The African Beer Cup, the continent’s largest and most prestigious beer competition, has concluded its 2026 edition and crowned a new champion. Cape Town’s Woodstock Brewery claimed the coveted title of Best Beer in Africa for their Funky Monk’s. The beer is a deeply complex sour ale, blended from several beers of varying ages and aged in oak barrels over a number of years.
Funky Monk’s beat 243 other entries from 16 African countries to take the top spot in the annual competition. Woodstock is no newbie to winning medals at the competition, but this is the first time in the competition’s seven-year history they’ve taken the top spot.
“Winning Best Beer in Africa was something I started to feel was unachievable for us, purely due to how amazing the beer in South Africa and the entire continent has become,” said Woodstock’s head brewer Tinus Lottering. “An incredibly high standard has been set and I am honoured that Woodstock has met that expectation. A lot of what I learned from others throughout the years went into this creation and I say thank you to the brewers I often interact with. Doing this takes a village and I’m damn proud of the entire Woodstock Brewery team.”
The brewery won a total of six medals – three golds and two silvers.
A continent raising its glass
The African Beer Cup was founded with a singular ambition: to identify, celebrate and elevate the finest beers being brewed across Africa. This year’s competition saw 244 beers entered — spanning craft microbreweries and large commercial producers alike. The competition celebrates the remarkable growth of African brewing in recent years.
A total of 89 medals were awarded across the competition’s categories, which range from classic international styles such as lagers, IPAs and stouts, to distinctly African categories including beers featuring traditional African brewing grains, beers showcasing South African hops, and fruit flavoured beers, a growing trend catering to a sweeter palate.
“It’s interesting to see the trends in the competition entries, a great representation of the wider African beer industry,” said Lucy Corne, competition director and beer journalist. “This year we saw a huge increase in the number of non-alcoholic beers entered, a trend that echoes what is happening globally. We received more entries than ever in the categories that celebrate African ingredients, which shows that African brewers are forging their own beer identity. And finally, we saw a great increase in the number of collab brews, celebrating the innovative and collaborative nature of the beer industry.”
Celebrating African innovation
The competition has a special award which goes to the highest scoring beer that champions the use of African ingredients. This year the African Celebration Award went to Soul Barrel Brewing, situated in the Cape Winelands. The winning beer was Live Culture, a mixed fermentation ale that features 100% South African hops. This is the second time the brewery has won the African Celebration Award, sponsored by the Beer Association of South Africa (BASA).
“BASA’s involvement in these awards is important because beer has always been about more than just brewing, it’s about people, culture, creativity, and connection,” said Archy Hlahla, Communications, Marketing and Stakeholder Relations Manager at BASA. “Platforms like the African Beer Cup Awards allow us to celebrate not only the rich traditions that make African brewing unique, but also the innovation shaping its future.”
Winning at the African Beer Cup is no easy feat. Every beer entered in the competition is evaluated not once, but twice — by two entirely separate panels of expert judges — in a rigorous process designed to remove bias, inconsistency and subjectivity from the results. Panels are drawn from a hand-picked cohort of Beer Judge Certification Programme (BJCP)-qualified judges and industry experts from around the world. This year, 58 judges from a dozen countries across the globe participated.
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