Fruity beer emerges as biggest trend since craft boom

European-style fruit-led or fruity beer is increasingly gaining popularity in the UK, emerging as the Britain’s fastest growing beer trend.

According to Tesco, demand for these lighter thirst-quenching beers, which have a typical strength of around 4% ABV, is rocketing so much that the supermarket has seen sales volume grow by 250 per cent in the last year.

These fruity beer styles have long been popular in western European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy, and are associated with ‘after sport’ refreshment, particularly skiing and cycling.

Over the last 15 years, various European beers with fruity profiles have gradually become more popular over here such as Belgian strawberry brews Fruli and Bacchus Kriek, and more recently Radler, a shandy style beer from Germany and Damm Lemon from Spain.

Seven years ago, dedicated UK fruit lager brand Jubel was launched and quickly established themselves as one of the hippest beers for drinkers in the 21-35 age group.

The company now has five different varieties – peach, mango, blood orange, lemon and grapefruit - of its 4 per cent strength lager and has seen volume grow in Tesco by more than 300 per cent.

Tesco beer buyer Ben Cole said, “The soaring demand for fruit-led brews, particularly lager, has taken the UK drinks market by storm and is the biggest trend to hit the beer scene since the craft boom started more than 15 years ago.

“The trend actually has its roots in the craft beer movement because it introduced beers with tropical fruit profiles to more drinkers than ever before.

“For many people the craft movement changed the perception of what a beer could taste like and opened many drinkers’ palates to a wider range of styles.”

The trend is also similar to the fruit-led cider boom which began 20 years ago with the introduction of pear varieties.

That movement came after Magners reinvented cider as a refreshing drink to be enjoyed ‘over ice’ and within a few years other cider manufacturers such as Kopparberg were marketing fruit-led variants.

Jubel were the first UK company to exclusively take note of the fruit-led side of the beer market and formed in April 2018.

Founder Jesse Wilson got the idea for the company during a skiing trip to France where his group of friends found that the Bière Pêche being served – which included a shot of peach syrup – was light and refreshing.

Wilson said, “We were a mixed group of men and women, some of whom liked beer and some who didn’t, but we all loved the Bière Pêche being served – a pint of lager with a peach top – and it gave me the idea to start the brand.

“I thought that style of lager could be the perfectly refreshing pint in pubs and that’s where our business grew, with word of mouth spreading rapidly, to the point where it seems our flagship peach lager is now the fifth biggest craft beer in the on-trade based on CGA reported volumes.

“We are incredibly excited that retailers like Tesco see this as the biggest trend to hit beer since the craft beer movement, and we’re pumped to be pioneering it.”