Unless you’ve been avoiding looking out your window (or going outside at all), you’ve likely seen the tell-tale signs of autumn’s impending arrival. While fall also brings with it over-the-top pumpkin-spiced everything (including the divisive pumpkin beers), it also brings the best autumn pastime: tailgate season.
Tailgate season lasts from September (August if you’re a college football fan) to January. That’s a long time to enjoy playing corn hole, sitting around in lawn chairs, and eating your weight in grilled sausage and peppers, cheeseburgers, steaks, and various mouthwatering sides while you await your team’s kickoff in the middle of a crowded parking lot. But it’s more than just yard games and food. There’s also beer.
Choosing the right beer for your tailgate is paramount. You need a nice mix of beers to suit all palates, and you need a drink you’d enjoy on a hot, sunny day as well as a chilly, blustery day. It’s easy to swing by your local liquor store and pick up a case of the cheapest beer on the shelves. But we decided to go the extra mile and pick out some high-quality brews. Below, you’ll find the best craft beers for tailgating. Keep scrolling to see all the IPAs, lagers, stouts, and more that you’ll be drinking during your parking lot revelry for the next few months.
1) Zero Gravity Green State Lager
While there are various beer styles well-suited for tailgates, none trumps the classic, crushable lager. When it comes to sessionable pilsners, it’s difficult to beat the appeal of Zero Gravity Green State Lager. This 4.9% ABV year-round offering is brewed with German pilsner malt, house lager yeast, and Hallertau Mittelfruh and Saaz hops. The result is a crisp, balanced, easy-drinking lager you’ll want to have on hand for every tailgate.
Buy: $17
2) Jack’s Abby Copper Legend
When fall rolls around, many drinkers tend to begin thinking about Oktoberfest-style beers. One of the best seasonal choices available today is Jack’s Abby Copper Legend. This aptly named 5.7% ABV beer is perfect for tailgate season. Available from August through October, this popular beer is brewed with Munich malt and German-sourced Noble hops. It’s well-known for its malt-forward, highly drinkable flavor profile featuring toasted malts, caramel, honey, and lightly floral, herbal hops. It’s the kind of beer you’ll look forward to pairing with your favorite foods all tailgate season-long.
Buy: $22
3) Brooklyn Lager
To say that Brooklyn Lager is a classic beer (and a great choice for your tailgate) is a major understatement. First released back in 1988, Brooklyn Lager is brewed with 2-row malts as well as Hallertauer Mittelfruch, Vanguard, and Cascade hops. This amber lager is well-known for its flavors of toasted barley, caramel, citrus, honey, and floral, piney, lightly bitter hops. It’s a well-balanced beer and the perfect complement to barbecue ribs and buffalo wing dip at your weekly football tailgate.
Buy: $11
4) Narragansett Lager
While your tailgate will likely have highly complex beers, there’s always room for a classic, crushable, no-frills brew. One of the best choices is Narragansett Lager. This simple, refreshing lager pairs just as well with yard games as it does with all of your go-to tailgate fare. It’s crisp and loaded with sweet corn, cereal grains, citrus peels, honey, caramel, and floral, piney hops. Surprisingly inexpensive, you’ll want to load your cooler with this iconic, classic lager and sip it while you leisurely toss a football back and forth with your friends while adorned in the jersey of your favorite player.
Buy: $12
5) Troegs Perpetual IPA
Every tailgate needs a few IPAs, right? Well, you can’t go wrong with Troegs Perpetual IPA. This year-round 7.5% ABV IPA is brewed with Crystal, Munich, and Pilsner malt to give it a nice malt backbone. It gets its biting hop flavor from the liberal use of Bravo, Chinook, Mt. Hood, Nugget, Cascade, and Citra hops. The result is a well-balanced, flavorful imperial IPA filled with notes of pineapple, grapefruit, and other tropical fruits as well as caramel malts, and dank, resinous pine. It’s a memorable beer you’ll want to drink all season long.
Buy: $20
6) Two Roads Lil' Heaven IPA
When it comes to tailgating, crushable and sessionable are very important terms. Especially if you plan to arrive at your tailgate well before kickoff. One of the best session IPAs for all-day drinking is Two Roads Lil' Heaven IPA. This 4.8% highly sessionable, crushable IPA gets its name from a hidden room in Two Roads’ brewing building where factory workers would take breaks. It’s known for its mix of tropical fruits, citrus peels, malts, and lightly bitter pine all working in perfect unison.
Buy: $22
7) Deschutes Mirror Pond
No matter the time of year, there’s always room for a well-balanced pale ale at your tailgate. One of the best is Deschutes Mirror Pond. This 5% ABV pale ale is brewed with 2 Row, Crystal, Carapils, and Munich malts. It gets its pronounced hop aroma and flavor from the addition of Cascade hops. This creates a surprisingly balanced pale ale loaded with caramel malts, light citrus, honey, and floral, sticky, piney hops at the finish. This hoppy brew is a perfect accompaniment to chips and salsa or grilled hot dogs.
Buy: $17
8) Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
For those colder tailgate days, you’re going to need something a little darker and bolder to warm your bones. That’s where Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald comes in. Named for the famed ship (immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot) that sank in Lake Superior in 1975, this porter is brewed with 2-row base malt, Crystal 77, Chocolate, and roasted barley malt. It’s hopped with Northern Brewer, Willamette, and Cascade hops. It’s known for its complex flavors of roasted barley, coffee, chocolate, and floral hops.
Buy: $11
9) Sloop Juice Bomb
With a name like Sloop Juice Bomb, you should have a pretty good idea about what’s in store for you when you crack open one of these bad boys. It’s well-known for its hazy, unfiltered appearance and juicy, tropical fruit-filled flavor palate thanks to the use of flaked oats, flaked wheat, specialty grain, and specially selected American hops. The result is a beer exploding with flavors of pineapple, passionfruit, tangerine, and dank pine with little to no bitterness. If you have any hazy IPA fans at your tailgate, this is the beer for them.
Buy: $26
10) Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest
Another American-made Oktoberfest-style beer, Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest is eagerly awaited each fall. This 5.2% ABV seasonal begins as a classic German-style Oktoberfest ale with ingredients like Weyermann Pils, Vienna, Munich, Cara Hell, and Cara Red malts. It gets its floral, herbal hop presence from the use of Tradition and Spalter Select hops. What makes it unique is the fact that it’s then aged in French oak barrels. The result is a complex, malty lager with notes of biscuity malts, honey, caramel, floral hops, and rich, oaky wood.
Buy: $13
