with the vodka belt? Historical production areas of wine and beer overlap to some extent.. |
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Vodka belt Beer belt Wine belt
The Beer belt is an informal term for the territory covered by countries where beer is historically the most popular alcoholic beverage. The beer belt is located to the south of the vodka belt and to the north of the wine belt.[1][2]
The beer belt includes Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the northern and eastern cantons of Switzerland and the French regions of Alsace, Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais and the départment of Ardennes.[3] (It should be noted that there is quite a bit of overlap in these French regions, as well as in southwestern Germany and parts of Austria, due to the considerable consumption and/or cultivation of wine there.) Beer is also the most popular of the three in the United States, New Zealand and Australia owing to the main preference of the nationalities that established themselves there.
Historically beer became the main alcoholic beverage in regions with a smaller Roman Empire influence and with cooler climates where cereals are the main agricultural product.
