Beer doesn’t have to taste like the stuff your grandfather drank at the ballgame. Over the last decade, brewers have pushed flavor in every direction: real coffee and vanilla folded into stouts, actual fruit fermented into sours and goses, chili peppers dropped straight into the bottle, and non-alcoholic versions built to keep every bit of that character without the ABV. Some of these beers barely register as beer at all until the finish.
Below is a guide to every flavor category we’ve ranked on this site, from the ones that have become genuinely mainstream (coffee, vanilla, caramel) to the ones that are still a little bit of a dare (chili, bacon). Each section links out to a full ranked list of real beers in that category, with brewery details, ABV, and where to find them, plus a named top pick and, where they’re available, real picks you can check on Saucey.
Jump to a category:
Quick Reference: The Best Pick in Each Category
| Category | Top Pick | ABV | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee Beers | Founders Breakfast Stout | 8.3% | Founders built its reputation on this one. |
| Peanut Butter Beers | Prairie Artisan Ales Barrel Aged Peanut Butter Bomb! | 14.4% | This is Prairie’s cult-favorite Bomb! |
| Vanilla Beers | Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout | 14.9% | Bourbon County is the beer that arguably kicked off the entire barrel-aged stout category in America, and the Vanilla variant takes that same base stout, aged for over a year in bourbon barrels, and rests it on whole vanilla beans afterward. |
| Caramel Beers | Bottle Logic Quarter Up! Bourbon Barrel-Aged Salted Caramel Stout | 13.96% | A collaboration with the pinball wizards at Phase Three Brewing, Quarter Up! |
| Raspberry Beers | Sixpoint Super Raspy | 8.3% | Part of Sixpoint’s Infinite Loop series, Super Raspy takes the classic gose formula, tart, salty and light, and pushes it to imperial strength with a huge dose of raspberries and a touch of milk sugar for body. |
| Banana Beers | Prairie Artisan Ales Elvis Knows Karate | 14.9% | Prairie built Elvis Knows Karate around a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout base, then layered in peanut butter cup coffee and bananas foster coffee for a dessert-in-a-glass profile that leans as much on roasted coffee as on banana. |
| Grapefruit Beers | Claremont Craft Ales Grapefruit Double IPA | 8.8% | Claremont starts with an already aromatic double IPA built on Mosaic and Centennial hops, then adds real grapefruit on top. |
| Spicy Beers | New Belgium x Cigar City Lips of Faith: Anaheim and Marash Chilies | 8.5% | This is a genuine collaboration, not a one-off gimmick: New Belgium’s Belgian yeast strain fermenting alongside Anaheim and Marash peppers, then aged on Spanish cedar. |
| Salt and Lime Beers | Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale | 4.9% | SeaQuench is not a straight Gose, it is Dogfish Head’s own mash-up of three sessionable styles brewed in sequence: a crisp Kolsch, a salty Gose and a tart Berliner Weisse, then finished with lime peel, black limes and sea salt. |
| Bacon Beers | Duncan’s Brewing Maple Bacon Pancake Imperial Pastry Stout | 10% | Duncan’s built the bacon character here from manuka-smoked malt rather than added bacon flavoring or extract, smoked the same way New Zealand smokes fish and meat, then layered vanilla, maple syrup and a full pancake-inspired malt bill on top. |
| Low-Calorie Fruity Beers | Michelob Ultra Infusions Pomegranate & Agave | 4.0% | Part of Michelob Ultra’s organic-certified Infusions line, built on the same superior light lager base as the flagship beer but with real pomegranate and agave flavor infused in rather than a straight lager with fruit syrup dumped on top. |
| Non-Alcoholic Flavored Beers | Partake Brewing Peach Gose | 0.3% | Partake built its whole lineup around the idea that non-alcoholic beer should still taste like a real style, not a watered-down placeholder. |
Coffee Beers
Coffee and beer share a lot of the same roasted, bitter compounds, which is why it’s the flavor pairing that translates most naturally. The best entries steep real coffee or cold brew into a stout or porter base rather than relying on flavoring extract.
