Tailgating season has a rhythm all its own. The parking lot fills up hours before kickoff, grills start smoking, and friends gather around folding chairs with plates of food and cold drinks. For homebrewers, it is also a pretty great excuse to show up with something you brewed yourself.
So, what should you brew for tailgating season?
The best tailgate beers are easy to drink, flavorful enough to stand up to burgers, wings, brats, and barbecue, and approachable enough to share with a crowd. You do not need anything complicated. A few dependable beer styles can carry you from the first warm-weather kickoff all the way through those chilly late-season games.
Start With Light and Sessionable Styles
Tailgates can last for hours, so lighter, easy-drinking beers are usually a better fit than something especially heavy or high in alcohol.
Sessionable beers are designed for exactly this kind of occasion. They are refreshing, easy to enjoy alongside food, and generally appeal to a wide range of beer drinkers.
Good options include:
- Blonde ale
- Cream ale
- Light lager
- Pale ale
- Wheat beer
- Lower-alcohol saison
- Ordinary bitter
If you are newer to homebrewing, approachable styles such as blonde ale, cream ale, and many basic ale refills are especially good places to start. They deliver plenty of flavor without requiring an overly complicated brew day.
Match Your Beer to Your Tailgate Menu
A great tailgate is just as much about the food as the beer, and pairing the two can make both taste even better.
A few easy combinations to remember:
- Bratwurst and sausages: Märzen or Oktoberfest-style lager
- Buffalo wings: Pale ale
- Pulled pork or brisket: Brown ale
- Burgers: Amber ale or pale ale
- Nachos and pretzels: Crisp lager
- Spicy tacos: Mexican-style lager or light ale
The idea is balance. Toasty malt works well with grilled and roasted flavors. Hop bitterness can cut through rich or spicy foods. Crisp lagers refresh your palate between salty bites.
If you want to dig deeper into the basics, our guide to pairing beer with food can help you build your game-day menu around whatever you plan to brew.
Classic Tailgate Styles to Brew
You could bring just about any beer you enjoy to a tailgate, but a few styles are especially well suited to game day. These five give you a good mix of easy drinking, food-friendly flavor, and seasonal variety.
Märzen
Märzen feels right at home during football season. This amber lager is known for its smooth malt character, with flavors that can lean toward toasted bread, biscuit, and light caramel.
That maltiness makes Märzen a natural match for bratwurst, sausages, pretzels, burgers, and other grilled foods. It is also a great choice as temperatures start to cool later in the season.
Just give yourself enough time. Lager-style beers and recipes such as Märzen can benefit from cooler fermentation and additional conditioning, so check your brewing instructions and work backward from the game when planning your brew day.
Pale Ale
Pale ale may be one of the most versatile beers you can bring to a tailgate. It has enough hop character to hold its own next to spicy wings, burgers, tacos, and rich dips without necessarily overwhelming the food.
It is also a good middle ground for a mixed crowd. Craft beer fans get some hop flavor and aroma, while casual beer drinkers still get something approachable and refreshing.
Brown Ale
When barbecue hits the menu, brown ale deserves a spot in the cooler.
Its malt character can bring flavors of caramel, toast, cocoa, or nuts depending on the recipe, making it an excellent match for pulled pork, brisket, grilled sausages, and smoky sauces.
Brown ale also works especially well as football season moves into cooler weather. It has enough body to feel substantial without becoming too heavy for an afternoon of eating and hanging out.
Crisp Lager
Sometimes simple wins.
A clean, crisp lager is refreshing, familiar, and easy to pair with almost anything coming off the grill. Burgers, hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, chips, and spicy foods all work.
It is also one of the safest choices if you are brewing for a crowd with mixed tastes. Even guests who do not normally reach for craft beer will probably feel right at home with a cold lager.
Cream Ale or Blonde Ale
If your goal is maximum crowd appeal, cream ale and blonde ale are hard to beat.
Both tend to be light-bodied, smooth, and easy drinking, with enough malt character to keep things interesting without demanding too much attention. They pair easily with burgers, chicken, chips, sandwiches, and most traditional tailgate food.
They are also excellent choices for newer homebrewers looking for something straightforward to brew and easy to share.
Look Beyond the Standard Lineup
You do not have to stick exclusively to classic crowd-pleasers. Adding one or two different options can make your tailgate lineup more interesting without turning your cooler into a beer festival.
Hazy IPA
If your group loves hops, a hazy IPA can be the beer that gets everyone talking.
Hazy IPAs typically bring big hop aroma and juicy fruit character with a softer bitterness than many traditional IPAs. They work especially well alongside spicy wings, tacos, barbecue, and strongly seasoned foods.
You probably do not need an entire cooler full of them, but one hop-forward option alongside your lighter beers gives craft beer fans something to look forward to.
Golden Ale
A golden ale is a nice step up from a basic light lager without moving into particularly heavy or intense territory.
