Your bar has the perfect setup to manage the rush of football fans showing up for game day, but how’s your drink menu looking? Sports fans want a wide range of drinks while watching their favorite teams play. Stocking your menu with the right options will make your bar the place to watch the game and keep patrons spending. Check out some of the most popular beverages customers are ordering to make your game day menu a touchdown.
Commercial Beers
Commercial beers are a staple for bars and one of the most popular drinks guests order, with an average of 67.5 billion bottles consumed annually in the US. Football season helps keep that number high. Each fan has their favorite brand and brew, but you can’t fit all of them behind the bar - so how do you choose which commercial beers to serve? According to The Drink Business, here are the most popular beers in America that you should have on tap this football season.
- Guinness
- Heineken
- Corona
- Samuel Adams
- Budweiser
Craft Beers
Craft beers have been steadily rising in popularity over the last few decades. New breweries open all the time, making the decision on which craft beers to stock more difficult every year. The American Homebrewers Association’s magazine Zymurgy (named after the fermentation process used for making beers) polled its wide readership in 2020 to get their top picks for beers from “small and independent breweries”.
- Bell’s Two Hearted Ale
- Russian River Pliny the Elder
- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale*
- The Alchemist Heady Topper
- Bell’s Hopslam
Mixed Drinks
Beer isn’t the only beverage football fans are ordering. Mixed drinks are another bar staple, coming in all shapes, sizes, and levels of complexity. With your bar packed to capacity on game days, offering a wide selection of cocktails is challenging for bartenders trying to keep up with the rush of orders. Drinks International, a national magazine tracking the global beer, wine, and spirits market, shared their list of the world’s best selling classic cocktails. Pare down your game day menu to the top 5 mixed drinks to save your bartenders.
- Old fashioned
- Negroni
- Daiquiri
- Dry martini
- Whiskey Sour
Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Not everyone who’s watching the big game is looking for alcohol. Some customers want a non-alcoholic alternative to help wash down their plate of nachos. “The low and no-booze market has never been better,” says Esquire; there’s a wide range of seltzers, non-alcoholic beers, and more to stock your bar with. Check out some of the top non-alcoholic beverages to have on hand this fall.
- Brew Dr.’s on tap kombucha
- Athletic Brewing Co. non-alcoholic beers
- Curious Elixirs Booze-Free Cocktails
- Ritual Tequila Alternative
- Classic mocktails, such as a Roy Rogers or a Shirley Temple
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