The US Brewery Trend I Can't Wait To See Everywhere

As a Brit, one emerging American beer trend immediately made me think: Why don't we have more of this in the U.K.? Across the U.S., craft breweries are increasingly looking beyond traditional beer styles and toward the cocktail menu for inspiration, and the result is a growing wave of beers that borrow flavors from classic mixed drinks. Although the current momentum is coming from the United States, the idea of cocktail-inspired beer isn't entirely new on this side of the Atlantic — U.K. breweries have already proven the concept works, with London-born Partizan Brewing releasing the Negroni Red IPA back in 2015.

The logic behind the trend feels refreshingly straightforward. You can already turn beer into a cocktail, so why not turn cocktails into beer? The two already share space at bars, parties, and dinner tables — taking all those familiar cocktail flavors and infusing them into beer form doesn't sound like novelty for novelty's sake, but about merging aspects of drinking that drinkers already love. And what excites me most about all of this is how intentional these beers tend to be. Rather than piling on a load of sweetness or gimmicky additions into the beer, many cocktail-inspired brews still prioritize balance and structure. From afar, it looks like a thoughtful evolution of craft beer rather than a passing fad.

Cocktail culture has become increasingly mainstream, with classic drinks now acting as flavor reference points rather than niche bar orders. The Negroni is the best-selling cocktail in the world, and it has become shorthand for a specific balance of bitterness and citrus, which is why you'll see the likes of Negroni ice-cream and even Negroni candles. For brewers, that familiarity is incredibly useful.

Cocktail-inspired beers can reference something people already understand rather than ask beer drinkers to wrap their heads around an entirely new concept. For example, a Negroni-inspired beer signals bitterness and orange, while an Old Fashioned-inspired beer signals oak, sweetness, and warming spices. Therefore, the challenge for brewers (and the appeal for drinkers) lies in the beers not just recreating cocktails by taste but reinterpreting their structure and familiarity through traditional brewing methods.

As drinkers become more selective, balance and drinkability matter as much as intensity, so a beer that nods to the best Old Fashioned doesn't need to be overly boozy or sweet to succeed — it just needs to capture the essence of what makes that cocktail appealing. That restraint is where many American breweries seem to be excelling right now. From a U.K. perspective, it's reassuring to know brewers on this side of the Atlantic helped pioneer the idea, but seeing U.S. breweries refine, expand, and normalize cocktail-inspired beers suggests the concept still has room to grow — and hopefully, to re-emerge abroad in a much bigger way.