Kirin’s Spring Valley Brewery wins first Best Brewery title, adds 11 medals

Kirin’s Spring Valley Brewery turned the International Brewing Awards into a showcase for Japanese craft beer, claiming the competition’s first Best Brewery title and stacking up 11 medals around it. The win matters beyond one trophy count: it put a Kirin-backed brewery at the top of a global field judged by working brewers, in a competition built around nine broad categories and 33 classes.

The 2026 judging took place March 3 to 5 at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, with results announced March 6 and the awards ceremony held May 20 at The Guildhall in London. All judges were practising brewers, and the trophy round only begins after gold medalists are narrowed through multiple rounds of judging and anonymous voting. In that setting, Spring Valley did not just collect medals. It emerged as the brewery with the most awards in the competition, which is what earned it the new Best Brewery trophy.

Kirin said the brewery’s 11 awards were its highest total since entering the competition in 2021. Hojun Lager 496 took gold in Smallpack Lager Class 4, giving the brand a clear marker in a category that rewards technical precision, freshness and package performance. Juicy Hop also stood out, winning the International Keg Ale trophy after judges singled out its clean hop character, varied hop use and balance of flavor.

That combination tells a bigger story about what is traveling well from Japan’s craft-connected breweries. Spring Valley’s beers are landing with judges not through one loud signature alone, but through a blend of character and drinkability, a formula Kirin says defines the brand’s brewing approach. That balance has practical value in a market where drinkers want expressive hop aroma, but also clarity, finish and repeatability across different formats, from smallpack lager to keg ale.

The brand’s name also carries its own historical weight. Kirin says Spring Valley Brewery pays homage to the original Spring Valley Brewery founded in Yokohama in 1870 by William Copeland, linking the current operation to one of the earliest threads in Japanese brewing history. Brewers Kousuke Higashibashi and Takumi Matsumoto attended the ceremony in the UK for the first time since the brewery began entering in 2021, calling the event historic and prestigious and saying the brewery will keep making beers intended to surprise and delight customers.

For Japanese breweries with international ambitions, that is the real signal from London: technical quality, stylistic balance and a credible brewing lineage can still cut through on the world stage, and Spring Valley Brewery just proved it with a first-place title and 11 medals to match.