BS: Price of Beer

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 09:53 AM

It's about 60 Baht where we are.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:25 AM

Never heard of salt being put in, although whenever I drink San Miguel I end up more thirsty afterwards than before so it's possible

Fullers Jack Frost contains blackcurrants (and is delicious)and Kriek contains raspberries and I believe Loddons make a nettle beer but salt? never.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:00 AM

Vinegar? Never heard of that. Salt sometimes, though better taken separetly in packet of crisps. And that might be salt and vinegar flavoured crisps)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 04:05 AM

LOL Sue!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: SueB
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 09:59 PM

Hence the phrase, "full of piss and vinegar"?

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Raedwulf
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 05:12 PM

19p on Fosters lager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I was him, Tig, I'd just stop selling Foster's & replace it with beer! Bloody kangaroo's piss...

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:30 PM

Do Brits still put a bit of vinegar in their ales and beers? Just wondering, I don't want to come off as offensive.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: SueB
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 11:12 AM

Thanks, I forgot about the 20oz pint vs the 16oz pint, which puts your bitter at around 20 cents US per oz, and the lager at around
23 cents US per oz, ( if you start with the avg prices in British pounds quoted in the very first post.)

Better beer on average, AND you get more of it. Not fair.

FWIW, 1.60 GBP is just over $3 at the current exchange rates, and 2 Pounds comes to just under $4, ( 1 GBP = $1.91). I'm not sure what exchange rate you'd be using to get 1.60 GBP to equal just less than $1, but whatever it is we haven't seen it in a long time! We've been deliberately weakening the USD for long enough that I can't remember what a strong dollar looks like - and apparently our Treasury Secretary has no idea either - every time he makes a statement in support of a strong dollar the dollar slides lower still...

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 08:08 AM

Quite right McGrath - US is 16oz (if I remember correctly) and we of course have a 20oz pint.

When I had my first'pint' of Anchor in San Francisco I did not know if I was being conned or it was an optical delusion.

Elfcall

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 05:44 AM

Remember, a British pint measure is a bit larger than an American pint measure.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Folkiedave
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 05:03 AM

Why do Americans serve their beer so cold?
To distinguish it from gnats piss.

Only kidding folks....I was gob-smacked when in Oregon at the variety and quality and strength of the beer from the micro-breweries. A movement that seemed to have really taken off. And I visited a few.

There is a current problem in that the $/£ ratio is so high/low depending where you live...thus conversions are a bit meaningless. Currrently it makes GB beer look expensive in the States and vice-versa.

In one of Sheffield's Valley of Beer pubs last night the least expensive beer was £1.60 (less than a $) and the most expensive just over £2.00. That's for hand-pulled or gravity beer. Then there is a range of continental beer, especially Belgian lagers both on draught and in bottles. No music or TV (except folk-oriented live music or jazz) a range of newspapers and books and a Russian billiard table.

Sounds like heaven to me!!

Regards,

Dave
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: SueB
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:26 AM

(Some might say you denizens of the UK ought to pay more for beer - it's better beer, your currency's strong, your economy's booming judging by the BoE's hiking up of interest rates, and your PM actually uses words of greater than two syllables - and uses them correctly! What d'ya want, egg in your beer? )

Just kidding! Just kidding!

Come to America, the beer's cheaper!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: SueB
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:16 AM

If I understand this correctly, and have done the math correctly, your 2.15 GBP pint of draft bitter is 4.10 USD, or 26 cents/oz. Your 2.40 GBP lager is 4.58 USD, or 29 cents/oz. I haven't been to the friendly neighborhood bar in almost a decade - anyone know if $4 or $4.50 for a draft is high these days?

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:08 AM

Im going to have to move back up north!! We already pay over £2 a pint here in London!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 03:49 AM

Someone up there must have been listening to my moans. Apologies last night for not giving me the member's discount when I asked last week - got it this week and a refund. No drop in beer price but at least choice was between Young's and Ruddles this week. Shame about the band (Ian Parker band) .Young and skilled could play blues but all self-penned numbers, only a couple sounded like blues to me, and all too loud, bass and keyboard drowned out singer/guitarist till they got it sorted out, came on late, too. I left early with another group of regulars- only about 20 of us there to start with. Missing a couple of weeks for other activities so hope for better things later.

RtS
(old curmudgeon in the corner)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Bassic
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 12:31 AM

That is my point McGrath. Spitfire at less than £1 a pint.....for a strong Bitter.........and a good one at that..........no "ordinary" pub can compete with that.
W are well known for buying "surplus" stocks with only a few days left of shelf life at knock down prices..........this current offer is aparently the tail end of a contract that has lots of un-sold beer. Hence the price........this is a £2.10-£2.30 pint in most pubs. Its £2 in my local and that is less than the usual mark up because it is so popular. They are selling it far cheaper than most pubs can buy it! I say again,

Support your local..............keep music live!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 11:16 PM

A "decent" IPA (Full Sail) runs a consistenat $7.00/ six/pack of 12 oz bottles ON SALE.....When you can get it....Anchor Steam "Full Sail Chritmas Celebration Ale is about $10.00/ six pack.

