Most expensive pint ever?

[El Pibe]

I tried. Hopeless beer the other day. There's a reason why we use hops. It was undrinkable.

I think craft is a pretty loose term, but more or less it's about experimentation, breaking with traditional techniques.

Like anything where rule breaking, the results are mixed.

I really don't like the over strength IPAs, the flavour is just a bit unpleasant if you ask me, but there is a lot of good beer being made these days even if a lot of isn't really very crafty, and after years of lager or a soapy pint of London Pride that can only be a good thing.

[StraferJack]

Hop(e)less

like it

[El Pibe]

Good old autocorrect

[Jah Lush]

A handy beer guide.

http://londonist.com/2015/02/mapped-londons-breweries-and-brewpubs-by-borough.php?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Londonist&utm_content=Mapped:%20London's%20Breweries%20And%20Brewpubs%20By%20Borough

[JohnL]

???? Wrote:

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> When I started drinking in pubs the majority of

> beer sales were bitter and my dad/uncles etc all

> drank bitter and expected me to, so initially i

> did. But London pubs especially, but many

> elsehwere too, got worse and worse at looking

> after their ales and the rise of more premium (ie

> stronger so don't tastse as pissy) lagers in the

> 80s got me drinking lagers for years - and a bit

> of Guiness in irish pubs (propa ones not

> TipseyMcChains)- the only time i drank bitter then

> was in proper country pubs or if someone knew the

> ale was kept properly. The revival of decent

> tasting and kept ales has got me drinking ales

> anytime I go out nowadays, I only drink lager

> when there's no alternative (curry house say). I

> do like craft beer too on the whole, but mainly in

> bottles. I am pleased about the craft beer thing

> though as it's been a gateway for non-ale drinkers

> to start drinking ale (SJ for eg) and thus

> increased demand and hence quality of Real Ale in

> London. The biggest problem with Real Ale is as a

> live product it only keeps for about 3 days, so

> when the volume wasn't their it went off in many

> pubs which led people to think it tastes horrible

> and also led them to think that was what Real Ale

> tasted like. I still look at a pub for 'feel'

> before I order an ale though.

Wasn't the most popular beer until the 70s .. Mild

Actually according to Wiki I still drink it when I have Brains Dark :)

[Jeremy]

So... beer prices. A certain local shop is selling a beer for ?4, that costs ?2.40 in the supermarket. Another beer on the shelves is ?3.15, and ?1.75 in the supermarket. Now I don't expect small local shops to match Saintsbury's/Morrissons/Waitrose on price, but isn't this way above the premium you'd expect to pay?

[Jah Lush]

Is that the chilli, beer and vinyl shop, Jeremy? A fiver says it is.

[Seabag]

But, but but. The brewer is complicit in this as they sell to the supermarket at one price, then knowingly selling to the smaller newer and less business savvy at a greater price

Hence the retail price disparity

Don't knock the record/beer/chilli guys as they're trying to make it work given their margins

[Jah Lush]

I'm not knocking them. I like their shop and you're right about the disparity. I like the Brewdog Punk IPA that they sell.

[Jeremy]

I'm fine with the idea of paying a premium to "shop local", it's just the huge disparity which surprised me. Still, I like the shop and will continue to pop in from time to time, but unfortunately just for the occasional purchase.

[Otta]

Seabag Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> But, but but. The brewer is complicit in this as

> they sell to the supermarket at one price, then

> knowingly selling to the smaller newer and less

> business savvy at a greater price

>

> Hence the retail price disparity

You may know better than me, but I can't quite believe the disparity is quite that big.

But good luck to them, sounds like an interesting shop.

[red devil]

Maybe they should concentrate on selling non-supermarket beers, regardless of the buying price, no one likes to feel they are paying over the odds by that much...

[Otta]

Exactly. As much as you might want to support local businesses, you'd have to have more money than sense to pay ?4 for something you could buy for ?2.40.

[Seabag]

Agree with all the above

I only use once in a blue moon, probably because my sub-concious brain scans "?4.00 for a can of beer" that doesn't compute. But then I don't buy beer often enough to go to the supermarket and scour prices for it

Out of interest, how much does it sell for direct from the brewerey shops like Brick ?

