July 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s three-man race-relations symposium at the White House is providing publicity for a U.S. beer industry whose sales have dropped 3.5 percent this summer.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that case sales of domestic premium beers, such as Bud Light, and imports, including Red Stripe, have declined, while “craft” beers like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale gained. Cash-strapped Americans also bought more domestic sub premiums in the four weeks ended July 12, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based research company.

“The biggest influence is the economy, and people are pulling back in every category,” Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily, said today in an interview. “In beer, that means switching from imports down to domestics, and even within domestics, switching down to sub premium.”

Obama, 47, met today with Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor, and James Crowley, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, police sergeant. Crowley, who is white, arrested Gates for disorderly conduct after responding to an emergency call about a possible break-in at the professor’s home July 16. Gates, who is black, said the arrest was racially motivated. The disorderly conduct charge was later dropped.

After Obama said the police “acted stupidly,” police union officials in Cambridge called for an apology from him. Instead, he invited Crowley and Gates to his house for a cold one.

The president chose a Bud Light from Leuven, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch Inbev NV, according to the White House pool report. Gates selected a Sam Adams Light from Boston Beer Co. while Crowley went with a Blue Moon, from MillerCoors LLC. Vice President Joe Biden opted for an import, a non-alcoholic Buckler by Amsterdam’s Heineken NV.

To contact the reporter on this story: Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at dstanford2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 31, 2009 02:46 EDT