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does anyone buy them?
I’m a fully paid up artisan/craft consumer and I don’t care.
selvage denim made in London, decent wine, £3 artisan donuts (from St John bakery), shoes from Northampton, Danish ‘mid century’ furniture (the real stuff not Ikea crap) single origin coffee from the best roasters in Europe (the Barn/ Drop etc). And I like beer, proper beer like mild and stout/porter as well as saison, lambic, gueuze etc so not adverse to seeking out and paying for interesting beer.
but £8-£9 for a can of cloudwater?
I imagine someone will be buying them otherwise they wouldn't be making them.
No in short.
We have a wee artisan beer shop and bar place in town that we frequent which sells some nice beers at about £3 to £4a can and I’ll partake in that stuff but they also have bottles up to about £17!! This is mainly Belgian beer and I’ll be surprised if they’ve ever sold a bottle yet.
I have paid that price for beer. It has to be good and it's a treat. Think of it like paying extra for good wine. The extra cost of the hops and that it is probably a limited run is why it costs more. They're not getting the savings the mega brewers get and they create real local jobs.
If you think it's too much don't buy it and don't worry about it.
I think I've gone to £6.50, maybe £7.
This is very good, though £6.15
https://www.magicrockbrewing.com/product/what-are-the-odds-500ml-can/
If it's something that looks good, why not?
I've paid about £20 for a 330ml bottle before, and it was sublime. Worth every penny, and lasted an evening. Black Tokyo Horizon.
Yes, if you like it and can afford it why not?
I only like Co-op imported Czech Lager (£1.50/500ml bottle), Cornish Pilser (£2.30 to £3.00/pint) and some imported German white beer (£1.85/500ml bottle).
I have tried some IPA stuff but not to my liking.
Not that unusual for me, although I do live in Norway so that's my excuse. But as a treat, and if it's well rated why not?
I think I tried some Nogne a while back, don’t think it was anything special, and certainly not good enough to stop me reaching for a Kernel India export porter or a table beer.
I might take a punt on a can of something ‘expensive’ from the local beer shop soon and see if they live up to the hype.
I wouldn't but then I've paid £4-£5 a pint for some terrible beer so that's probably worse value.
Not a chance, from me.
Not when my local produces the best real ale this side of the pacos... £3.20 a pint and take away at £2.90 a pint ..
You can dress how you like, it’s the demeanour that counts.
Yes. A Cloudwater DIPA, and a barrel aged sour.
£10 for a G&T and £3 for less than 1/2 pint in the hotel that I just spent an angry week in Majorca!
selvage denim made in London, decent wine, £3 artisan donuts (from St John bakery), shoes from Northampton, Danish ‘mid century’ furniture (the real stuff not Ikea crap) single origin coffee from the best roasters in Europe (the Barn/ Drop etc). And I like beer, proper beer like mild and stout/porter as well as saison, lambic, gueuze etc so not adverse to seeking out and paying for interesting beer.
Do you ever feel the need for a chicken sandwich meal from maccy d's?
£8-9 for cloudwater, someone's making a few quid on them and it isn't the brewery. never see a can of their's for more than £6 these days.
Some shops are keener on their pricing than others, recently seen 750ml cantillon kriek for sale at £10.80 in one place and £18.50 in another! recently bought a loverbeer saison for £8, which was really expensive and later saw it for sale elsewhere for £12, it was only a 375ml bottle too and some of the american stuff can be eye wateringly expensive!
Not adverse to spending decent money on decent beer but this whole craft beer scene is like the national lottery when it comes to quality! There's too many shit breweries out there and even the big hitters like cloudwater, verdant, magic rock, northern monk are turning out too much rubbish and asking top dollar for it, these days i rarely buy any cans i've not tried on keg previous.
Yes, I have done and some of the good stuff from Track next door.
The DIPA's are good beers and the hop bill alone will push up the price. The barrel aging also costs money and does a lot for the flavour. If you don't want to pay that they have everything for £3 a glass (size of glass varies by beer) in the barrel store.
But £8 for 500ml of good quality beer puts it at the same price as a £12 bottle of red - about the price for a half decent aussie shiraz these days, So it's not that bad really if you like the beer.
People have a price conditioning, beer is cheap and we drink lots of it, wine is more but we drink it slower etc. etc. the world of what is on offer is changing along with how we consume it. Plenty of people I know would now take some beers around to share over dinner over wine.
I think this thread has descended into "I'm frightfully more middle-class than you but still drink beer to stay in touch with the working man"
We should hold a fete to raise funds for the deserving poor to enjoy some.
Do you ever feel the need for a chicken sandwich meal from maccy d’s?
No, not had a McDonald’s since 1996. Fish and chips is my fast food of choice.
£8 for 4 Jack Hammer IPA will do me.
Most I’ve ever spent was £35 ish for a Tactical Nuclear Penguin.
We should hold a fete to raise funds for the deserving poor to enjoy some.
Will there be a similar scheme to allow me to have some Chateau de Chassilier?
Most I’ve ever spent was £35 ish for a Tactical Nuclear Penguin.
How was it, nearly got one for christmas from the local good offie but it had gone.
Worse value alcohol by volume for near on 4 pages 😉 Wine only has one real ingredient too so it's ridiculous how much the price varies. It's not like the costs of malt are up this year, the hops cost money and all that is it....
and yeah 3 posts in a row, frivolous
Sweet and smelt of ash trays.
