The UK beer scene gathered in London this week to celebrate some of the nation’s best breweries, brewers and beers at the 2026 Brewers Choice Awards.

On September 29, The Brewers Congress kicked off its annual two-day conference and trade exhibition, with the 2026 Brewers Choice Awards presented that evening at a festive gathering at The Big Penny Social in London.

Presented by The Brewers Journal and attended by nearly 500 members of the beer, brewing and hospitality industries, the awards honored everything from emerging breweries and standout beers to some of the people who have helped shape the UK brewing industry.

And while some of these names may be less familiar to American craft beer fans, there are several worth knowing.

New Brewery of the Year: Indie Rabble

Based in Windsor, Indie Rabble Brewing Co. opened in 2023 in the railway arches beneath Windsor & Eton Central station. The young brewery started generating considerable buzz almost immediately, earning SIBA’s UK Best New Independent Craft Brewery honors in 2024 before adding another major award to its résumé this year.

New Beer of the Year: Duration Brewing, Where The Buffalo Roam

Duration Brewing is a modern farmhouse brewery based at Abbey Farm in West Acre, Norfolk, in eastern England, where founders Miranda Hudson and Derek Bates transformed a historic stone barn into one of the UK’s more distinctive brewing destinations.

Its award-winning Where The Buffalo Roam is a 5.2% ABV Hazy Pale Ale brewed with Citra, Krush and Nelson Sauvin hops that delivers citrus, passionfruit and white grape notes.

Best Branding: Attic Brew Co.

Birmingham’s Attic Brew Co. started pretty much where its name suggests. Founders Sam Back and Oli Hurlow met at Cardiff University, where Back began homebrewing before eventually moving his operation into an attic in Birmingham.

The pair opened Attic in 2018, and the brewery has since grown into one of Birmingham’s more prominent craft breweries, with a brewery and taproom as well as a second location in the city.

Young Brewer of the Year: Sophie Ashdown

Sophie Ashdown is Senior Brewer at Buxton Brewery in Derbyshire, central England, where her brewing career actually began behind the bar.

Ashdown joined Buxton more than six years ago and worked her way through a number of jobs, including packing online orders and running the canning line, before eventually joining the brewing team. She’s now helping lead production at the respected brewery.

Beer of the Year: Two Flints, Santiago

Founded by Alex Kerr, Two Flints is another Windsor brewery making serious noise beneath the railway arches at Windsor Central station. The brewery has built its reputation on modern, hop-forward beers while still finding room for the classics.

Santiago is Two Flints’ flagship 3.8% ABV Hazy Pale Ale, a sessionable beer brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Idaho 7 hops that brings peach, orange and mango notes to a surprisingly modest alcohol profile.

Brewer of the Year: Toby McKenzie

Toby McKenzie founded RedWillow Brewery with his wife Caroline in Macclesfield, northwest England, in 2010, turning what began as a homebrewing obsession into one of the more established names in the UK craft beer scene.

Fifteen years later, RedWillow’s beers are sold throughout the UK, and the brewery regularly collaborates with some of the country’s most respected craft brewers.

Brewery of the Year: Duration Brewing

Duration Brewing returned to the stage for one of the evening’s biggest awards.

Founded by husband-and-wife team Derek Bates and Miranda Hudson, Duration began as a nomadic brewing project before opening its West Norfolk brewery in 2019. The brewery now calls a converted historic barn at Abbey Farm home, near the ruins of an ancient priory, where it produces everything from fresh Pale Ales and Pilsners to wild and barrel-aged beers.

And this wasn’t Duration’s first Brewers Choice rodeo. The brewery previously took home New Brewery and New Beer honors at the 2021 awards.

Global Ambassador Award: Colin Gilhespy

Colin Gilhespy is managing director of Cave Direct, one of the UK’s most established specialty beer importers and a company that’s been bringing international beer to British drinkers for decades.

The family business dates back to 1979, when Gilhespy’s father Bryan began importing beers that were difficult to find in Britain. Colin and his sister Louise eventually joined the operation and helped turn Cave Direct into a major player in the UK’s imported and craft beer scene, making his Global Ambassador win especially fitting..

Lifetime Achievement Award: Eddie Gadd

And the evening’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to one of the more established names in British independent brewing.

Eddie Gadd founded Gadds’ The Ramsgate Brewery in Kent in 2002 and has spent more than two decades championing traditional cask beer, locally grown Kentish hops and independent brewing.

Gadd has also become an outspoken advocate for making brewing more sustainable, introducing solar power and CO2 recovery technology at his brewery while encouraging other brewers to reduce their energy use.

And 2026 has been a pretty good year for Gadd. In June, the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group also named him its Brewer of the Year.

“It was a genuine pleasure to see the wealth of quality submissions across the board for the 2026 awards,” Brewers Journal editor Tim Sheahan said, adding that selecting the finalists and winners was “predictably challenging.”

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And while we’re at it there’s this.

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(Header image: Brewers Journal / Chat GPT)