Craft light lager has been one of the bright spots of growth across beer styles in these recent, challenging years. It provides drinkers with a particular happy medium: You can consume less booze, be a little more health-conscious, and avoid the hangover—but you still get to enjoy a well-made, flavor-forward beer from a brewery you like.
Simultaneously, flavor has become a top deciding factor for beverage-alcohol choices. When it comes to beer, that means offering not only good flavor, but also flavors that feel accessible, approachable, and applicable across beverage categories—and often, that means fruit.
That’s a trend that appears to have weakened category loyalty. Many of today’s drinkers would rather have something that scratches that blueberry-lemon or watermelon itch—whatever buzzy beverage it comes from—than worry about whether it’s a beer, seltzer, cider, or RTD.
Combine those two trends, and what do you get? Fruited light lager. In the context of those two trends, it looks like a thing that was always going to happen.