Worth trying if you like a complex beer, it’s been a while since I tried it so would probably buy another 👍
The extra cost of the hops
Hops are a fixed price, and Yakima valley are churning out plenty. My tied gaff sells pints for upto £5,20 but that reflects our extortionate rent in one of the most desirable parts of the UK. Our cheapest untied pint is £3.40. Don't be mugged off!
To be clear, this is £8 in an off-licence /supermarket type place? If so, no. I really don't think I've spent more than £2.50, or maybe £3.00 on holiday in small local shops.
I'm not adverse to spending money on crap, so as Mike says above I'm just conditioned that beer is a cheap drink. I'm happy to spend a lot more occasionally for good wine or whisky so should probably try some "better" beers as well just to see what's out there.
maybe not £8, but I've paid a lot. Just been around California, and the selection there was amazing. Think the strongest was 9.5%, and even the wife got into a 8.5% Orange Wheat Beer. They were a bit more than the average Bud Light.
But it is only one an evening, savoured.
Here we're lucky to have two shops nearby, one in Newbury and one in Reading, and even the local brewer has now got a craft beer subsidiary selling DIPA or a pineapple pale ale.
I also work for a can producer, so quite frankly the more cans we sell the better. And the cans we produce for them are winning awards
Hops are a fixed price, and Yakima valley are churning out plenty.
Does every beer contain the same amount?
And i was thinking isopropanol
Much cheaper
Sources of divine IPA for under £4:
Smithfield Market Tavern, Manchester
The Dispensary, Liverpool
Does every beer contain the same amount?
Quite. I homebrew and beers with a high hop content cost me a lot more to make. And pricing varies depending on the variety. Then there's the additional losses from absorption.
8 Ace £1.49
Is that 8 beers of that or just something else? Are they double ipa's?
Is the stw policy that there should be a cap on beer prices? Where are we on other key staples like olives?
Absolutely no chance when I can walk into the convivial atmosphere of a pub and enjoy a fresh pint for £3 here in Manchester. If it's Holts, you know it was brewed very recently and has only travelled a couple of miles.
People who spend hideous amounts of money on miserable little cans of pasteurised beer fizzed up with CO2 are victims of the old marketing adage that if you sell things very expensive you can fool a certain number of gullible and cash-rich people into believing the product must be superior in some way.
. If it’s Holts, you know it was brewed very recently and has only travelled a couple of miles.
If it's cloud water I can buy it from the fridge in the room where the barrel aging happens. I can buy a fresh beer too. Keg style beer has made a very solid breakthrough in the craft Market due to quality.
Id guess you haven't tried any of the beers down there?
Just pop down
Cloudwater Unit 9 tap room
Piccadilly Trading Estate, Unit 9, Gidding Road, Manchester M1 2NP
0161 278 9029
https://goo.gl/maps/y1s3aHBzNv72
Try some beers and see if it's worth it
^^ couldn't agree more (apart from enjoying the Holts bit). Bought a White Rat last week in Liverpool for £3.30, it was 5/5 same as when I was last in that place. The RAT IPA was £3.60. Nothing out of a tin, pasteurised and gassed, could come close to that.
If it’s Holts, you know it was brewed very recently and has only travelled a couple of miles.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will get on with drinking beer that tastes nice.
petec, good to see Inn at Home mentioned there. A great shop (at least the Newbury one is, as that's the one I've been to). They sell the likes of Tiny Rebel, Stonehenge and Arbor as well, which is A Good Thing.
Nothing out of a tin, pasteurised and gassed, could come close to that.
You know that beer got delivered to the pub in a big metal tin, was made in a big metal tank? You can try and make it sound bad but truly it's not. I guess you didn't try any of them to actually compare to
good to see Inn at Home mentioned
The shop is the main reason I go to Newbury (although to be fair the town has improved immensely recently). Great selection, and there are some amazing local providers. The taproom at WestBerks is superb, and if you ever get the chance to go and see Tim at TuttsClump cider in his car workshop - leap at it. Lovely chap, who started off making 25 litres a year. He's now up to about 100000.
We had a bottle of Brewdog Sink the Bismark @ £55, can't remember if it was 330ml or 500ml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
Is this now applicable to beer?
There is also what I call "the myth of the artisan" that anything produced in small quantities by small companies is automatically better than something that is mass produced. My usual rant about this is focused on custom bike frames.
There is also what I call “the myth of the artisan” that anything produced in small quantities by small companies is automatically better than something that is mass produced.
Could be true, the way to tell would be to try it rather than buying a pint somewhere else and declaring nothing could be better. I got to know a lot of small/craft brewers they used to sell at the price that covered costs on the brew itself so the price variations for some of the ones with more expensive ingredients went up.They also don't have the scale as many of these brews could be one off batches as they explore.
Try some beers and see if it’s worth it
i’m going to (soon) there are 2 ‘craft’ beer shops 3 min walk away and friends of mine run a brewery down the road and they stock guest beers in can/bottle so access/choice is defiantly not a problem.
trouble is i will be comparing whatever i buy to what i can get from Kernel brewery whose beers i find exceptional and they are priced very reasonably.
“the myth of the artisan”
if someone made a decent flavoured beer in bulk, and cheap, I'd buy it.
Unfortunately most people prefer lager, or cider made with 35% apple juice and artificial fruit flavours
If you want 100% juice cider, or a beer that isn't to the taste of the vast majority, you'll have to pay. Otherwise it's not worth the supplier making it.
Having said that, I do buy a lot of cans of IPA from Asda for £1.50 each, and get the Lidl rebranded Westons cider for £1.15. It's knowing where to look. Both of those are still vastly more expensive than carlsberg or strongbow however. But at least - to me! - they taste of something.