Top pick: Founders Breakfast Stout (8.3%, Coffee Oatmeal Stout). Founders built its reputation on this one.
Read the full coffee beers ranking →
Peanut Butter Beers
This is the flavor most likely to split a room. Done well it reads like a dessert stout, thick and nutty; done badly it tastes like a candy bar dissolved in flat beer. The picks here lean toward the versions that get the balance right.
Top pick: Prairie Artisan Ales Barrel Aged Peanut Butter Bomb! (14.4%, Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout). This is Prairie’s cult-favorite Bomb!
Read the full peanut butter beers ranking →
Vanilla Beers
Vanilla is the flavor most breweries reach for as a smoothing agent, softening a big imperial stout’s roast or rounding out a cream ale. It rarely stands entirely alone, which is part of why it works across so many different base styles.
Top pick: Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout (14.9%, Imperial Pastry Stout). Bourbon County is the beer that arguably kicked off the entire barrel-aged stout category in America, and the Vanilla variant takes that same base stout, aged for over a year in bourbon barrels, and rests it on whole vanilla beans afterward.
Read the full vanilla beers ranking →
Caramel Beers
Some caramel character comes from malt alone, no additive required, which makes this one of the more naturally-occurring flavors on this list. The beers that add real caramel or toffee on top push that malt sweetness further into dessert territory.
Top pick: Bottle Logic Quarter Up! Bourbon Barrel-Aged Salted Caramel Stout (13.96%, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout). A collaboration with the pinball wizards at Phase Three Brewing, Quarter Up!
Read the full caramel beers ranking →
Raspberry Beers
Raspberry shows up constantly in the sour and lambic world because the tartness of the fruit plays directly against a kettle sour’s acidity, and a good raspberry beer doesn’t need to hide behind added sugar to taste like actual fruit.
Top pick: Sixpoint Super Raspy (8.3%, Imperial Fruited Gose). Part of Sixpoint’s Infinite Loop series, Super Raspy takes the classic gose formula, tart, salty and light, and pushes it to imperial strength with a huge dose of raspberries and a touch of milk sugar for body.
Read the full raspberry beers ranking →
Banana Beers
Banana is unusual on this list because it often shows up as a byproduct of yeast (a classic hefeweizen’s banana-and-clove character) rather than an added flavor, alongside beers that add real banana on top of that base.
Top pick: Prairie Artisan Ales Elvis Knows Karate (14.9%, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout). Prairie built Elvis Knows Karate around a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout base, then layered in peanut butter cup coffee and bananas foster coffee for a dessert-in-a-glass profile that leans as much on roasted coffee as on banana.
Read the full banana beers ranking →
Grapefruit Beers
Grapefruit and hops were already close cousins in flavor before anyone added real fruit, since a lot of American hop varieties throw citrus and grapefruit notes naturally. Adding actual grapefruit turns that hop character up rather than starting from nothing.
Top pick: Claremont Craft Ales Grapefruit Double IPA (8.8%, Double IPA). Claremont starts with an already aromatic double IPA built on Mosaic and Centennial hops, then adds real grapefruit on top.
Read the full grapefruit beers ranking →
Spicy Beers
Chili beer is the most polarizing entry on this list, and also the most literal example of a beer that doesn’t taste like beer, since a well-made habanero or jalapeno ale reads first as heat and pepper, with the beer underneath as more of a delivery system.
Top pick: New Belgium x Cigar City Lips of Faith: Anaheim and Marash Chilies (8.5%, Chili/Spiced Beer). This is a genuine collaboration, not a one-off gimmick: New Belgium’s Belgian yeast strain fermenting alongside Anaheim and Marash peppers, then aged on Spanish cedar.
Read the full spicy beers ranking →
Salt and Lime Beers
This category exists because of the Mexican lager tradition of adding salt and lime at the table, and the beers that brew that combination in rather than requiring a garnish tend to taste closer to a michelada than a standard pale lager.
