Queer Brewing wins Star Award in UK’s Top 50 Beers

The UK’s queer- and trans-owned brewery Queer Brewing has won the Star Award in beer experts and UK beer festival organisers We Are Beer’s annual Top 50 UK Beer Awards.

Queer Brewing’s flagship pale ale Existence As A Radical Act has been awarded the Star Award in We Are Beer’s annual Top 50 UK Beer Awards, recognising the work the brewery does in driving industry change.

The beer, alongside which Queer Brewing’s witbier was shortlisted for the awards, was announced as the recipient of the award after judging of over 500 beers by 5,000 members of the UK’s brewing trade and industry. The recipient of the Star Award is chosen by the We Are Beer team for the beer’s impact in pushing the industry forward. Last year’s winner was Gipsy Hill Brewing Co’s Swell Lager, chosen for its focus on sustainability, being brewed with regeneratively-grown barley.

“Existence As A Radical Act uncompromisingly advocates for a more inclusive beer industry,” wrote We Are Beer in the announcement on Instagram. “We think at this moment in culture and in the category evolving and growing, that this beer and what Queer Brewing stands for is worthy of this year's Star Award.”

“We were thrilled and honoured to see the announcement that Existence had won this year’s Star Award,” says Queer Brewing founder Lily Waite-Marsden. “To have our biggest beer recognised for the work that we do to provide visibility and representation for LGBTQ+ people in the beer world and beyond—as well as in helping to lead the industry in making beer a more welcoming and inclusive sphere—is very special and a big honour. To be recognised alongside some of the very best beers and breweries in the industry is hugely meaningful to us, especially in the year where we’ve finally brought brewing in-house with the building of our own brewery after four years of contract brewing.”

“It’s especially meaningful now when LGBTQ+ rights are under attack in the UK—in particular considering the UK government attacking and removing trans people’s basic rights,” she continues. “What this beer and its name symbolise is that in a hostile world, simply existing as yourself can be a radical and revolutionary act, so it means a great deal to receive this recognition right now. We’re so grateful to the We Are Beer team alongside the broad range of judges for this award—next year we’ll be gunning for the top spot!”

Existence As A Radical Act is Queer Brewing’s most popular beer, accounting for over a quarter of the brewery’s annual output. The 5% pale ale is hopped with Citra and Simcoe and fermented with a Norwegian Kveik yeast strain, resulting in a bright and vibrant beer with notes of mango, pineapple, lime, and tangerine. Unusually for a UK brewery’s biggest beer, in 2023 it was made to be gluten-free* to widen the beer’s appeal and to include drinkers living a gluten-free lifestyle. 

Existence As A Radical Act is available now via Queer Brewing’s webshop, and in a number of bars and venues across London and nationwide.

https://thequeerbrewingproject.com/shop

Notes to Editors:

Queer Brewing is the UK’s first queer- and trans-owned brewery, making queer beers and beer queer since 2019. Founded by Lily Waite-Marsden after recognising a significant lack of LGBTQ+ representation in the beer world, she set out to take up space in an industry dominated by cisgender, heterosexual, male voices.

Starting as a collaboration project with UK-based and international breweries, the award-winning Queer Brewing has now grown into an empowering brand and fully operational brewery in its own right. Producing a wide range of beer styles with evocative branding to provide visibility and representation for LGBTQ+ people, they’ve raised tens of thousands of pounds for LGBTQ+ charities—first from funds raised from collaboration beers, and as of 2024 by donating 10p from every pint and can sold.

Based in Leyton, East London, they started brewing in their own premises in January 2025, and open their much-loved taproom every weekend to local and LGBTQ+ communities.

Photo and logo assets can be downloaded here.

Contact: Queer Brewing hello@thequeerbrewingproject.com

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