Aldi was named Drinks Retailer of the Year for the seventh year on the trot at the Retail Industry Awards in 2024, which can partly be attributed to its wines – for reasonable prices it delivers some excellent summer sips – but it also has a growing reputation for beer.

You will find a good mix of well-known labels (Corona, San Miguel and Stella Artois, for example) along the aisles, nestled between own-brand replicas (an approach echoed at Lidl) that deliver the same level of quality but at a considerably lower price – as I discovered in a tasting of the supermarket’s most commonly available brews.

In fact, I found almost all of the dupes to be equal to, if not better than, their big-name equivalents. The only exceptions were the Rossini Lager (not a patch on Peroni) and the Harper’s Brew Co IPA, which, while being a drinkable beer in its own right, can’t hold a candle to St Austell’s Proper Job, a true modern classic. You will find my tasting notes for both bottles below.

While Aldi offers more lagers than anything else, as you’d expect, it does have an excellent set of options for ale drinkers – just surpassing Lidl’s range, in my opinion. Traditional brews such as Abbot Ale and Shepherd Neame’s Bishops Finger sit alongside high-quality craft cans including the irrepressible William Bros Brewing Co’s Magma Hazy.

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I tested all of the following beers blind, so neither my own bias nor even the snazziest of packaging was able to influence my reviews.

Here I share my recommendations for the best beers to buy at Aldi – as well as flagging those which aren’t worth a pour.

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Why you can trust us

The Aldi beer taste test winners – and losers

Best lager

Best dark beer

Best wheat beer

Why you can trust us

Laura Hadland is an award-winning drinks writer, a regular Telegraph correspondent, and the author of 50 Years of Camra, named the Best Beer Book in the World 2022 by Gourmand International. Her latest book, Beer Festivals, is out now. Read more of her work here.

Taste test winners – and losers

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4. Brasserie Imported Premium Lager

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Best lager

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Best dark beer

Best wheat beer

1. Rheinbacher Weissbier German Wheat Beer

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