Ahead of the Great British Beer Festival (August 11 -15), Sam Wylie-Harris pours some perfect pints

With an ever-expanding choice of craft beer and huge diversity in styles, hop to it and start tapping into some 'cru' brews.

America was the pioneer of these specialist beers (craft beer is brewed on a small scale using the best ingredients) and with the market flourishing, the Great British Beer Festival (August 11-15, Olympia, London) is a golden opportunity to explore more than 900 real ales and international beers from around the world.

But if you can't make it to the UK's biggest beer festival, plenty of breweries and a wealth of brands are driving up quality and innovation, which means a greater range of interesting beers to taste this summer.

Indeed, last month Lidl launched a selection of 48 regional ales to showcase some of the best craft ales available and to reflect the regions they're being stocked in. Additionally, from the beginning of September, the discounter will be extending the regional offer by adding three more craft ales per region.

Available nationwide, highlights include classic British bitters such as Bishops Finger, Faversham, Kent (£1.25, 5.4% abv, 50cl, Lidl) brewed with Shepherd Neame's signature Kentish hops for a well-hopped fruity finish with a beguiling biscuity note.

"Nowadays there are so many beer aficionados and great local breweries around the UK, it's tremendous to see a supermarket like Lidl supporting them," says Alex James, former Blur bassist and cheese connoisseur who is fronting Lidl's beer promotion.

Elsewhere, Cheddar Ales have enjoyed a spate of success in competitions and renamed their Summer Pale Ale, which won gold in the Bitter and Pale Ale category of the SIBA South West to Cheddar Ales Hardrock Pale Ale (£24, case of 12, 4.4% abv, 50cl, www.cheddarales.co.uk).

Rebranded to encourage beer geeks to enjoy it all year round, it's very hoppy with a floral finish and a note of orange peel. Complex and intense, it's a blend of Brewers Gold, Mount Hood and Chinook whole hops which are conditioned for at least two weeks with the addition of dry hops.

A crafty brew born of a hobby, Bedlam are now producing four cask-conditioned beers in the heart of the South Downs, West Sussex, and boasts a solar-powered brewery and a vast field where they grow hops on-site. Brewed with three hop varieties and malts, try Bedlam India Pale Ale (£2.19, 4.8% abv, 33cl, www.butlers-winecellar.co.uk), which is rich with vivid hop characters, and Bedlam Benchmark (£2.09, 4% abv, 33cl), which is fresh and inviting with a nice, malty presence.

Designed for long hot summer days, Meantime Brewery in Greenwich have released Meantime Summer Saison (£24.99, case of 12, 5% abv, 33cl, www.meantimebrewing.com) which is modelled on the traditional Saison style fruity pale ales of southern Belgium; it's smooth and refreshing with a subtle fruity tartness.

Meanwhile, Oddbins have teamed up with micro brewery Rocky Head in South London to create Oddbins No 5 Saison (£2.80, 4.8% abv, 33cl, Oddbins) in a similarly refreshing Saison style. Delightfully fragrant and fruity, there's also a gentle spicy note and the flavours are enhanced by a touch of lemongrass.

With a range of award winning beers, Daring Diver (£6, 4.7% abv, 4 x 50cl, Morrisons) is the latest release from Badger Ales, Dorset. Originally brewed a couple of years ago for a beer festival and now widely available, it's an amber beauty with a distinctive, hoppy character (it's brewed with Slovenian Celeia hops) underpinned by a malted barley and rye base with a feisty, bitter finish.

When the temperature rises, nothing quite quenches the thirst like a beer made with glacial water, lending a clean, fresh crispness. A Belgian style white beer (witbier), Einstok Icelandic White Ale (£13.99, 5.2% abv, 6 x 33cl bottles, Majestic) really hits the spot and strikes the right balance between complexity, flavour and finish with infusions of coriander and orange peel and a zingy, citrusy edge.

A real crowd pleaser and session beer, Queen Bohemian Lager (£12, 4.7% abv, case of 6, 33cl, rndrinks.com) is the self-styled beer of British rock band Queen who played in Prague earlier this year and enjoyed its world-famous Bohemian pilsner.

Using three Czech ingredients - soft artesian water, Czech barley malt and Noble Saaz hops, it's fresh and citrusy with spicy aromas and a clean, bitter, hoppy finish that will leave beer lovers eager for the next round.

Further along the bottling line, jazzy labels from artful brewers can turn a slim-necked bottle into a connoisseur's can. Best of Spanish Craft Beer Mixed Case (£22.99, various abvs, 33cl, case of 6, www.amazon.co.uk) offers a broad flavour wheel of gold to amber beers and includes Au Yeah! American Pale Ale Cerveza Artesanal from Valencia (4.5% abv), which has a lemon lift and displays a good balance of malt against an earthy, hoppy background.