Thursday, 15 July 2010 18:56 Dine & Cook Staff Report

More people are having a cold one at home than at a bar or restaurant according to a new study released Thursday.

The survey released by Mintel Research found that people are consuming twice as many drinks at home as they do when they go out. According to the survey, the average alcohol drinker consumes ten drinks at home a month versus 5.7 outside the home.

The nearly $80 billion off-premise alcoholic beverage market has grown 21 percent since 2004 as more consumers cut back on eating out in light of ongoing economic troubles. Drinkers are also cutting back in terms of the alcohol they're purchasing for at-home consumption, 28 percent of respondents who drink at home say they have traded down to less expensive brands in order to save money.

"In a price-sensitive environment, consumers may shy away from discretionary expenses, like alcohol, to save a few bucks," said Garima Goel-Lal, senior analyst at Mintel. "About half of those who report drinking alcohol at home are drinking less than they did a year ago, but the market is still enjoying viability."

Beer is the overall popular alcoholic beverage of choice with a 48 percent market share, but nearly half of all alcohol consumed at home is wine.

"The wine market has seen a magnitude of innovations, due largely in part to winemakers' need to break free from stereotypes that may have been alienating younger users," said Goel-Lal. "Recently we've seen an array of packaging innovations, unpretentious labels and food-wine pairings to attract lucrative demographics previously unheeded by wine manufacturers."

The study also found that alcohol drinkers are largely unknowledgeable about the products they are consuming. Only two in five respondents who drink alcohol at home say they are very knowledgeable about alcoholic beverages, with 35 percent gleaning information from magazines or television. Thirty-one percent cite the Internet as their primary source of alcoholic beverage research.

More than half of respondents who drink alcohol at home said they were influenced by promotional or discounted prices of alcoholic beverages.