The best beer in Britain has been crowned for 2026

In a summer this hot, it’s easy to knock back a drink so fast you barely even taste it. But although those ice-cold beers and thirst-slaking lager tops might be hitting the spot while the sun shines, not everyone’s been falling for the lure of something bland and fizzy. The dedicated taste-testers of the UK’s Top 50 Beer Awards have been sipping their way through a formidable line-up of brews to find this country’s very best. But who’s top of the hops, and who’s bottom of the barrel?

This year, the winner didn’t come as a big surprise. Cheltenham’s Deya brewery is a firm favourite with beer aficionados, and its Steady Rolling Man pale ale won the inaugural Beer Awards in 2024. Now, it’s back to reclaim the top spot, delighting the judges with its hoppy, fruity flavours, hazy appearance, and balanced notes of bitterness.

London got a look in at number two, with Hackney's Five Points landing second spot with Five Points Best, a bitter with toffee, caramel and biscuit notes followed by a herbal finish. Coming in at number three was Jaipur by Thornbridge, a Derbyshire brew that's recognised as the first UK craft IPA, mixing American hops with traditional English malts to make a balanced, citrussy brew. 

If this all sounds a bit trad for your taste, the annual Star Beer Award showcases a brewery that’s doing things differently. And this year, they've picked Beyond Belief Brewing Company’s decidedly leftfield beer Payload. This amber brew has been dreamt up by an offshoot of fourth-generation family pasta producer Ugo Foods, as a creative way of using offcuts from fresh pasta production. They’ve patented a new process which swaps out the traditional malt for surplus pasta, and are now working with other food businesses to get them turning their leftovers into new brews. 

The 10 best beers in Britain 2026

The full top 10 list of brews is below, with London outfits Five Points, Pretty Decent, Anspach & Hobday, Pillars and Saint Monday all making a showing.

1. DEYA - Steady Rolling Man (Cheltenham)
2. Five Points - Best (Hackney, East London)
3. Thornbridge - Jaipur (Bakewell, Derbyshire)
4. Pretty Decent Beer Co - I Could Get Better At T*sco For A Quid (Forest Gate, East London)
5. Anspach & Hobday - London Black (Bermondsey, South London)
6. Titanic - Plum Porter (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire)
7. Pillars - Pilsner (Walthamstow, East London) 
8. Verdant - Lightbulb (Penryn, Cornwall)
9. Timothy Taylor - Landlord (Keighley, West Yorkshire)
10. Saint Monday - American Pale Ale (Hackney, London)

If you want to come up with a 'best of' list of your own (and you live in the capital), you can sip your way through the UK's finest indies at the London Craft Beer Festival in a fortnight's time, with over 800 beers to savour in the sunshine. How refreshing. 

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