Alcoholic beverage brands compete across many occasions, tastes, price points, and category habits. A shopper considering a beer isn't making the same decision as one considering a whisky, wine, cider, or champagne, but consideration is exactly what captures that decision: which brands make it onto the shortlist, whatever the drink.
YouGov BrandIndex data shows which alcoholic beverage brands Australians would consider the next time they are in the market to purchase alcoholic beverages. The ranking also compares consideration among Gen Z and Millennials, highlighting where younger adult audiences align and where they diverge.
In this article, we cover:
- The top 10 alcoholic beverage brands by consideration among Australian adults
- How alcoholic beverage consideration differs between Gen Z and Millennials
- Methodology behind the rankings
Which alcoholic beverage brands lead on consideration in Australia?
Heineken leads the overall ranking, with 18.2% of Australian adults saying they would consider the brand the next time they are in the market to purchase alcoholic beverages. Jack Daniel’s follows at 16.7%, while Guinness ranks third at 16.0%.
Brown Brothers ranks fourth, at 15.6%, and Corona rounds out the top five at 15.3%. Jacobs Creek follows at 14.7%, ahead of Johnnie Walker at 14.3% and Great Northern at 13.8%.
Asahi ranks ninth at 12.4%, while Canadian Club completes the top 10 at 11.6%.
The leaders span beer, whisky and wine brands, reflecting the breadth of alcoholic beverage categories represented in the top 10 by consideration. That mix is important: the ranking is not just a read on one drink type, but on the beverage brands most likely to be considered across a broad Australian alcohol market.
How does Consideration differ between Gen Z and Millennials?
Heineken also leads among both Gen Z and Millennials. The brand records consideration of 23.4% among Gen Z and 25.5% among Millennials, a difference of 2.0 percentage points in favour of Millennials. Guinness and Jack Daniel’s also rank in the top three for both groups, showing overlap at the top of the two younger-adult rankings.
The more distinctive pattern appears further down the table. Johnnie Walker ranks fourth among Millennials but 11th among Gen Z, with Gen Z consideration 6.1 percentage points lower than Millennials. Budweiser is also more strongly placed among Millennials, ranking fifth among Millennials and ninth among Gen Z, with a 4.6-point Gen Z-minus-Millennials difference.
Moët & Chandon appears in the Millennials top 10 but sits 29th among Gen Z, with a 3.9-point difference. By contrast, XXXX Gold ranks fifth among Gen Z and 11th among Millennials, with Gen Z consideration 2.6 points higher than Millennials. Carlton also leans toward Gen Z in this comparison, ranking eighth among Gen Z and 16th among Millennials, with a 2.1-point difference.
Gen Z and Millennials are often grouped together as young adults, but the age gap is enough to split the consideration list. The top three brands are the same, while the rest of the table shifts by more than two points in several cases, with some brands favouring Millennials and others favouring Gen Z.
Methodology
This article draws on YouGov BrandIndex data collected among Australian adults from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026. Consideration is the percentage of respondents who would consider a brand the next time they are in the market to purchase alcoholic beverages. Figures are shown as percentages and rounded to one decimal place.
Metric question: When you are in the market next to purchase alcoholic beverages, from which of the following would you consider purchasing?
The Gen Z versus Millennials comparison displays brands appearing in the top 10 for either Gen Z or Millennials, with difference calculated as Gen Z Consideration minus Millennials Consideration.
Throughout the rankings, unless otherwise noted, each generation is defined as: Gen Z (1997 or later), Millennial (1981-1996).
Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools.
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex is an always-on, daily brand tracking tool that measures consumer perceptions of thousands of brands across sectors and markets. For alcoholic beverage brands, BrandIndex helps marketers monitor consideration, benchmark competitors, understand audience differences, and track brand health over time.
Explore more alcoholic beverage brand data
This ranking is one view of the broader alcoholic beverage data available in YouGov BrandIndex. Additional analysis can compare brands across audiences, time periods, competitor sets, and additional brand-health metrics including awareness, purchase intent, impression, quality, value, and recommendation where available.
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