Sincerely,

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 06:32 PM

I see someone's already mentioned Witherspoons.

Maybe we're luckier than some, but our one in Harlow, in the old Labour Exchange, is pretty good. Beer starts below £1 a pint (Shepherd Neame Spitfire), good large non-smoking section next to a wall of random old books. And the foods reasonable too.

No live music true enough, but no canned music either - and more often than not I find I run into local folkies any time I drop in.

(And the beer in the British Legion in Waltham Abbey, where there's a folk club on Mondays, is cheap too; as it is in the Thursday folk club in Bishop's Stortford.)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Tig
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 04:46 PM

You should have heard the explosion from Magician on Monday morning! He was still suffering the after effects of his handfasting weekend and a Mudcat gathering when he got a letter from the Brewery informing him of the price increases.

Initial calculations showed that he should charge an extra 10p on a pint of bitter and 19p on Fosters lager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The idea did NOT go down well. He tries to keep his costs as low as possible and, as anyone drinking the beer this weekend will agree, the beer the best it possibly can be.

Later in the day his business manager assured him it would ONLY be a hike of 6p a pint on the beer ie 31/2% of the price and higher than most peoples wage increases for the year - still totally outrageous with the budget still looming.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 03:08 PM

In today's "Independent"....

Page 16 - "A new craze for inhaling alcohol could cause brain damage, medical experts warned yesterday."

Page 17 - "Consumers spent £1.3bn on alcohol in the run-up to Christmas. Almost £69m worth of Stella Artois lager was bought in the month before Christmas, making it the season's best-seller, a long way ahead of Bailey's Irish Cream, which claimed second place with sales of £35m, aaccording to figures from the analysts AC Nielsen.... British shoppers bought more US wine than Italian wine fro the first time last year.... Wines from Australia remained the most popular in the the UK".

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 02:37 PM

Lovely Northern trick to put beer that is well past its sell by through a sparkler. The only time I drink bottled beer is at Whitby.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 10:48 AM

Probably that southern softy flat cooking bitter as well !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 09:55 AM

My local jazz/blues club helps me to drink less by charging £2.30 a pint for cooking bitter and £2.60 for the good stuff and £3 for cider. What with increased entry charge this year and no discount for members on a Tuesday, I'll have to stick to water or go less often.

RtS
(aka Poor Pensioner)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Bassic
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 09:09 AM

The worst culprits are the Pub Co`s. Beer is not that expensive if you can buy it on the open market........but very often even Leaseholders are tied to a single supplier for their beer and pay about a third more for their beers as a result, and the Pub co`s, as Gareth suggests are simply property companies, out to make the maximum income from their holdings. Often with a very short term view as well.
Rents are generally horrendous and make no allowances for fluctuations in trade, despite the fact that Leaseholders have often paid large sums up front to buy the lease. You only have to look at the number of boarded up pubs and pubs for sale in most parts of the country to see how little money there is in the traditional "Local" these days. Also look at the cost of buying a "Freehouse" in a popular area for drinkers........Lottery winners money!! And then there are the Pub Supermarkets like Wetherspoons, (I heard that even they are struggling to make a profit!) who are also creaming off a great deal of trade.

Support your Local........!!

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Alexis (sans cookie)
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 08:41 AM

I'll try again - you have just reminded me of how I was ripped off both in Ely FF and Sidmouth £3.00 a pint and even £2 for a coke last year - bastards. And then on our day of Dance (Wrigley Head) I was paying £4.02 for three pints of Holts.
Where is the justification?
There it didn't take too much to get me ranting again

Cheers
Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Alexis (sans cookie)
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 08:36 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 08:23 AM

Wandering Minstrel - how right thou art my liege! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 08:17 AM

Ghateshead Brown Ale???? I don't think so :(

This is just another plot to squeeze the drinker by the big brewers. Drink good ale from small independent breweries. It's better for you anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 07:38 AM

S & N (Scottish Courage) are stock market driven hence selling off the pubs to Spirit. I think it's a crying shame they are going to stop a proud brewing tradition in Edinburgh but the stock market peeps will have realised that the brewery is in such a prime development site.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Hugh Jampton
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 06:49 AM

Did I hear this morning, Scottish & Newcastle are folding with job losses?. If so the high prices have not helped them.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: John Routledge
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 06:14 AM

OOps

Last para should read

"My London local in the early 70's used to sell approaching 20,000 pints of beer per WEEK.Total rates payable were £3500 per YEAR - less than 0.5p per pint"

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: John Routledge
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 06:00 AM

Spot on Gareth.

By increasing the rents that tenants pay the value of the Estate is increased dramatically.

