And they said going through a recession was a bad thing.
While most businesses across Australia stressed about the possibility of either going bust or losing profit in 2009, beer companies were raking in record profits.
Australian beer company, Coopers, was one of them.
As Australia fell into a recession (though some argue we weren't in a recession at all), the stress of it all - unemployment, currency depreciation, an increase in redundancies and lacklustre sales in the market - led many Australians to hit the bottle. Not that we needed much of a push.
For example, in 2008 Coopers sold 56.024 million litres; however, in 2009, Coopers sold 58.781 million litres - an increase of 4.9 per cent from the previous year, finishing its year in record territory.
Following the economic recovery, Coopers expects to have an even stronger 2010 with expected sales of over 60 million litres.
I wouldn't be surprised if beer companies secretly enjoy economic strife and senior beverage analyst for global investment company JP Morgan, John Faucher, couldn't agree more.
According to Faucher, people tend to drink more during tough times, especially during recessions or catastrophic events such as that of September 11.
Since consumers can't afford certain luxuries such as holidays or eating out due to the struggling economy, consumers opt for purchasing alcohol to drink at home and some to drink their sorrows away.
A 30-year study of Australian beer sales tracked against the Westpac Consumer Confidence Survey came to the same conclusion as Faucher - that during a financial crisis, beer sales don't struggle but flourish.
The study found that when wages declined in the late 1970s, when Australia suffered a recession in the early 1990s and even when the Black Monday share market collapse occurred in 1987- where Australian shares fell by 41.8 per cent - beer sales continued to rise.
Even when recessions start to come to an end, people drink even more to celebrate the fact that they finally have some kind of job or financial security, leaving the beer companies laughing all the way to the bank.