The 2026 survey was carried out on June 13th, and for the second time we covered the whole branch with our 61 volunteers visiting 441 pubs in Norwich and the county area of the branch. I’ve broken down the analysis into Norwich and then total / county, so we can compare the Norwich figures to previous years.
Norwich
We found 255 different beers available, in a total of 428 beers on sale on handpump or gravity in 206 pubs surveyed. There were 109 pubs serving one or more real ales. Many of the ‘non-real-ale’ venues are hotels or ‘night time’ bars.
The 2026 totals compare with 265 different beers in a total of 466 found in 2025.
The average price of a pint has risen to £4.90 from £4.68 in 2025 and £3.68 in 2019, a 4.7% and 33% increase respectively. The average strength of beer was unchanged at 4.3%, roughly £1.14 for every 1% ABV. The most expensive beer was £15 – a recrod, beating last year’s high of £9 by £6! – and the cheapest £1.99 – I’m sure you can guess where.
The average price of the cheapest keg lager came out at £6.02, compared to £5.87 the previous year, and the avergae price of a pint of Guinness was £5.01 (down from £5.20), highlighting that real ale continues to be excellent value, but also that perhaps the shine is coming off lager!
The most popular beers (with publicans at least!) were Adnams Ghost Ship, in 16 pubs (20 in 2025), followed by Greene King Abbot in 11 pubs (13), Sharp’s Doom Bar in 11 (12) and Timothy Taylor Landlord in 10 (6) and Greene King IPA in 8 (12), the same as Wolf Golden Jackal (6), with all others in 7 or fewer pubs.
Other top local beers were Fat Cat Tom Cat and Woodforde’s Wherry (in 7 pubs), and Lacons Encore (5), the same three as 2025 but in reverse order!
The top five included a total of 56 pumps on the bar, down from 65 in 2025 showing a further increase in diversity. This is even more marked if we go back to 2013, where the top five (Wherry, Adnam’s Southwold, Doom Bar, Adnam’s Broadside and Woodforde’s Nelson’s Revenge) took 128 slots, and were all ‘brown’ bitters.
Total Branch, including Norwich
We found 399 different beers available, compared to 389 in the previous year, in a total of 1,108 beers (1,177) on sale on handpump or gravity in 441 pubs surveyed. So slightly fewer beers overall, but a slightly better variety.
The average price of a pint was £4.95 (£4.73), again slightly higher than the Norwich price, with the average strength of beer slightly lower at 4.2% – this is pretty much as expected given that many county pubs are food-led (so less price sensitive?) and tend not to stock higher ABV beers (drink driving!).
The average price of a pint of Guinness and the price of the cheapest keg lager came out at £5.99 (£5.76) and £5.01 (£5.04) respectively, essentially no different from the Norwich prices.
The most popular beers (with publicans at least!) were Woodforde’s Wherry, with a whopping 63 (55 last year) sightings in the county, making 70 (62) overall! Adnams Ghost Ship, Greene King Abbot and Greene King IPA followed up with 49, 41 and 36 (58, 48 and 37 last year) sightings respectively, so little real change.
The top local beers were Lacons with three beers in the top 20, Woodforde’s and Moon Gazer (2) and Barsham, Wolf and Grain with one each – exactly the same as last year! The top five included a total of 229 pumps (237) on the bar.
Woodforde’s share the top spot for number of beers with Greene King, with 114, compared to last year’s totals of 98 and 125 respectively, showing a significant comeback for the Norfolk brewery. Adnams’s with 85 (99), Moon Gazer 80 (74), Lacons 76 (79) and Wolf 44 (48) took the next four places, so the top six was the same just in slightly different order.
Timothy Taylor (7th with 40) and Sharp’s (10th with 33) were the highest placed nationals (after Greene King if they’re now a national brewer). 12 of the top 20 were Norfolk breweries, with 3 from Suffolk.
Thanks to all the volunteers who selflessly visited all the pubs, Craig Harmer for organising the survey, and Ian Stamp, Martin Ward and Emma Thomas for helping enter all the data!