ST. LOUIS - With overall U.S. beer sales slow, brewers are courting U.S. Hispanics to fuel growth, the Wall Street Journal reports. During the summer, MillerCoors is adding Spanish to its U.S. packaging and sponsoring a Mexican soccer league.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV has upped its ads in Spanish-language media and inked an agreement to have Bud Light sponsor Pitbull??s (a Cuban-American rapper) fall concert series. Budweiser and Bud Light are top sellers in the U.S. Hispanic market.

Anheuser-Busch wants to extend its lead in the United States, where it currently captures around 48 percent of all beer sales. In the works is a huge advertising campaign in Hispanic media.

Meanwhile, Crown Imports and Heineken NV, which bring well-liked Mexican lagers into this country, are pushing new ads to expand their market share among Hispanics.

Part of the reason for the increased interest in reaching Hispanics comes at the U.S. beer industry will likely register a drop in sales volume for the third consecutive year. That decline is attributed partly to high unemployment among its core customers ?" men between the ages of 21 and 34.

With Hispanics on course to constitute 23 percent of the U.S. legal-drinking-age population by 2030, these brewers are hoping to make inroads into this potentially lucrative market.