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Want a light beer that tastes like a normal beer? Stick to Coors Light. In Tasting Table’s ranking of nine popular light beer brands, Garage Beer trailed the pack by a long shot. In spite of its intentionally-unremarkable tagline of “beer flavored beer,” not even an ultra-cold chill could make this beer any better. The brand was revived by Travis and Jason Kelce in 2023, and by our count, the brothers should’ve stuck to football.
Before the entrance of the Kelce brothers, Garage Beer was an existing regional brew from Covington, Kentucky (a suburb of Cincinnati). The light lager was launched in 2018 by Braxton Brewing Company, a small local operation, and marketed as a crisp, accessible, clean beer without any bells and whistles. “Ordinariness” is the crux of the branding. Under Braxton, Garage Beer launched as a spinoff brand in its own right in 2023, and in 2024, the Kelce brothers became majority owners.
The University of Cincinnati football alums came with major pull among Buckeye State beer-drinkers, and perhaps for this reason the Ohio-based brand has emerged as one of the fastest-growing light lagers on the contemporary American market. Garage Beer saw sales growth of 252% in 2023 alone, as reported by Vinepair, and as of early 2025, its availability has stretched to all 50 states. Still, even though Garage Beer is backed one of the biggest families in football, celebrity ownership doesn’t necessarily equate to good taste.
Read more: 15 US Presidents And Their Go-To Whiskey
Garage Beer’s NFL star endorsement doesn’t make it a good light beer
12-pack of Garage Beer on a kitchen countertop – Andrew Runner Fischer/Tasting Table
To create its everyday “true beer” profile, Garage Beer eschews bitterness by using subtle, clean magnum hops and a sweet 100% Pilsner malt. Although, a recent YouTube review by Tree House Brewing Company describes a “metallic” aroma (“not pleasant”). Taking a sip, the poster remarks, “Huh. On the flavor, not much better. Don’t know what I expected. Very fruity taste. Very fruit-forward, unclean fermentation … I’m not sure if the scale-up or distribution has affected the quality of the beer, but it’s thin, light, metallic, weirdly fruity, weirdly sweet.” Maybe those bittering tones were needed, after all.
Elsewhere online, a Reddit thread in r/cincinnatibeer asks, “Garage Beer? I see it, I understand the marketing, I want to try it. But is it worth it? … Is it like Bud Light (no offense) or is it actually good?” Multiple responses theorize that the brew suffered when the company expanded: “Was a great lawnmower lager when it was under Braxton. Something changed significantly when they increased production and spun it into its own brand,” and, “It’s way worse now. Cheap slop. The original wasn’t bad.” Other apparent newcomer sippers describe Garage Beer as “a boneless Bud Light,” writing, “I think it is one of the worst beers I’ve ever had — I’ve tried it multiple times and think it is just terrible,” with one commenter joking that the name should be changed to “Garbage” beer (yikes).
Will this formerly regional brew be able to outlast its of-the-moment marketing?
Cases of Garage Beer on store shelves – PJ McDonnell/Shutterstock
Ultimately, to assemble our ranking, we judged these nine light beers on the criteria of “flavor, drinkability, calorie content, and pricing.” While it doesn’t share the near-universal availability of some of the more established brands we taste-tested, the official Garage Beer website offers a product locator to help customers track down the brew in stores. On the Target site, the product page for a 12-pack of Garage Beer (currently unavailable) is listed at $14.99 — $1 more than competitor American light lagers like Coors Light at $13.99 (notably, Coors also claimed first-place in our light beer ranking), but not a far cry off.
As we mentioned in our review, “If this is the kind of lighter alcoholic beverage you’re looking for, Garage Beer is exactly what it sounds like: A simple beer-flavored beer. If you want something with a little more kick, however, several other options provide a fuller flavor profile.” At just 95 calories per 12-ounce can and a majorly-crushable 4% ABV, Garage Beer certainly fits the accessible profile of a light beer. But, in execution, something just falls flat with this celebrity-endorsed spirit. In fact, Garage Beer ranked even lower than Busch Light — which we have previously named “literally the last beer you should settle for.” Whether Garage Beer’s triple-digit growth and popularity will outlast the Kelce brothers’ moment in the spotlight of fame remains to be seen.
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Read the original article on Tasting Table.
