With Glastonbury looming and BBQ season in full swing, here at V-Land UK we have your back and can give our recommendations for the best festival drinks - both alcoholic and alcohol-free companions for those long summer evenings. Whether you’re in the back garden or away at a festival, here are the top five vegan beer (and cider!) offerings.

(Please note that due to local minimum unit pricing laws, the price of alcoholic products may differ in Wales or Scotland, and all prices are correct at the point of publication.)

Jubel (alcoholic and gluten-free)

Starting off strongly, we have Jubel which offers lager cut with peach, elderflower, blood orange, or grapefruit. This lager is gluten-free* and carbon-neutral; Jubel actively work towards a more sustainable future, demonstrating this by working with carbon removal projects such as enhanced weathering, biochar, soil sequestration, and reforestation.

We previously tried their peach lager at the Allergen and Free From Show in 2022, and it became a staple for our festival endeavours. We have found that Jubel works perfectly as a session drink or as a great way to kick off a night of celebration.

Available at: Sainsburys, Waitrose.

Cost: Roughly £6.50 for a pack of four beers in supermarkets but you can buy cases of 12, 24, or 48 directly from the Jubel website.

Alcohol content: 4%

Freestar (non-alcoholic and gluten-free)

Freestar are next on the list with an IPA brewed with Magnum, Mosaic, and Amarillo hops which provide a tantalisingly delicious juicy, bright beer which is dry, crisp, and full of flavour. It lacks the fruitiness of the Jubel and is more of a traditional IPA. Freestar are a completely alcohol and gluten-free brand also focusing on sustainability. As they are alcohol-free, they don’t need to go through the de-alcoholisation process meaning they emit 50% less CO2, use 75% less water, 60% less energy, and create 40% less waste than traditional methods, and are the first alcohol-free beer to become B-Corp certified.

Available at: Tesco, Sainsburys, Ocado, Amazon.

Cost: Roughly £1.80 a bottle or 12 cans cost £24.95 on the Freestar website.

Alcohol content: 0.5%

Beavertown Neck Oil (alcoholic, gluten-containing)

Beavertown are a modern, trendy beer company offering IPA, APA, craft lager, low-alcohol, and no-alcohol but for the sake of this article, we will focus on the beer we would recommend for a session IPA - Neck Oil. Fondly named after Founder Logan’s grandfather, who would often refer to visiting the local watering hole as “oiling his neck”. With hops of Columbus, Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo, Galaxy, Vic Secret, and Mosaic, it is a beautifully balanced IPA which is certainly perfect for oiling your neck!

Available at: Most large supermarkets.

Cost: Roughly £8 for a case of four lagers, or you can get cases of 12 or 24 from the Beavertown website.

Alcohol content: 4.3%

Beavertown

Brothers Festival Apple Cider (alcoholic and gluten-free)

Brothers have knocked it out of the park with their Festival Apple Cider. Officially the Cider of Glastonbury Festival, it’s not hard to taste why, for this is made with the juiciest, more bittersweet Somerset apples which are so incredibly full of flavour. It has a lighter apple taste than a standard cider, and compared to most ciders, it is incredibly soft on the palate making it very easy to drink. Every Brothers cider is certified as vegan by The Vegan Society and has rapidly become one of our choice of drinks, especially when paired with live music.

Available at: Tesco, Asda, Morrisons.

Cost: £20 for 20 cans from the Brothers website.

Alcohol content: 5%

Fungtn (non-alcoholic and listed as ‘gluten-free reduction’)

Fungtn have created a range of mushroom beers using functional mushrooms: lion’s mane, shiitake and reishi. Quite simply, this is a non-alcoholic beer designed to improve cognitive function, and improve mind, body, and spirit. Mushrooms are used frequently in food, but they also have additional uses, especially when it comes to traditional medicine, wellness, and recreational purposes.

The use of mushrooms in beer is something relatively new, and the mushrooms create a darker, earthier flavour, which when paired with the hops, creates a taste sensation. You aren’t able to taste the mushrooms, but you can definitely notice the dark, earthy undertones. 

Available at: Select independent stockists and directly.

Cost: £33.60 for 12 cans from the Fungtn website.

Alcohol content: 0.5% (or less)

Whatever your plans are for the summer, we hope that we’ve helped you narrow down some of the best vegan, gluten-free, non-alcohol, and alcohol-containing drinks to get you through. We are covering Download Festival next week so keep your eyes peeled for more festival content!

If you’re in need of more festival content, why not check out the vegan guide to Boomtown Festival, and if you’re wondering what the astonishing health benefits of mushrooms are, check out our article on fabulous fungi.

*Companies can use the term ‘gluten-free’ for foods that contain 20 parts per million (ppm) or less of gluten. This level has been deemed safe for those with coeliac disease. However, those with severe allergies to gluten may need to be prudent as the products labelled gluten-free could intentionally include a gluten-containing ingredient and then reduce or eliminate the gluten particles to the ‘safe level’.