Over the past three decades, beer has experienced several waves of exciting innovation, from the craft beverage renaissance to the birth of the nonalcoholic beer category. New product launches are numerous, imaginative, collaborative, and increasingly inclusive. Today’s trends are no exception to the tradition-mixed-with-disruption rule. From classic comfort flavors to athlete approved post workout brews, the beer industry has got a little something for everyone. Read on to get a glimpse at the beer beverage trends we’re tracking in 2025.
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Where do our beer beverage trends come from?
We use Tastewise to predict 2025 beer trends and deliver market leading insights. This social listening platform mines millions of unique data points across social media posts, restaurant menus, online recipes, and more to create a comprehensive picture of what’s heating up (or cooling off) in the food and beverage industry. Two main indicators of a trend’s strength are percent share of social conversations and percent increase in social conversations year over year (YoY).
- Percent Share of Social Conversations: How often a key search term or phrase is mentioned in conversations about a topic, relative to all conversations about that topic. For emerging trends this number will be quite low, as the flavor or ingredient has not gone viral or mainstream yet. This is the time to spot opportunity and be a trendsetter!
- Percent Increase in Social Conversations Year Over Year (YoY): Relative increase in mentions for a key search term or phrase in conversations about a topic. A significant increase YoY means there is more “chatter” around the flavor, ingredient, motivation, occasion, or any of the hundreds of other food and beverage variables. In larger sample sizes, this velocity metric is a good indicator of when a trend is gaining traction.
To uncover these beer beverage trends, we segmented the database for content that referenced “beer” or “cider” beverages. With a sample size of over 812,000 people, we are able to gain early insight into emerging trends. Read on for exciting insights in Fruit Flavors, Sweet Flavors, Functional Health, and Consumer Experience.
Fruit Flavors
Beer beverage trends for 2025 show increased demand for “dark sweet” fruit such as date, grape, black cherry, wild berry, and huckleberry. These deeper fruit flavors are a delicious complement to the toasted nut, chocolate, and coffee flavors present in amber and dark malt beers. Tart fruit like green apple and yuzu are also showing increased share in beer beverage conversations. These sharper and more nuanced flavors are perfect alongside the punchy herbal and citrus notes of a pale ale or IPA. For a flavor system with sophisticated nuance, try combining these newcomers with familiar botanicals like lavender and rose or spices like cinnamon and coriander.
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Sweet Flavors
If you have ever tasted wort (the unfermented “broth” made from malted barley soaked in hot water), you’ll know how sweet this tasty tea is. Once the yeast consumes the sugar to make alcohol, most of that sweetness is gone, however the bakeshop aromatics of toasted malt – its nutty, caramel, chocolate, toffee, and honey flavors – remains. This is why sweet flavors work so well in beer beverages! In 2025, beer beverage trends will take a cue from traditional sweet profiles like cooked sugar and classic indulgence. Sticky goodies like jam, toffee, caramel apple, and butterscotch are all showing YoY growth in beer and cider conversations. Comfort food classics are also getting more chatter, with frosting, donut, cheesecake, and brownie getting the most mentions.
And of course…we can’t forget pumpkin spice. We expect this fall seasonal flavor to stay strong in 2025 (we also recommend releasing it as early as late July to capitalize on the extended PSL season).
Functional Health
When it comes to beer, functional health is typically not top of mind. However, with the demand for nonalcoholic beer skyrocketing, the exit of alcohol leaves an opportunity for functional ingredients to enter. Fitness is the dominant functional health claim mentioned in “beer and cider beverage” conversations, suggesting that consumers are looking for beer beverages that support athletic performance and recovery. Energy and mental health are third and fourth most mentioned, respectively, and are also showing marginal YoY gains in social conversations. Zero proof beers that double as energy drinks could deliver classic beer flavor in a functional beverage package – an exciting beer beverage trend that we’ll be monitoring in 2025.
Consumer Experience
Understanding consumer experience is critical not just for beverage marketing, but for beverage development as well. At Blue Pacific Flavors, we are passionate about the way culture and environment shape consumer behavior. This year we’re seeing an emerging correlation between beer beverages and living in the moment, which indicates that consumers are seeing beer through a more experiential lens than has traditionally been the case. Additionally, rejuvenation and serenity are entering the conversation, which reflects a combined consumer need for emotional refreshment and physical recovery. Beer is moving into an era where mindful consumption is becoming normalized, the impact of which we are only just starting to see.
