The micro brewery rip off.

A couple of days ago we went to a Christmas Market (It's still November) and came across 3 of our local micro breweries selling bottled beers in packs of three. I checked these out and all the bottles were 330 ml rather than the 500 ml the packs were designed to hold. But the prices started at £3/bottle and went north from there.

£3 bottle is more than £4/pint. You can buy decent beers in the supermarkets for £1.25 for a proper 500ml bottle. Is someone taking the Mickey?

Just as an aside there was a stall in the market selling Prosecco at £5.95 for 750ml. So it seems that nowadays Prosecco is cheaper than a 4.0% ABV pale ale.

Sounds like they could be over priced, you can get locally brewed beers in local off licenses, and whilst some of them are fairly pricey, they're not all at that level.

Nobody has to buy them though, so if they are overpriced then either the brewery will lose money or they will have to drop the price.

A couple of days ago we went to a Christmas Market (It's still November) and came across 3 of our local micro breweries selling bottled beers in packs of three. I checked these out and all the bottles were 330 ml rather than the 500 ml the packs were designed to hold. But the prices started at £3/bottle and went north from there.

£3 bottle is more than £4/pint. You can buy decent beers in the supermarkets for £1.25 for a proper 500ml bottle. Is someone taking the Mickey?

 

Just as an aside there was a stall in the market selling Prosecco at £5.95 for 750ml. So it seems that nowadays Prosecco is cheaper than a 4.0% ABV pale ale.

The micro brewery will have to cover the costs involved in attending the Christmas Market. I know costs for attending events, like Agricultural shows for example can be very expensive.

why is it a rip off?

 

both them and the supermarkets will be making a similar profit on their stock.

dont forget the supermarkets buy 10,000,000,000 bottles or whatever and force the prices down.

Abbeydale Brewery doesn't produce 10,000,000,000 pints. Anyhow I went to another micro and bought a 36 pint pin of IPA at just over a pound a pint. They even chucked in a tap and a pump clip.

---------- Post added 29-11-2016 at 11:33 ----------

The micro brewery will have to cover the costs involved in attending the Christmas Market. I know costs for attending events, like Agricultural shows for example can be very expensive.

You can get a stall at Chezzy Market for as little as £7/day.

 

You can get a stall at Chezzy Market for as little as £7/day.

I've clearly got the wrong end of the stick here. When someone mentions a Christmas Market, then I think of something like the Lincoln Christmas Market, which is a special event and won't be cheap for a business to stand. I can't see the wife being impressed by a proposed trip to 'Chezzy Market'

'

You can buy decent beers in the supermarkets for £1.25 for a proper 500ml bottle.

No, you can buy mass produced beer for that price.

If you want something limited and special, or even stronger, then you pay more.

I had a fantastic pint of Thornbridge Pollards on Saturday, I wouldn't expect to see that in a bottle for £1.25.

Abbeydale Brewery doesn't produce 10,000,000,000 pints. Anyhow I went to another micro and bought a 36 pint pin of IPA at just over a pound a pint. They even chucked in a tap and a pump clip.

So that's market forces in action, you talked with your wallet and any brewery that tries to rip people off will lose sales.

No, you can buy mass produced beer for that price.

 

If you want something limited and special, or even stronger, then you pay more.

 

I had a fantastic pint of Thornbridge Pollards on Saturday, I wouldn't expect to see that in a bottle for £1.25.

Well I'd hardly descriibe Kelham Islansd Pale Rider or Acorn Gorlovka Russian Stout as mass produced rubbish. Both bought at ASDA for £1.25. Do you really want stronger than 6.0% ABV? I think both breweries combined wouldn't have half the output of Thornbridge.

Incidentally the beers on sale a the Christmas Market for £3.00-£3.49 for 330 ml were in the range 3.7% to 4.5%

A couple of days ago we went to a Christmas Market (It's still November) and came across 3 of our local micro breweries selling bottled beers in packs of three. I checked these out and all the bottles were 330 ml rather than the 500 ml the packs were designed to hold. But the prices started at £3/bottle and went north from there.

£3 bottle is more than £4/pint. You can buy decent beers in the supermarkets for £1.25 for a proper 500ml bottle. Is someone taking the Mickey?

 

Just as an aside there was a stall in the market selling Prosecco at £5.95 for 750ml. So it seems that nowadays Prosecco is cheaper than a 4.0% ABV pale ale.

I hope it wasn't Bakewell Winter Wonderland

This is what I was talking about when I said mass produced:

https://groceries.asda.com/shelf/ale-bitter-stout/bottled-ale/1215353283193/1/so-false

If your local Asda has a special on the above and are selling below RRP then I'll have to take your word for it because my local Asda certainly doesn't sell Kelham Island or Acorn beers, especially at that price, nor permanently.

Well I'd hardly descriibe Kelham Islansd Pale Rider or Acorn Gorlovka Russian Stout as mass produced rubbish. Both bought at ASDA for £1.25. Do you really want stronger than 6.0% ABV? I think both breweries combined wouldn't have half the output of Thornbridge.

 

Incidentally the beers on sale a the Christmas Market for £3.00-£3.49 for 330 ml were in the range 3.7% to 4.5%

£2.70 a bottle for Gorlovka, which sounds about right to me.

If you found it at £1.25 you should have bought it all.

http://www.yorkshireales.co.uk/styles/stout-porter/gorlovka-imp-stout.html

---------- Post added 29-11-2016 at 14:26 ----------

Asda appears to sell very little stout, at least online;

https://groceries.asda.com/search/stout

---------- Post added 29-11-2016 at 14:27 ----------

And no Kelham island beers

https://groceries.asda.com/search/kelham

Kelham Island Brewery does 5L of Pale Rider for £19.

http://www.kelhambrewery.co.uk/shop/kelham-island-brewery-mini-keg.html

What's that, £1.90 per 500ml? And that's from the source, so Asda must be taking some loss to sell it at £1.25.