Hard Seltzer Gains Ground in Alcohol Category, but Beer Still Reigns Supreme on Super Bowl Sunday

Beer is still America’s alcoholic drink of choice for the NFL’s biggest game of the year: Forty-four percent of those likely to host or attend a Super Bowl LV party said they plan to drink or serve light beer during the event, and 33 percent said they’ll have craft beer available.

But hard seltzer — whose flavors include mango, lime, black cherry and many more — is about as popular as other boozy drinks, with 22 percent of likely Super Bowl party attendees saying they’ll have cans on hand Sunday. That’s in line with the shares who said they’ll serve other drinks, such as wine, cocktails and hard cider.

“Hard seltzer is becoming the new light beer,” said Ron Alvarado, co-founder and chief executive of California-based hard seltzer maker Ficks Beverage Co. “A lot of people didn’t like the taste of light beer, but would drink them anyway because they’re lower in carbs.”

Among those likely to gather for Super Bowl LV, most plan to pair their drinks with the usual game-day eats: chips and dip, pizza and chicken wings. The survey, which carries a margin of error of 2 percentage points, was conducted Jan. 25-26 among 2,200 U.S. adults.

While the early hard seltzer favorites arose from independent brewers, major brewing operations have taken notice of consumer interest in the last year and are dumping resources into promoting fizzy alcoholic drinks of their own.

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