If you’re eternally on the hunt for the best beer to enjoy next time you go to the pub, then you’re in luck. That’s because We are Beer, the company behind the acclaimed London Craft Beer Festival, has just unveiled its list of the Top 50 UK Beers. And it’s a win for us beer-loving Londoners, because it turns out the UK’s best beer is made right here in our city. Topping the list and taking the number one spot was Anspach & Hobday’s nitro porter, London Black.
The South London brewery was joined in the top 3 by the pub classic, Landlord by Timothy Taylor (#2), and the hazy-beer-brewing legends at Deya with Steady Rolling Man in third position. Overall, the top 50 list reflects the British beer-drinking public’s recent move towards exceptional cask ale as well as locally-brewed alternatives to mass-produced lagers. But as ever, there are plenty of hop-forward beers filling the list.
To make the list, 150 beer experts from across the nation voted and chose their favourites. And it’s important to note that the list doesn’t just celebrate the best-tasting beers. Instead, the placement of beers on the list also takes into account which ones are the “best-selling… [and] most influential beers currently available in the UK”. This could account for the placement of your favourite brewery’s beers, but also explains why bastions of the beer scene and pub classics dominate the list.
The best beers in England
So, which other beers made it onto the list of the UK’s best beers? The list is a mixed bag of old-school craft beer legends, boundary-pushing upstart breweries, and pub classics. The top 10 entrants on the list are:
- London Black – Anspach & Hobday
- Landlord – Timothy Taylor
- Steady Rolling Man – Deya
- Keller Pils – Lost & Grounded
- Best – Five Points
- Faith – Northern Monk
- Proper Job – St Austell
- Lumina – Siren
- Lightbulb – Verdant
- Triple Fruited Mango – Vault City
Other notable inclusions on the list include:
- Kernel’s Table Beer (#11)
- Harvey’s Sussex Best (#14)
- Beak’s Parade (#22)
- Pressure Drop’s Pale Fire (#28)
- Track’s Sonoma (#29)
- Cloudwater’s Fresh (#37)
- Duration Brewing’s Turtles All The Way Down (#48)
Three breweries had multiple beers that made it onto the list: Verdant, Wiper & True, and BrewDog. Verdant’s Lightbulb and Putty (#24) both cracked the top 25, while Wiper & True’s Tomorrow (#26) and Kaleidoscope (#34) both made the list. BrewDog had multiple beers on the list, no doubt due to the proliferation of their bars around the country and the availability of their beers in supermarkets and pubs.
Where to try the UK’s best beer
Reflecting its new position on the Top 50 UK Beer Awards, Anspach & Hobday’s London Black is actually not that hard to find in the UK. Many craft beer pubs in London will offer it as an alternative to, or alongside, Guinness for lovers of the dark pints. You can also buy cans to drink at home, either online or in London’s wealth of speciality spots selling new and exciting beers.
Alternatively, you can go straight to the source and check out the brewery’s South London taproom. Situated right in the middle of the Bermondsey Beer Mile, you can try ultra-fresh pints of the UK’s best beer in tip-top condition.
Said Paul Anspach, co-founder of Anspach & Hobday:
” The whole team is incredibly proud and grateful for this award. London Black is the lifeblood of Anspach & Hobday, and is a distillation of who we are as a brewery and a business. As our contribution to London’s rich and diverse brewing scene, we are proud to be reaffirming Porter as the original beer of London. Thank you to the team at We Are Beer and all who voted for us this year, it means a great deal to us!!”
If you’re attending this year’s London Craft Beer Festival (July 18-19), you’ll also be able to try the dark and roasty pint there as you taste your way around the country’s best beers.
You can see the full list of the Top 50 UK Beers here.