[Otta]

I wouldn't know, I'm sticking to ?1.20 for a can of Heineken.

But I have decided that if The Alexandra ever opens in Penge I am going to drink ale and become reborn.

But at home I'll stick to the cheap stuff. Does the job innit.

[reds]

i always think Brick Brewery is expensive at around 3.80 a pint when you consider they're brewing it themselves, overheads must be minimal and they've hardly gone to any expense on the decor . I like the place but when you consider the Beer Shop sells Brick for ?3.50 its starting to take the piss a little bit.

[Horsebox]

?3.80 seems about right and I suspect they won't undersell their trade customers by too much.

I hadn't been in The Plough for a long time so was really surprised to be charged ?4.70 for a pint of Purity lager, served so cold that I cold barely taste it.

I'm so used to drinking Laines Best in The Great Exhibition at ?3.50 that it came as a bit of a shock to pay just shy of a fiver for a pint.

[Jeremy]

reds Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> the Beer Shop sells Brick for ?3.50

That is unusually cheap though... pint or bottle?

[reds]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> reds Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > the Beer Shop sells Brick for ?3.50

>

> That is unusually cheap though... pint or bottle?

?3.50 a pint. All four cask ales are ?3.50 a pint in The Beer Shop.

[Jeremy]

Oh, cask. Never mind!

[jenf]

Hi Jeremy and Seabag, it's Jen here from HB&B. I'd be interested to know which beers you're referring to - we're really proud of our reasonable margins and the reputation we've gained from honest pricing. As an independent retailer, We can't compete with supermarkets and never will be able to when they're able to retail beers for the same prices as it costs us to buy them from our suppliers. An example would be Thornbridge's Jaipur, which we buy at wholesale for ?2.10 but which retails in Waitrose for ?2.39. We try to avoid stocking the same beers as supermarkets for this very reason, but do make an exception for products such as Thornbridge and Brewdog's Punk IPA, which our customers ask for and which are very popular products. I hope this helps.

[Otta]

How much do your charge for these beers which you pay ?2.10 for?

[jenf]

Apologies in advance for the long post! Otta, we sell Jaipur for ?3.95 - a price we recognise is higher than a supermarket but also a price on which a very reasonable margin is applied (one that a quick Google will show is substantially less than the standard margin on beer used by most independent bottle shops).

We can count the number of brands we sell that are sold by supermarkets on one hand - as above, we sell these only because our customers ask for them (and indeed, Jaipur is one of our most popular products). However we don?t believe we should have to take a total bath on them just because supermarkets use these as loss-leaders. (I?d recommend reading Pete Brown?s book A Man Walks Into A Pub for a great explanation on how supermarkets use loss-leading discounts on alcohol to encourage shoppers into their store, usually locating the booze at the back of the store so that shoppers have to walk past other, non-heavily discounted products to get there...)

We?re a small, new independent store so we don?t yet have the clout to demand heavy discounts from our trade suppliers, but we?re always talking with them to see what can be done. (And unlike our supermarket friends, when we start turning a profit, you can bet we?ll be putting it right back into the community where we live and work rather than funnelling it to offshore bank accounts.)

A final point: when you come to an independent retailer, you?ll get knowledge and service you'd be hard pressed to find in a supermarket. We?ll tell you what beer will go with the meal you?re planning, what you might like to try next if you like a certain beer, where the beer came from, even what music the brewers like to listen to in the brewhouse... We have enormous passion for what we sell and we hope this always comes across. And if you?d rather get your Jaipur from Waitrose, that?s absolutely fine - we have 290 other beers you won?t find in a supermarket that you might like to try instead. :)

[Otta]

Good luck to you. I wasn't being funny, I was just interested as I know nothing of retail.

[jenf]

Thanks so much, Otta! And of course my extremely long reply wasn't solely directed to you, I just thought it might be of interest to the various folk who have commented above. And BTW we're taking over the turntables at the Gowlett tonight so if anyone feels like chatting further, we'd be happy to continue extolling the joys of beer and independent retail over a drink!