California is Number 1 in overall beer beer production and shipment among the 50 states, based on 2012 numbers, but the state’s 27 million drinking-age residents lag behind 43 others states in per capita consumption, according to a new analysis by industry organization The Beer Institute.

California brewers produced and shipped 22.3 million barrels of beer in 2012, more than 691 million gallons, according to the institute. That’s 5 million barrels more than number two Texas, which shipped about 17 million barrels. It’s almost 11 percent of as all the beer shipped nationally.

But consumption of beer was only 25.5 gallons per drinking-age person (that’s 204 pints, more or less), putting the state near the bottom nationally, between Georgia and Washington state. The national average was 28.2 gallons.

Number one in the drinking category was North Dakota, with a whopping 45.8 gallons, or 366 pints, per person. Number 2 was New Hampshire, with 43.9 gallons.

Dead last was Connecticut, with just 22.1 gallons per person of beer consumed. Can’t we get together a collection and help those poor people?

– Sean Scully