The best beers to buy now, from session ales to IPAs

Much as I love wine, it’s thirst-quenching beer that I turn to when the mercury creeps up, and having tasted dozens of summery brews both old and new, this looks like our best hoppy line-up yet. Thankfully our obsession with tinny, watery, burp-inducing carbonated lagers has been replaced by a growing thirst for complex, characterful ales, including pale ales, stouts and gutsy IPAs, or India Pale Ales, brewed originally with extra hops to fortify it for the long journey to India and the East in the 1800s.
The craze for hazy and tropically fruited New England IPAs is still with us. By the by, it’s worth noting that the haze, due to extra protein in the beer, doesn’t add to the flavour. While these punchy, citrussy ales made with turbo-flavoured new world hops make pleasing ice-cold summer sips, our own variations are more exciting still. Check out Proper Job’s starry IPA Cornish best buy beer, triple hopped with America’s willamette, cascade and chinook hops. A traditional bottle-conditioned beer capable of maturing, an extra dollop of sugar and yeast before bottling gives it a bit of fizz and loads more flavour. Remember to pour it slowly to avoid its sludgy, yeasty sediment.

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Almost as thrilling is the revered Theakston brewery’s Hairy Bikers Triple Hop Bitter (4.2 per cent, 500ml bottle, Waitrose, £2.20), a wonderful, rich, malty, fruitcake mouthful, made with a trio of British hops: challenger, admiral and pilgrim. Or try the Dorset Badger Brewery’s variation on an IPA made with citra and amarillo hops, the richly fruited, bold, ripe, nutty Outland Hazy IPA (4.2 per cent, 440ml can (Tesco and Sainsbury’s, £2.85). If your taste is for a sweeter beer, plump for the Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc best buy, or lap up an old friend, Fuller’s Honey Dew golden ale (5 per cent, 500ml bottle, Morrisons, £2), a delicious, honeyed, summery, floral sip.
Summer’s the season for the increasingly popular lower alcohol “session” beers, allowing you to drink several without much ado. The appropriately named Beavertown Satellite Super Session IPA, just 2.8 per cent and made from barley, oats and wheat, remains a lovely mango and passion fruit charge (330ml can, Waitrose, £1.75). Tastier still is the Wild Card Brewery’s 2.7 per cent Table Beer (440ml can, thewinesociety.com, £3.25), made with Australian Enigma and Vic Secret hops and overflowing with gorgeous melon and stone fruit flavours.
Taste the Difference Session Ale, Dorset3.4 per cent, 500ml bottle, Sainsbury’s, £1.50A wonderfully light, hoppy, amber session beer with malty, bitter hops and an elegant citrus zest finish.
Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc, France5 per cent, 4 x 330 ml bottles, Waitrose and Tesco, £5, down from £7Fruity, sweet, white wheat beer, with a refreshing, frothy, tropical spin, plus a dab of orange peel and coriander.
St Austell Proper Job IPA, Cornwall5.5 per cent, 500ml bottle, Sainsbury’s, £2.10; Waitrose, £2.20The real deal, a bottle-conditioned, punchy IPA, bursting with bitter, hoppy citrus and pineapple oomph.
Jubel Beer Cut with Peach, Kennington4 per cent, 4 x 330ml can, Majestic Wine, £6.60Jolly, gluten-free summer session beer, with light, musk peach pizzazz making it the ideal sunny day aperitif.
2023 Paul Mas Picpoul de Pinet, France13 per cent, Co-op, £10.50Superior, crisp, refreshing, herby, lemony, seafood-loving picpoul from Jean-Claude Mas, the Midi maestro.
2023 Errazuriz Estate Reserva Pinot Noir, Chile13.5 per cent, Asda, £9A tried and trusted Aconcagua region pinot noir with oodles of easy-glugging, oaky, gamey, smoky fruit.
2014 150th Anniversary Rioja Reserva, Spain14 per cent, thewinesociety.com, £25The Wine Society’s fully mature celebration rioja from Contino is a humdinger of a rich, ripe, truffley sip.
2023 Definition by Majestic Limoux Chardonnay, France13.5 per cent, Majestic, £13.99Classy, French and American oak-aged, Côte d’Or-aping, fat, burnt, buttery, toasted walnut- chardonnay.