And Anheuser-Busch, America’s biggest brewer - which is now Belgian-owned - is pushing a beer packed with 54 milligrams of caffeine in every 355-milliliter can.

Why so many kinds of beer?

Well, even though Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors and a couple of other big breweries have bought out many of their competitors and dominate sales, there are more than 500 smaller “craft” breweries, as they’re called, plus thousands of local “brewpubs” making beer in small batches.

A combination pub-store in Hilton Head, South Carolina, sells dozens of craft beers from around the nation. (Beaufort's TheDigitel, Flickr Creative Commons)

Many of these breweries have developed a loyal following using social media and imaginative marketing. The wacky names of some of their beers - such as “Bad Frog,” “Dead Armadillo,” and “Weeping Radish Amber Lager” - have caught the attention of beer buyers at bars, restaurants and retail checkout stands.

We may not be the world’s thirstiest beer-drinkers.

But we have raised many a tankard to the sentiment expressed by American humorist Dave Barry, who wrote: “Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”