The World Cup Brought Beer Drinkers Back to Bars and Taprooms | SevenFifty Daily

The 2026 World Cup was successful on several levels, with record-breaking attendance and cross-cultural connections fostered by the “great international sleepover.” The six-week sporting event also benefited the beer industry. Scottish fans memorably drank the Samuel Adams Boston taproom dry of Boston Lager, part of a surge that saw sales volumes of draft beer increase 6.46 percent during the tournament, according to BeerBoard, driven in part by new weekday drinking occasions.

“We saw shifts in days of the week and times of the day when people drink beer,” says Brian Vislosky, BeerBoard’s director of insights, whose data points to volume growth of nearly 16 and 12 percent, respectively, during Monday and Tuesday World Cup games.

Michelob Ultra (the World Cup’s official beer sponsor) and Mexican lagers benefited from beer demand, but local and regional craft breweries also experienced upticks. In June, Brooklyn’s Grimm Artisanal Ales experienced its “best sales month ever” with its distributor, says cofounder Joe Grimm, and New Yorkers flocked to the brewery’s taproom to crush football-themed Extra Time lager while watching games.

“It’s wonderful to see these collective sports games create moments to come together,” says cofounder Lauren Grimm.

As the dust settled on North America’s football pitches, SevenFifty Daily asked me to examine what tactics sparked on-premise success and how breweries could leverage learnings for future events.