The tenants then have to increase the price of drinks to be able to afford to pay the increased rent.

Business rates increase used to be the excuse.

My London local in the early 70's used to sell approaching 20,000 payable were £3500 per YEAR - less than 1p per pint

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 05:16 AM

most of the money goes to buying bloody jukeboxes blasting out crap.

Subject: BS: New way of getting stonked!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 02:58 AM

Someone has invented an "oxygen/alcohol bubble pipe" - supposedly less chance of a hangover - no calories, no allergies, no taste - but you could get hit harder... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 02:52 AM

Holt's beer from Manchester is still amongst the cheapest in the country at around £1.30 for a pint of bitter. And they support Christies hospital! (and Holt Radium Institute). It still does my head in though which at about 4% abv it shouldn't. Wonder what else they put in it...;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:27 PM

I am never impressed by the fact that they charge excise duty on my beer and THEN they charge VAT on the resulting price, so I'm paying tax on the tax I've already paid.
Quack!
GtD.
One time editor af a beer drinking magazine...

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Gareth
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 09:16 AM

I am not convinced about the Taxation argument. In fact this was exploaded by the Legal Action the Sheppherd Neame Brewery of Faversham took some short years ago.

In the UK the Tax basis is two stage.

First there is the Excise Tax, calculated on the specific gravity of the Wort befor fermentation. This for an "average" strength pint of say 3.5 ish ABV is somewhere in the region of 30 - 32 pence per pint.

Value Added Tax of 17.5% forms part of the final price. Allowance is given for wastege and ullage by the Customs and Excise.

Working backward from the price of a pint at say £2.00 hence if my calculations are correct.

£2.00 includes about {(200/117.5)*17.5) say 30 pence

Thus the total tax take is say 30 + 32 = 62 p

Very roughly the cost for a publican to buy in the beer (And I ignore bulk discounts and barallage commision) would be about a pound a pint.

Of this £1.00 - 32p is Excise duty and roughly 15p VAT.

That 15p VAT is a deductable input against the total VAT due from the publican.

So the price in the bar equates to :-

£0.53 to the Brewers
£0.62 to the Government
£0.85 to the Publican.

I suspect that bigger villain is the rent charged by the Landlords to the Publican.

Still we are told the cost of beer is all the fault of the Government, and who tells us this - The big brewers.

I am open to correction if any UK 'Catter has more up to date figures, or better mathematics.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 09:14 AM

Apart from Wetherspoons (which I don't care much for) cheapish beer in Sheffield at New Barracks £1.40 Barnsley £1.60 Abbeydale, Hillsborough £1.60 for HPA , Kelham Island Tavern £1.56 fpr Pictish Brewers Gold. Any Holts pub in Manchester £1.40. Any Sam Smiths in Yorkshire at £1.30.

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 08:26 AM

The answer is - don't drink the products of the Big 3, it's mostly Cat-Waz and Boy's-Ale anyway. Sooz has the right answer, find a pub with a landlord who has traditional beer-keeping skills and that sells beers from the small breweries, which still taste like beer should. I can still get REAL Real Ale ('Lightyear' - 3.9% ABV) at the 8 Jolly Brewers for £1-35 a pint, or a bit more for higher strength stuff (although I try to avoid stronger beers at my advanced age because I get pissed before I've had enough).
Johnny (Hic!)
:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Beardy
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:44 AM

Its just the usual suspects, the big 3 national brewing companies, Carlsberg/Tetley, Scottish & Newcastle and Interbrew profiteering again.
In terms of micro/small brewers when the cost of a pint is broken down only around 30p of the cost goes directlty to the brewer, there is the publicans profit etc to be taken into account but the majority of the cost is TAX.

Stewart

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: nutty
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 06:55 AM

Budget Day soon as well ................boohoo

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Sooz
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 06:39 AM

First pint I bought was 1/9. However, the Eight Jolly Brewers in Gainsborough where we hold our Folk Club usually has one real ale priced at under £1.50. (It was a long time ago!)

Subject: RE: BS: Price of Beer
From: Apache
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 06:25 AM

That's why Student Unions were invented! lol Cheap Beer. And Sam Smiths Pubs.

Subject: BS: Price of Beer going up
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 05:46 AM

Looks like the price of a pint is going up again with pubs expected to charge drinkers an extra 10p for lager and bitter. Look at these lame and contradictory reasons the breweries have given. Most pubs in the London area are already charging more than this. Where in Britain can you still get a cheap pint?

News item on www.tesco.net -
"Brewery bosses are blaming last year's scorching summer on the price hike, claiming people drank so much beer in a bid to cool down that it forced them to buy more expensive hops to keep up with demand.

The hot weather also led to a poor hop harvest which has meant higher production costs.

The breweries also plan to charge consumers more to make up for the money they spent on marketing and advertising to combat falling sales.

As a result, the average price of a pint of bitter will rise to £2.15 and lager will rise to around £2.40 a pint."