Cost per pint

[obscure]

I live in Wales and I don't find that the minimum pricing has much of an impact on beer. The calculation you use to work out the minimum price is £0.50 x ABV x Vol (L).

So a 500ml bottle of 5% stout is 0.5 x 5 x 0.5 = £1.25 minimum. Most decent ones would cost that much anyway.
Or a 330ml can of 7% IPA would be 0.5 x 6 x 0.33 = £1.15. You'd be very lucky to find one priced that low.

As I understand it minimum pricing is primarily going after white cider and similar.

For example a 2L bottle of Aldi cider at 5% costs £1.99 and contains 10 units and would cost under minimum pricing £5. The only beer I can think of under 50p a unit is Banks Bitter, 3.8% and 1.9 units a bottle cost £0.89 so would increase to £0.95 a bottle under minimum pricing. The odd supermarket promotion on bottled larger would have to increase in price, but honestly minimum price seems like a non issue for beer drinkers at the moment.

 

[Hanglow]

In terms of beers, it affected the cheapest beers only really, but that has the effect of targeting those with the least amount of spare cash who would tend to buy the cheapest offerings. We also don't have multi deals for alcoholic drinks.

Things like Tennents are now much closer in cost as core offerings from the likes of williams bros/brewdog/fullers etc.

Our excessive tax on all alcohol has always annoyed me, it's cheaper to buy whisky in 90% of countries than scotland.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

I would agree that buying individual bottles doesn’t make much of a difference to minimum pricing for alcohol. However, the thread starter is buying alcohol in bulk, and when it is on offer.

As an example Tesco currently have 18 x 440ml of 4.5% cider on offer at £11.00 on their web page. This is an English price.

In Scotland this cannot be legally sold for less than 18 x 440/10 x 0.045 x 0.5 = £17.82

Similarly they have:
18 x 440ml Carlsberg at 3.8% for £12, Scotland = £15.05
18 x 440ml Carling at 4% for £12, Scotland = £15.84

This gap widens when major sports events, such as the Football World Cup are on, and supermarkets offer multiple 18 packs for greater discount. i.e. 2 or even 3 packs for £20ish. These promotions don’t happen in Scotland.

A 3litre bottle of White Cider at 8% is around £12. In England it’s probably £3.99.

My point was that the thread starter could make a greater saving north of the border.

 

[Leard]

We also don't have multi deals for alcoholic drinks.

Like at all? In Wales I can still do the 3 bottles/cans for £5 in Tescos. I've also been the two 4-packs of 330ml cans for £9 a few places. Do you not even have those offers?

 

[Hanglow]

Correct, they've been banned for about eight or nine years now.

 

[MyQul]

Agreed, but you could used 660ml bottles or 2 litre ex pop bottles - if you're drinking a lot of the same that would reduce your bottle count. you'd pour the 2 litres in one go into a big jug then refill your glass ;-)

Or 1L growlers. I have several of these

 

[MyQul]

actually come to thing of it 5L mini kegs (they'e basically like 5L bottles) would be good. The problem would be you cant carb them up to lager levers

 

[Cwrw666]

I live in Wales and I don't find that the minimum pricing has much of an impact on beer.

Only thing I've noticed is that Hobgoblin jumped 10p in Tescos and McKewans Champion went up 20p and also dropped out of the 4 for £6.
As if 10p extra on Hobgoblin would ever reduce anyone's alcohol intake...

 

[simon12]

Sorry I wasnt making myself clear. I meant you could replace some of the grain with sugar rather than all of it. Say anything from 10%-30%. I usually add 8%-10% sugar or golden syrup to my beers. So could save some money and still have a good quality beer

My calculation was for replacing half the grain for sugar saved 1.6p so 10-30% would be 0.32p-0.96p per pint. Bulk sugar just doesn't cost much less than bulk pale malt the main saving is no VAT on sugar.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

If the supermarket had an offer of £2 a bottle beer at 3 for £5, then this offer wouldn’t apply in Scotland. However, if the minimum legal price for that bottle was say £1.50, then I have seen £2 a bottle beer discounted to £1.66, which is the equivalent of 3 for £5. It is done like this to dissuade people from buying alcohol in bulk.

 

[Funnyday]

This cannot be true. Beer police or not, this is 26 units and 2260 calories, not to mention 5.5 litres of liquid a day. You'd have to drink 2 bottles an hour from midday to 10pm.

Edited: time maths

I usually start at about 2pm and I'm all done come 9pm.

 

[Linalmeemow]

I usually start at about 2pm and I'm all done come 9pm.

What do you do for work where you can start drinking at 2pm? Early shifts?

 

[GerritT]

Using a kit. It comes out at about 40-50 pence a pint. How much does your brew cost per pint? Is it substaionally cheaper going from a recipe instead of a kit?

A 40 pint brew costs 4 hours. I don't know your hourly rate, but let it be £10. That adds £1 to every pint.
Now I hear you saying: it's a hobby, they're SUPPOSED to cost money? In that case it might no be worth it to calculate the cost per pint to the penny. Because if you do, brewing is not your hobby: accountancy is.

 

[MickDundee]

A 40 pint brew costs 4 hours. I don't know your hourly rate, but let it be £10. That adds £1 to every pint.
Now I hear you saying: it's a hobby, they're SUPPOSED to cost money? In that case it might no be worth it to calculate the cost per pint to the penny. Because if you do, brewing is not your hobby: accountancy is.

In my case, brewing is my hobby but accountancy is my profession.

 

[Galena]

I usually start at about 2pm and I'm all done come 9pm.

I think I would be all done too

 

[Galena]

Surely the other issue if the OP wants to brew a lager and consume 20 bottles a day then the consideration of fermenting and maturation temperatures comes into play and will affect the cost considerably? That would be a lot of brew fridges tied up for a long time.

 

[TheOsprey]

Surely the other issue if the OP wants to brew a lager and consume 20 bottles a day then the consideration of fermenting and maturation temperatures comes into play and will affect the cost considerably? That would be a lot of brew fridges tied up for a long time.

If he's genuinely drinking that much daily, at that rate, I'd say he needs to work at microbrewery size and brew once a month. Not sure how you can drink 26 units and brew at the same time. Toilet breaks alone would be a nightmare.

 

[obscure]

In my case, brewing is my hobby but accountancy is my profession.

Some people just don’t understand the joys of cost accounting. That said at times I think I would be happier not knowing how much my home brewing habit costs.

 

[Linalmeemow]

If he's genuinely drinking that much daily, at that rate, I'd say he needs to work at microbrewery size and brew once a month. Not sure how you can drink 26 units and brew at the same time. Toilet breaks alone would be a nightmare.

Drinking like that is a quick way to an early grave. Fair play though if you know the risks and you enjoy it.

 

[kelper]

A Wilko kit is £12 for forty pints; with a kg of sugar 56p at Tesco that's 31.4p a pint. You are drinking 5.5 litres a day, or 9.67 pints. For thirty days that would be 290 pints costing £91. Are you an organ donor?