Supermarkets and the race to the bottom

[Clint]

If I ordered a beer and they asked £20 for it I'd leave it there....

 

[Gunge]

If I ordered a beer and they asked £20 for it I'd leave it there....

I'd draw the line at £20 a gallon! Hate those pesky social occasions where I've got to buy beer at any price, knowing that my own far superior stuff is languishing at home. Bah.

 

[BeerCat]

Out of 8 "craft beers" i bought last week the only thing drinkable was the Adnams dry hopped lager. More than one race to the bottom after drinking that lot.

 

[Clint]

Yeah Gunge ya reet...I also dislike getting into rounds with anything more than one other as someone will be dodging in the bogs,getting lost,forgetting or going home....

 

[RichieBeer]

"Craft beer" is the same as "Designer sunglasses". It's just an extra word they add so they can charge several times the price conning the consumer into thinking they're getting something extra special. My current sunglasses cost me £5 from Sainsbury's - they were still "designed" before they were made.

 

[dan125]

Surely beer can have a range of quality and rarity, at a range of prices - like wine, coffee, bread, cars etc

 

[AdeDunn]

Personally, I reckon we should take the term craft beer as ours and ours alone. Stuff the micros and the macros churning out gallons, that's not craft any more, that's mass production. We "craft" beer, they mass produce it. No more calling our beer "home brew" with it's image of buckets full of foetid 70s rocket fuel, when we put so much effort into it! If it's getting sold in supermarkets, it's not craft any more. I'll let micro pubs (and restaurants) and the like carry on using the term I suppose, they're still our allies after all, our brothers and sisters in the brew so to speak.

As to buying rounds, NEVER buy rounds with my father! He always puts his beer money into the slot machines, whilst drinking the beer you and your mates buy, then suddenly when it's his round it's time for home....

 

[Clint]

...HCBF.

 

[Dutto]

Yeah Gunge ya reet...I also dislike getting into rounds with anything more than one other as someone will be dodging in the bogs,getting lost,forgetting or going home....

Too true! My mate's wife Jenny banned the two of us from being "on time" for any group party in a pub. I quote:

"Why?" we asked

Jenny - "There are usually four or five couples there and you and Brian always buy the first two rounds."

Us - "So? They all pay their own round."

Jenny - "That's true. But how many of the women are there after the second round, especially if they're driving?"

She was right of course (they always are)! The first and second rounds were usually for eight or ten drinks whereas the third, fourth and fifth rounds were usually for four or five drinks ...

... and if we got to the sixth and seventh rounds some of the lady drivers would say "Oh go on then." ...

... and we would see Jenny's mouth go tight!

 

[Ajhutch]

So I was in the supermarket today and I checked out the beer isle in Asda.

I was shocked to see these beers. Why was I shocked might you ask? Well I was shock because they were £1.25 each. No they weren’t on offer as far as I could tell. This is the actual price of these cans of “craft” beer in a major super market.

Now I’m all for introducing the uneducated to decent beer. But surely this is the supermarkets de-valuing decent beer and driving the race to the bottom ever further. How are micro breweries going to manage with supermarkets driving margins and values down by having breweries under their wing? View attachment 15127

How can any potential new drinker of non macro beer be introduced and then think that decent beer is this cheap. Because this is just macro beer hiding in different clothing.

Is this just me?



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Any idea who brewed these for Asda?

Edit - googled for myself. Seems like a small brewery in Yorkshire. I was just interested because Sainsbury’s has similar ‘own brand’ craft beer so and were at least initially refusing to disclose the Brewers.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Any idea who brewed these for Asda?

Edit - googled for myself. Seems like a small brewery in Yorkshire. I was just interested because Sainsbury’s has similar ‘own brand’ craft beer so and were at least initially refusing to disclose the Brewers.

Bad Company brewing and distilling - it's right there on the cans!

http://wearebad.co/

 

[Ajhutch]

Bad Company brewing and distilling - it's right there on the cans!

http://wearebad.co/

Right, but I was initially sceptical that they weren’t a front/made up brand covering for a macro brewer. Turns out I was wrong on that one. So now I’m in the same boat as Hoddy in the OP wondering how on Earth they can be making any money.

 

[bobukbrewer]

I buy the best ingredients I can - grain is £3 for 40 pints, yeast £2.20, hops average £5 for 40 pint brew. call it a tenner, = 25p a pint.

I buy beer in pubs at an average £4 a pint, and bottles from breweries, Tesco and Waitrose at an average of £1.70 for 500ml.

I am content.

 

[Jakeyboi]

As always it's down to the consumers and supermarkets that drive the prices right down. Them 'craft' beers sold in the supermarkets are merely a ghost image of what I would call craft beer. Still it's an improvement on Stella. And it's helping a lot of my friends get away from lager, and potentially looking for even better beer out there. Maybe these breweries are producing these beers and selling wholesale just to cover the running costs of their breweries so on the side they can make some real decent beer in smaller quantitys and higher price? There's always more to than meets the eye with large sales, rebates and back handers and losses, and tax dodging etc etc. If I were starting a brewery I would 100% make a deal with the devil if it meant financial security for the first few years, albeit not a lot, but enough to keep the lights on.

 

[GerritT]

20 years ago I drank Carling and Stella

I DID learn howwever!

 

[Dutto]

20 years ago I drank Carling and Stella

.........

........ and we put Lime Juice or Lemonade in with it to make it drinkable!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

@Dutto - A larger top, I feel old.

 

[Gunge]

20 years ago I drank Carling and Stella

I DID learn howwever!

That's nuthin'... I used to sup Whitbread Trophy. Actually, what am I saying - I'd sooner sup that than some overpriced cack with 'craft' on the label.

 

[Hoddy]

What about a light split. Remember those!!

 

[MickDundee]

Yes, for the occasional treat. But for a night of kidney rinsing a tad expensive, if I may say so.

For a night of “kidney rinsing” I use my home brew. Any beer purchases are for a one-off “I fancy a change” or for “research” purposes.

For the former, my local microbrewery has a very good and well-priced bottle shop with beers from all over the UK, as well as Europe and the USA.

It looks like I’ll be buying more beer over the next few months - due to move house in the next 6-8 weeks so once my quickly-diminishing stocks are gone it’ll possibly be a while before I can brew any more.