Expect an approachable malt profile, light body, and refreshing finish. It is a good option for warm early-season games and pairs easily with burgers, grilled chicken, sandwiches, and snacks.
Micheladas
For early kickoffs or hot-weather games, you can also turn a crisp lager or Mexican-style cerveza into a michelada.
Micheladas combine beer with ingredients such as lime juice, tomato or clamato-style juice, hot sauce, and savory seasonings. Everyone seems to have their own version, which makes them easy to customize at the tailgate.
Bring the ingredients separately and let guests build their own rather than mixing an entire batch ahead of time.
Don't Forget Non-Alcoholic Options
Not everyone at the tailgate will be drinking beer, so make sure the cooler has plenty of water and a few alcohol-free options.
Sparkling water, soda, lemonade, iced tea, or non-alcoholic beer can all work. For colder games, hot apple cider is another easy crowd-pleaser.
It is a small addition that makes the tailgate more welcoming for designated drivers and anyone else skipping alcohol.
Plan Your Brew Schedule Around Game Day
The biggest difference between bringing homebrew to the tailgate and grabbing a six-pack on the way there is planning ahead.
Your beer needs time to ferment, carbonate, and condition before you serve it, so the game-day calendar can actually become a pretty useful brewing calendar.
Work Backward From the Game
Do not wait until the week before kickoff to start brewing.
Even straightforward Mr. Beer batches generally need several weeks before they are ready to drink. More involved recipes or lager-style beers may benefit from additional fermentation or conditioning time.
Check the instructions for the specific refill or recipe you are brewing and work backward from the game you want to bring it to. Building in an extra week is rarely a bad idea. If the beer needs a little more time, you will be glad you have it.
Brew Several Batches Across the Season
You do not have to brew everything before opening weekend.
Instead, think of football season as a rotating beer lineup. Start with lighter styles while the weather is warm and shift toward maltier beers as fall settles in.
For example:
- Early season: Blonde ale, cream ale, wheat beer, or crisp lager
- Mid-season: Pale ale, amber ale, Oktoberfest-style lager, or Märzen
- Late season: Brown ale, porter, or another malt-forward favorite
Brewing a new batch every few weeks also gives you something different to bring to each tailgate.
Keep the Brew Day Simple
You do not need to spend your entire weekend brewing to have homemade beer ready for football season.
With a basic Mr. Beer 2-gallon refill, brew day takes about 30 minutes. That makes it easy to start a batch on a weeknight or during a free weekend afternoon.
Just remember that brew day is the short part. Fermentation, carbonation, and conditioning still take time, so plan several weeks ahead of the game where you want to serve your beer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best beer to have at a tailgate?
The best tailgate beer is refreshing, food-friendly, and easy to drink over a long afternoon. Blonde ale, cream ale, pale ale, crisp lager, amber ale, and Oktoberfest-style beers are all excellent choices.
If you are brewing for a mixed crowd, pale ale, blonde ale, cream ale, or lager are especially dependable because they pair well with common tailgate foods and appeal to a wide range of beer drinkers.
How far ahead should I brew beer for a tailgate?
Plan on brewing several weeks before you want to serve your beer. Exact timing depends on the refill or recipe, fermentation temperature, carbonation, and conditioning requirements.
Always follow the instructions for the specific beer you are making rather than relying on a single timeline for every style. If possible, give yourself an extra week so you are not rushing the batch before game day.
What beer pairs best with tailgate food?
Match the beer to the strongest flavors on the plate. Märzen and amber lagers work well with bratwurst and sausages, pale ales pair nicely with spicy wings, brown ales complement barbecue, and crisp lagers are excellent with salty snacks, nachos, hot dogs, and burgers.
What foods are good for a tailgate?
Good tailgate foods are flavorful, easy to serve, and easy to eat while standing or sitting outside. Burgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, wings, pulled pork, tacos, nachos, pretzels, dips, and grilled skewers are all reliable choices.
Better yet, many of them pair naturally with the beer styles homebrewers already love to make.
What beer should I brew for a fall tailgate?
As the weather cools, try moving toward maltier styles such as Märzen, Oktoberfest-style lager, amber ale, or brown ale. Their toasted and caramel-like malt flavors work especially well with grilled meats, barbecue, sausages, and other cool-weather tailgate food.
Just remember to brew early enough. The beer you want to drink in October may need to go into the fermenter in August or September.
Brew Something Worth Bringing to the Game
A tailgate does not require the fanciest beer you have ever brewed. It just needs something cold, flavorful, and made to be shared.
Start with a style you enjoy, match it to the food, and give yourself enough time before game day. Whether you bring a crisp lager for opening weekend, a pale ale for wings, or a Märzen for a cool fall afternoon, showing up with a batch you brewed yourself is a pretty good way to become everybody's favorite person in the parking lot.
Browse Mr. Beer beer refills and beer recipes to start planning your tailgate lineup.
