Early Signs to Watch

Earlier this week, I posted an unscientific poll about whether the recession has affected your beer drinking. In a word: yes.

The bad news: slightly more than half of you have already altered your drinking habits due to the recession. The good news: almost none of you have been forced to abandon good beer to save money.

47% - My habits haven't changed
16% - I buy good beer, just less of it
11% - I go to pubs less frequently
11% - I mainly buy beer on sale
10% - I drink fewer expensive imports/specialty beers
_5% - I've resorted t faux craft or macro like Pabst

I am surprised at how many of you are already altering your habits. I don't know if craft breweries should be at a full panic yet--like me, you clearly still want to be drinking good beer--but this could be the canary in a coal mine. I'll do the poll again this summer and see if anything's changed.