Pint of Guinness €3.50 and 2.8% vol

calvin_zola

Dravokivich wrote: »

Blooming'eck that's a bit of a joke at that price. Then again, the price of drink is, in most Dublin pubs.

am I wrong in thinking that mid strength beer is over priced in Ireland. I though that tax and duty was paid on the amount of alchol in the drink... this would make this drink relatively cheap. And it would make non alky erdinger cheaper aswell

BeerNut

calvin_zola wrote: »

I though that tax and duty was paid on the amount of alchol in the drink... this would make this drink relatively cheap.

Beer pricing doesn't work that way. A much more important factor than the alcohol content is how much people are willing to pay for it.

Before rubadub comes along to say it: compare, for example, the per ml price of a bottle of Heineken in the pub versus the same beer on draught in the same place.

the beer revolu

calvin_zola wrote: »

I though that tax and duty was paid on the amount of alchol in the drink... this would make this drink relatively cheap. And it would make non alky erdinger cheaper aswell

You are right, the duty on beer is calculated on the alcohol content, then the VAT is calculated on the value of the beer + the duty.

However, as Beernut points out, that doesn't determine the price in the pub - it just influences (along with whatever wholesalers add on) the cost price. The free (artificially restricted ) market determines the final price.

norrie rugger

I would imagine that the smaller scale brewing would also account for the price and that they would not want your honest publican buying it at a huge discount and passing it off as regular Guinness

calvin_zola

BeerNut wrote: »

Beer pricing doesn't work that way. A much more important factor than the alcohol content is how much people are willing to pay for it.

Before rubadub comes along to say it: compare, for example, the per ml price of a bottle of Heineken in the pub versus the same beer on draught in the same place.

the beer revolu wrote: »

You are right, the duty on beer is calculated on the alcohol content, then the VAT is calculated on the value of the beer + the duty.

However, as Beernut points out, that doesn't determine the price in the pub - it just influences (along with whatever wholesalers add on) the cost price. The free (artificially restricted ) market determines the final price.

norrie rugger wrote: »

I would imagine that the smaller scale brewing would also account for the price and that they would not want your honest publican buying it at a huge discount and passing it off as regular Guinness

On the ball, i get ye. Its a kind of marketing and perception effort. I never thought of the long neck heineken v draught heineken pric comparison.

the beer revolu

calvin_zola wrote: »

On the ball, i get ye. Its a kind of marketing and perception effort. I never thought of the long neck heineken v draught heineken pric comparison.

or what a full pint of coke/7UP would cost in a pub which has no alcohol or related duty.

calvin_zola

the beer revolu wrote: »

or what a full pint of coke/7UP would cost in a pub which has no alcohol or related duty.

If I am driving over to have a drink where the misses works its cheaper for me to buy a non alcholic erdinger thana pint of 7up, so that is what i usually buy

biko

biko wrote: »

Sweet, I'll try Sheridans next time I'm craving a pint with my hot wings.

Had one yesterday, never again. Not sure if it tasted like watered down Guinness or just tasted not nice, but I'll stick with the real stuff.

Heroditas

biko wrote: »

but I'll stick with the real stuff.

The real stuff is the Foreign Extra

Seaneh

biko wrote: »

Had one yesterday, never again. Not sure if it tasted like watered down Guinness or just tasted not nice, but I'll stick with the real stuff.

The real stuff would be the Extra Stout in the 500ml bottle, that is the original recipe, you can get it in a lot of bars.

The nitro'd stuff in pubs is piss they invented in the 60's to make it colder and more palatable to the masses, ie, reduce the flavour.

BeerNut

Seaneh wrote: »

The real stuff would be the Extra Stout in the 500ml bottle, that is the original recipe

:rolleyes: It's the same beer as the draught version, just carbonated differently.

the beer revolu

BeerNut wrote: »

:rolleyes: It's the same beer as the draught version, just carbonated differently.

Is it really identical in every other way?

BeerNut

I'm just going on their own FAQ:

Does GUINNESS® Draught use the same brewing recipe as Extra Stout?

The recipes for GUINNESS® Draught and GUINNESS® Extra Stout are very similar in all aspects. The difference is that GUINNESS® Draught is dispensed using a mixture of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide to produce the famous tight creamy head while GUINNESS® Extra Stout has more carbonation for increased refreshment.

Seaneh

BeerNut wrote: »

I'm just going on their own FAQ:

Does GUINNESS® Draught use the same brewing recipe as Extra Stout?

The recipes for GUINNESS® Draught and GUINNESS® Extra Stout are very similar in all aspects. The difference is that GUINNESS® Draught is dispensed using a mixture of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide to produce the famous tight creamy head while GUINNESS® Extra Stout has more carbonation for increased refreshment.

they taste extremely different. i'd been told before that the nitro recipe was only decades old and not the same as the Extra. was also told the extra was what was sold everywhere from the taps until being replaced by the nitro. their blurb says similar but not the same.

BeerNut

Both versions are pale malt and roast barley so have no ancestor older than the 1930s.

And both recipes have changed a lot over the 20th century. From the table here I think it's extremely likely that any Extra Stout drinker would have noticed the difference between a bottle in 1948 -- 4.08% ABV and 72.12% attenuated -- versus a bottle of the same beer in 1950 when it was attenuated all the way to 82.3%, leaving it 5% ABV. Guinness Extra Stout looks to have hit a post-war peak at 5.44% ABV in 1953 and must have been ash-dry at near 94% attenuation.

Nitro and non-nitro Guinness do taste extremely different, but that's mostly a testament to the importance of aroma propelled by carbonation in forming beer flavour.

rubadub

I seem to remember some regular here saying they heard draught guinness was a watered down version of either foreign extra or special export.

As for nitro vs CO2, some people here would have tasted both versions of "dark arts" porter.

I suppose if really interested you could let both go flat and compare a shot of each. I know guinness draught has nutritional info on the can, not sure about extra but you could compare. Also if draught really is watered down foreign extra/special export and you know their nutritional values then they should be in proportion.

calvin_zola wrote: »

I though that tax and duty was paid on the amount of alchol in the drink... this would make this drink relatively cheap. And it would make non alky erdinger cheaper aswell

With many non alcholic drinks they have to post process them to remove the alcohol, using the likes of reverse osmosis. So this increases production costs which can offset some of the savings on duty that you might expect.

I am not sure how mid strength is made, but perhaps it is brewed to normal strength with only a bit removed by reverse osmosis or something. e.g. the same raw materials might go into it, so its not like it would be cheaper that way, and then might have post processing costs.

Either way, as mentioned they charge what they can get. If you were to graph all sub 6% drinks in a pub they probably have a trend of getting more expensive per ml as the % goes down (due to ridiculously expensive soft drinks).

Its weird how people just accept the status quo of pricing like this, as its what they grew up with. A mate was having a lighthearted go at me for drinking "fancy beer" down the pub, it was a 500ml of staropramen, he was telling me it was a rip off at €5.10. Now this guy often drinks corona (330ml), if I told him I got one for €3.40 he would be saying its a bargain.

If longnecks were never out before and introduced amongst 500ml ones tomorrow I expect many more people would see the obvious discrepancy.

Same idea if 330ml cans were the norm and they brought out these 125-200ml bottles.

BeerNut

rubadub wrote: »

I seem to remember some regular here saying they heard draught guinness was a watered down version of either foreign extra or special export.

Probably me. But I have it on better authority than me that it isn't true. If you want to take my word for it