Mine’s a beer! That simple phrase carries a variety of promise: bitter, pale ale, red ale, old ale, craft ale, helles lager, pilsner, porter, stout – all have their passionate devotees.
Then there are the regional preferences. To generalise wildly, central Europeans drink lager and weissbier, Belgians drink strong golden and amber ale, the Irish prefer stout, Japanese crisp, dry lager and Americans fizzy, big-brand lagers. Brits drink bitter. What a shame, then, that the onboard selection is sometimes limited to a lager and, if you are lucky, a pale ale.
But you can see the airlines’ problem. With that level of variety, and restrictions on onboard weight and storage, it’s hard to pick a selection that will please everybody.
A decade ago Rodger Craig, of Inflight Initiatives, facilitated the deal to get Fuller’s London Pride onto British Airways (BA): “I helped Fuller’s win the onboard listing and BA gave it away, so their volumes helped me piggyback all the other airlines such as Flybe, Thomas Cook, Singapore Airlines (out of London) and the Eurostar, and get them taking London Pride.”
Getting crafty
BA has continued to experiment, driven by the success of the craft beer movement. Originating in the UK and USA in the 1970s, startup microbreweries produced such a variety of ale using new ingredients and experimental techniques that a new generation got to try novel styles and flavours.
Founded in 2007, Brewdog first supplied a specially brewed beer for the airline in 2019. Speedbird 100 is now replaced by Brewdog Speedbird OG IPA. A follow-up, American Pale Ale JetStream, was introduced in January 2021. BA’s beer offering currently also includes Brewdog’s original beer, Punk IPA, and Toast ’New Dawn’ Session IPA. As with Heineken lager, all of the Brewdog beers are served in 330ml cans.
Can-do attitude
Cans are preferred by airlines because of their light weight (5% of glass) and ease of packaging and recycling. They fit neatly onto a standard Atlas catering trolley. That used to be an obstacle to small breweries, whose customers traditionally preferred bottles, but the US led the way in changing that, with the use of cans doubling from 2012 to 2014, and 500 craft breweries making the switch. Fourpure was one of the first British craft brewers to use cans for its core range, claiming that their beers maintained their taste for longer, as aluminium provided superior protection from light and oxygen.
BA was probably the first international airline to recognise the importance of catering to its passengers’ regional preferences, originally offering Tiger on its eastbound and Amstel Lite on its westbound routes. Regional airlines are also keen to partner with local breweries, cross-branding to make their frequent fliers feel at home and introducing visitors to new and interesting local choices.
Custom brews
Alaska Airlines’ first-ever custom-crafted beer is brewed by Seattle-based Fremont Brewing. Cloud Cruiser, an India Pale Ale, is a finalist in the Onboard Hospitality 2024 Awards. Fremont Brewing makes small-batch artisan beers from locally sourced ingredients. It worked with Alaska to produce blends to taste-test at 30,000 feet.
‘Cloud Cruiser is the result of two beloved and popular Pacific Northwest brands coming together to create a top-tier beverage to add to our premium line-up,’ said Todd Traynor-Corey, Alaska’s Managing Director of Guest Products.
Canada’s Porter Airlines has followed a similar strategy by taking two beers from Ontario-based brewer Beau’s onto its drinks menu. Lug Tread is a hybrid lagered ale that has won 20 awards while Porter Porter is dark and strong at 5.6%, with ‘roasty flavours leading into a crisp, dry finish, and lingering vanilla notes’.
Sounds delicious. And two American airlines offer another regional speciality on flights to Hawaii. Both Southwest and United offer Kona Brewing Big Wave Golden Ale on their Hawaii service. Described as an easy-drinking 4.4% ale with tropical hop aromas and flavours, it sounds like a beer to get you in the mood for sun and surf – it might even persuade you to buy a ticket!
