A beer industry market research company called the Beer Institute just released its data on beer drinking in the U.S. in 2011. And, believe it or not, the drunkest state in the country is . . . New Hampshire.

Averaged out, the beer consumption per person in New Hampshire was 43 gallons . . . or about 459 cans of beer for every single person in the state.

The rest of the top 10 beer drinking states are: North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Vermont, Texas, Nebraska, and Delaware.

Texas's place on that list is the most impressive . . . it's the only HUGE population state that made the top 10.

Each of the 17.5 million people in Texas drank an average of 34.6 gallons of beer last year . . . and when you think of all the people contributing ZERO like non-drinkers, children, and sorority girls who totally hate the taste of beer, it's insane.

On the other end . . . Utah was the state with the least beer consumption per person, at 19.2 gallons. The rest of the bottom 10 are: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, Washington, California, Tennessee, and Georgia.
 
(Huffington Post / Beer Institute)