Top pick: Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale (4.9%, Session Sour (Gose-Kolsch-Berliner Weisse hybrid)). SeaQuench is not a straight Gose, it is Dogfish Head’s own mash-up of three sessionable styles brewed in sequence: a crisp Kolsch, a salty Gose and a tart Berliner Weisse, then finished with lime peel, black limes and sea salt.
Read the full salt and lime beers ranking →
Bacon Beers
Bacon beer is a genuine niche rather than a gimmick built on smoked malt alone: several of the beers on this list add real bacon flavoring or smoked-malt techniques specifically engineered to read as breakfast rather than just smoky.
Top pick: Duncan’s Brewing Maple Bacon Pancake Imperial Pastry Stout (10%, Imperial Pastry Stout). Duncan’s built the bacon character here from manuka-smoked malt rather than added bacon flavoring or extract, smoked the same way New Zealand smokes fish and meat, then layered vanilla, maple syrup and a full pancake-inspired malt bill on top.
None of the top picks in this category are currently listed on Saucey. Check the full bacon beers ranking for where else to find them.
Read the full bacon beers ranking →
Low-Calorie Fruity Beers
Not every flavor beer on this list is about intensity. This one runs the other direction, ranking fruited beers by calorie count for anyone who wants real fruit flavor without the calorie load of a heavier stout or sour.
Top pick: Michelob Ultra Infusions Pomegranate & Agave (4.0%, Light Lager (Fruit Infusion)). Part of Michelob Ultra’s organic-certified Infusions line, built on the same superior light lager base as the flagship beer but with real pomegranate and agave flavor infused in rather than a straight lager with fruit syrup dumped on top.
Read the full low-calorie fruity beers ranking →
Non-Alcoholic Flavored Beers
The most literal beers that don’t taste like beer on this list, at least by ABV: these are brewed under 0.5 percent alcohol (one is a true 0.0 percent), and the fruit and gose-style tartness are doing real work to keep them from tasting thin.
Top pick: Partake Brewing Peach Gose (0.3%, Gose). Partake built its whole lineup around the idea that non-alcoholic beer should still taste like a real style, not a watered-down placeholder.
None of the top picks in this category are currently listed on Saucey. Check the full non-alcoholic flavored beers ranking for where else to find them.
Read the full non-alcoholic flavored beers ranking →
More to explore:
FAQs
Why do brewers add non-beer flavors to beer in the first place?
Partly technique and partly demand. Fruit, spice, and sweet flavors let a brewer build something closer to a dessert or a cocktail while keeping the fermentation process and format of beer, and there’s clear market demand for it: fruited sours, pastry stouts, and flavored lagers are some of the fastest-growing categories in craft beer over the last decade.
Which of these flavors is the most common in craft beer overall?
Coffee and vanilla show up more often than any other flavor on this list, mostly because they’re additive rather than combative: both smooth out and deepen a stout or porter’s existing roast character instead of fighting against the base beer, which makes them easier for a brewery to get right on the first try.
Is a flavored beer automatically sweeter than a regular beer?
No. Several of the categories above, especially the sours, goses, and salt-and-lime beers, lean tart or salty rather than sweet. Sweetness depends much more on the base style (a pastry stout will always read sweeter than a gose) than on whether fruit or spice was added at all.
What’s the best starting point if I’ve never tried a flavored beer before?
A fruited sour or gose is usually the easiest on-ramp, since the tartness gives the fruit something to play against rather than asking it to carry the whole beer. From there, coffee and vanilla stouts are a good next step if you want something richer, and chili or bacon beers are best saved for once you already know you like the format.
There’s no single “best” flavor here, just different directions to push a beer in. If you want a recommendation on where to start, work backward from a dessert, a cocktail, or a food you already know you like, and there’s a decent chance one of the categories above has already gone looking for a beer version of it.
