5 trends shaping the beer drinker in 2025
January 16, 2025
As Christmas fades into fuzzy memory, we find ourselves in the season of health kicks, goal-setting, and trend forecasting. This isn’t just the domain of us “beer pros” but also of the drinkers themselves. So, what does 2025 hold for the UK beer drinker? Here are five key drinker trends shaping the category this year.
Reasons for optimism
Despite the persistent economic challenges and cautious business outlook, there are plentiful reasons to be optimistic. Strong Christmas retail performance, with Mitchells & Butlers, Youngs and Fullers’ reporting excellent festive trading, highlights resilient consumer demand for quality beer.
Our upcoming Good Beer Drinker 2025 Report (launching January 29) confirms this positive momentum. People are feeling more confident and more stable after the turbulence of the last few years and this means more on the front foot as consumers.
Considered quality
Building on the above… While drinker values have shifted in the pandemic and cost-of-living era, one message is clear: consumers view quality as great value and are ready to engage with brands that deliver it.
Drinkers are seeking flavour, craftsmanship, storytelling, and experiences—all delivered at a price that reflects their economic realities.
These elements are core to the DNA of good beer brands, making them well-placed to succeed. In 2025, reliability, authenticity, and trust will drive consumer choices and robust sales.
My beer portfolio
While the obsession with “new, new, new” has cooled slightly, drinkers remain portfolio-driven. They carefully curate their beer choices, balancing budget and health while engaged with the vibrancy of the category.
The brands and breweries that win will be those that craft beers for specific occasions and roles within the drinker’s portfolio. The goal? Know your drinker and become an indispensable part of their rotation. Who’s for a pint of Guinness?
Flavour-first innovation
Flavour innovation continues to captivate recent craft converts and younger drinkers. Unbound by traditional beer styles and rules, these consumers embrace the fun and creativity beer offers.
With its fertile potential for experimentation, beer will remain a vibrant space for flavour-driven innovation. As Gen Z’s spending power grows, this trend will only accelerate, making non-traditional flavours a key growth driver in 2025 and beyond.
Beer as part of a healthy lifestyle
Over half of respondents in our Good Beer Drinker 2025 survey report an intention to reduce alcohol intake—but they aren’t ready to give up one of their favourite pastimes. Instead, they see beer as part of a balanced, joyful, and holistically healthy lifestyle.
Gathering with friends, decompressing, and indulging in occasional treats are seen as essential to wellness. Our Horizons Report reflects this empathetic, balanced mindset, suggesting that exercise and beer occasions will increasingly coexist. After all, joy, endorphins, de-compression, social buzz are all shared benefits and a big part of what they’re looking for.
Cheers! We wish you all a great 2025.
If you’d like to access the Good Beer Drinker ‘25 report (launching in late January) as well as the Horizons report please join our We Are Beer Industry Membership. Other benefits include tickets to our Expo & Conference, future and historical reports, insight presentations and networking events and tickets to the trade sessions of our festivals. Find out more here.