When is a lot not a lot?

According to Keillor, people consume about 1 million gallons of beer at Oktoberfest. Der Spiegel says the amount this year was 7 million liters, which translates to 1.8 million gallons.

Whether the correct number is closer to 1 million gallons or 2 million gallons, both Keillor and Spiegel imply that this is a lot of beer, but it doesn't look like so much to me. The same Spiegel report says that there were about 6 1/2 million visitors to Munich for the event. So that's only a little more than 1 liter per person. At an event meant to celebrate the wonders of beer? That's nothing.

By the way: In using Google to find out how many gallons correspond to 7 million liters, I stumbled across a Help page full of tips that I wasn't aware of. For example, the tilde sign (~) can be used to tell Google to include synonyms for a search term. Check it out.