UK's most popular beer won't come as any surprise to you
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: SimpleImages/Getty Images
The UK’s most popular beer is a beverage Paul Rudd, Camila Cabella, and Kim Kardashian have previously pledged their allegiance to — and it’s slowly become a go-to staple for one particular age group, according to experts.
Despite statistics suggesting alcohol consumption is on the decline where Gen Z is concerned, it’s understood that around 55 percent of men and 42 percent of women in the UK drink at least one day every single week.
And while some are partial to ready-made cocktails, such as the new Au Vodka x Tango collaboration, others prefer a tried-and-tested Hugo Spritz, or a chilled glass of so-called ‘grey wine’.
However, thousands of Brits are more likely to head to their local boozer to order a pint of beer or cider - and there’s one drink more popular than the rest, according to a new survey.
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Sliding in at 10th place in the YouGov survey is Carlsberg, which scored 41 percent on the popularity scale.
Above that sits Stella Artois (42 percent); Amstel in eighth with 44 percent; and Strongbow Dark Fruits comes in at seventh as the second-highest cider brand on the list.
The latter scored an 82 percent ‘fame’ rating, and a healthy 45 percent on the overall popularity metre.
Interestingly, Millennials ranked the festival favourite slightly higher, while it didn’t even make the top ten where Baby Boomers were concerned.
A large portion of Generation X said they preferred the original version of Strongbow, with the cider slotting in at fourth place.
Meanwhile, Kronenbourg 1664 sat just outside of the top five in sixth place, with a satisfaction rating of 46 percent.
Corona and Peroni both missed out on podium spots, coming in at fifth and fourth place, respectively, as per the YouGov survey.
The former scored one of the highest ‘fame’ ratings and a 47 percent popularity rating, while Peroni, previously promoted by the likes of actor Lucien Laviscount and Sebastian Vettel, received a 50 percent score.
Third was San Miguel Beer, which has moved up in place since the last survey.
Currently, it has a 94 percent status rating and a 54 percent popularity approval.
Koppaberg cider, a fruit-forward premium Swedish brand, has been hailed as the second-most popular beverage in Britain (86 percent fame/55 percent popularity).
So, what drink pipped it to the post? Guinness, of course!
Guinness, an Irish stout with roots dating back to the late 1700s, has earned itself an almost-perfect fame rating (98 percent) and the highest popularity score (58 percent) on the recent YouGov poll.
Amazingly, only 14 percent of respondents claimed not to like the ruby-red beverage, while 26 percent gave a ‘neutral’ response.
Off the back of the survey, The Times reported that Guinness-owners Diageo has seen an 8.8 percent growth in sales in Europe in the first quarter of 2026.
What’s more, the UK market share in pubs hit a new high of 17.5 percent last year.
According to Simon Dodd, chief executive of UK pub chain Young’s, one in two pints of mother’s milk is being sold to under-25s.
“We get super busy on a Friday or Saturday and we’re seeing 20-year-old girls drinking this,” Esther Cox, the manager of Howl at the Moon, an Irish pub in Hoxton, east London, told the publication.
She claimed the surge in popularity may be due to bands such as Fontaines DC and Kneecap hitting the mainstream, claiming ‘it’s finally cool to be Irish’.
“I just think the Irish had a really hard time through all of history and I think finally now this generation of Irish people are reclaiming things like Guinness which was a farmer’s drink and very unglamorous,” she added.
And when Guinness isn’t available? Drinkers are turning to alternatives, such as Murphy’s and Beamish, alongside BrewDog’s Elvis Juice and Jeremy Clarkson’s version with Hawkstone.
Guinness’ continued rise in reputation can be attributed to the ‘splitting the G’ social media trend, which the likes of Olympian Ilona Maher and Instagram star Schooner Scorer have taken part in, as well as general endorsement from the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kevin Hart, and Olivia Rodrigo.
Other celebrities who have been partial to a pint in the past include Camila Cabella, who last year dropped into a pub following her show at the 3Arena and Coleen Rooney, who caused controversy by adding a collagen supplement to a draught.
Actors such as Hugh Jackman, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, and Lisa Bonet have all been spotted with pints in the past, too.
In 2024, Anne Hathaway gushed about Guinness live on TodayFM, telling hosts: “My heart beats for Ireland. And then, of course, when you ask me about it, I'm just like ‘Guinness’.
"I'm sorry to say the most cliched answer, but when I worked there when I was 19 years old, I discovered Guinness.
"And I also discovered you don't start drinking it until the last week of the film, which is like drinking a loaf of bread.”
She added that being able to trace her Irish heritage back to Cork and Donegal she felt ‘very Irish’ and that was probably why she had been ‘so lucky with my career’.
"Ireland is such an amazing country, and I have this little dream in the back of my head that someday I'll end up living there.”
During an interview with comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble on their podcast, Off Menu, actor Paul Rudd claimed the drink he would order at his ‘dream’ restaurant would always be a Guinness.
“It would be brown. It would be a pint of Guinness,” he said, claiming that he didn’t want a shamrock shape in the frothy top.
“No, I don’t need any of that touristy garbage. But it needs to be poured properly, because people don’t know how to pour a Guinness.
“There’s a real way to do it,’ the Power Ballad star continued. “If you’re in a pub and you see someone pouring a Guinness, and you know, they take it up and leave a little bit of space to let it rest for – I believe the optimum time is one minute 19 and a half seconds.
“Then, instead of pulling the tap, you push the tap forward to finish it off. It’s something about nitrogen and yeast. That’s how you do it and people don’t know that.”
He added that if he would rather ‘grin and bear it’ than send back a ‘bad pint’, and that the ‘biggest downside of fame’ is that he can’t ask bartenders to pour him a glass ‘the right way’.
Last year, Dune: Part Two star Florence Pugh appeared in a Joe interview beside David Harbour, where she admitted she was a ‘huge fan’ of a pint of Guinness and that she also enjoyed the non-alcoholic version.
The 30-year-old also gushed about the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, recaling how she could smell all of the ‘sticky malt’ goodness wafting from right down the street.
Pugh is also a Guinness World Record holder, having jumped from Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, the second-tallest building in the world, while filming Marvel’s Thunderbolts.