Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Taco Bell Beer Is Real: Meet the Big City Bell Pilsner

By

Ask any college kid and you know that Taco Bell and booze go together like, well, Taco Bell and booze. The chain — having opened or planned a series of Cantina concepts that serve alcohol already — is continuing its foray into the booze realm with its own beer.

To do so, Taco Bell partnered with New York’s Blue Point Brewing to launch Big City Bell Pilsner. Taco Bell previously brewed a beer for its Newport Beach Cantina in California, but with multiple locations receiving the beer (and the renown of the brewery involved), this seems a bigger step for the brand.

Taco Bell Big City Bell Pilsner
Taco Bell

The beer will be served in the three Manhattan-area Taco Bell Cantinas for $6 per serving. There were no plans revealed to bring the Taco Bell beer to the rest of the restaurant’s cantinas, but we can’t help but wonder if there’s a larger plan afoot.

Recommended Videos

“We’re so excited to be part of the Cantina launch in our hometown,” Blue Point president Jenna Lally said. “We’re looking forward to New Yorkers relaxing and enjoying some tacos with the new Big City Bell Pilsner.”

Related

The Big City Bell Pilsner’s “crisp and balanced body” was designed to pair well with Taco Bell’s food, using a blend of hops evoking lime and other citrus aromas. The previous collaboration with Newport Beach, Beach Bell, was a “Mexican-style amber lager” brewed with California’s Four Sons Brewing for the opening the Newport Cantina in December 2017.

The beers aren’t changing the game, but it’s another signal that craft beer is making its way to the mainstream. The results, we hope, remain tasty.

Since 2015, Taco Bell has opened 19 cantinas and 16 urban in-line restaurants in addition to its traditional suburban drive-thru restaurants. Among those cantinas opening in Manhattan include the 500 8th Experience, which will also roll out five ways to order, nine order touch points, and a new Cantina nachos menu. Likewise, it will debut a few new freeze flavors — which can be made into “Twisted Freezes” with rum, vodka or tequila — like the Frozen Mule and Party Punch. Earlier this year, Taco Bell also tested frosé (as if we needed another place to add to our already overcrowded brunch options list).

Taco Bell is upping the fast food game in a big way with their boozy offerings — potentially bringing a Taco Bell beer to a location near you. If they don’t make it to your city, though, you can always just get some Taco Bell to go or, better yet, make some tacos and drink some brews.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Pat Evans
Pat Evans
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Pat Evans is a writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, focusing on food and beer, spirits, business, and sports. His full…
What Does It Mean to Be a Beer City?
Second Self Beer Co

Ardent fans of mass-market beers, artisanal microbrews, and everything in between largely agree that we’re currently in the midst of a golden age for the beer industry. Nowadays, it’s difficult to think of a single metropolitan area in the U.S. that isn’t home to numerous breweries and well-curated beer pubs. However, certain cities take their appreciation for beer to another level, and their high volume of beer-centric establishments and the importance of beer culture to their overall identities gives these towns the right to call themselves “Beer Cities.”

But what really defines a “beer city”? What separates a “beer city” from “a city that happens to drink a lot of beer”? Which “beer cities” currently prove most significant in the American drinking landscape, and which cities count as emerging “beer cities to watch”? We consulted expert sources (i.e. brewers and beer bartenders) and collected a list of 10 established beer cities, 4 promising up-and-comers, and the characteristics that give these urban areas plenty of beer cred. 
The Established
“People in Grand Rapids feel an almost familial connection to their local breweries.” 
We’ll start with a city located in the region of the country that’s arguably most associated with beer in the popular imagination: The Midwest. Grand Rapids, Michigan isn’t considered a “big” city; with a population of just over 200,000, it’s about a third of the size of nearby Detroit. But Grand Rapids holds a nickname that fully represents its standing in the beer world: Beer City USA. 

Read more
Super Bowl of Beers: The Best Brews from San Francisco and Kansas City
Fieldwork

While the highly anticipated ads may tell you otherwise, what you drink this Super Bowl Sunday doesn’t have to be generic suds. In fact, you can drink some great stuff from in and around the two cities represented in this year’s matchup.

As the Kansas City Chiefs get set to take on the San Francisco 49ers, another rivalry comes to life — that of craft beer from the two American cities. We’ve picked three of our favorites from the Bay Area and the city that sits in two states to suit up and fetch a W in the name of beer excellence.

Read more
Coors Light is doing beer bows for the holidays
A bow with a little extra
coors light dropping beer bows bow2

From classic Clydesdale cans to fireplace beer dispensers, there's a festive theme running through the big beer brands at the moment. Coming in right on cue is Coors Light, which has dropped its beer bows in an effort to make average gifts all the better.

The idea is to brighten up those lesser gifts, from socks to staplers. The bows include QR codes giftees can scan for promos and other perks through Coors. First launched earlier this month, the bows will be on sale for a limited time, for those looking to get into the spirit. Coors says bows ordered by the 15th will arrive by Christmas.

Read more