5 Menu Design Tips for Your Brewery

Menus are such a staple element of any dining experience that they’re often taken for granted. Frankly, this isn’t entirely a bad thing – a menu design taken for granted means that it is blending seamlessly into the overall experience. If your menu has been feeling lackluster, there’s no need to fret. This list of tips will give you a guiding star to help clean up your menu and make it better than ever.

1. Stay Consistent

Think about the atmosphere of your brewery’s taproom. Are you going for something fun and whimsical? Old-school and classy? Warm and rustic? No matter the choice, you need to ensure that your menu’s aesthetic theme compliments the space of your brewery, and if you can swing it, the visual theme of your beer labels. Find a professional design that will organize and streamline your offerings into the aesthetic right for your taproom.

2. Keep it Current

Seasonal beers are one of the best parts of any brewery, and you can use your menu’s design to highlight your most current offerings! Reserve a specific section of your menu layout for seasonal specials. If you have a specific area planned for this, you won’t have to worry about trying to carve out space later. Even in seasons wherein your brewery may not be generating as many unique specials, having the space held will ensure that when you are particularly proud of an offering, you’ll have a purpose-built location to showcase it. Many bar menu designs have already been crafted to highlight specials, and all you have to do is plug in your product descriptions.

3. Draw Eyes Where You Want Them

In keeping with the idea of having intentional menu spaces, there will inevitably be standards on your brewery menu that are worth highlighting. These might take the form of food items that your serving staff should upsell or staple elements of any first-time experience in your taproom. Consider creating a section on the menu that bills itself as your signature item, and placing it somewhere prominent. Ideally, this should be somewhere in the center of the menu in such a way as to be eye-catching; for instance, framing this section with smaller windows comprised of add-ons or side items ensures that it will appear more prominently. 

4. Minimize Pictures

Pictures are useful tools for generating appeal in favor of specific items or atmosphere, but on menus, they can make a space look crowded. Your menu should focus on clarity of text and description. You can still generate visual appeal in your menu focusing on the text elements, like using a clear but attractive font and adding richly-textured flavor descriptors. If you want to utilize pictures to create a visual draw, there’s always the option of incorporating them into your physical space or displaying them on a webpage. 

You can also create a fun aesthetic element by expanding the text component beyond your regular menu, too. If you offer beer flights, for example, you can serve them on an interactive flight mat that will help your guests engage more fully with the tasting experience. This approach helps bring the same visual stimulus as pictures would, but incorporates a tactile component that will create a stronger sense of memory.

5. Start Fresh

There’s a lot to consider when designing a menu for a brewery, and when all is said and done, both you and your guests need to be happy with the design, both for function and form. If you don’t like the current menu design, do not be afraid to scrap it and start over. There’s nothing wrong with a clean slate! If a design isn’t working, it’s totally okay to acknowledge that and start fresh. If the design you've worked with up until this point leaves a lot to be desired, keep the basic info and throw out the rest. By using MustHaveMenus’ simple menu-making software, creating a menu you love will be easier than ever. 

Start a redesign using the tips listed here, and you’ll be amazed by how quickly you learn to fall in love with your menu all over again.