Tag Archives: beer

This afternoon.

Further to eye-popping alcohol off-sales price hikes…

…via Lucille Destrade, KU Leuven and Michel Destrade, of NUI Galway:

One standard drink in Ireland contains 10 grams of alcohol, so the minimum price for one standard drink will now be €1.

A 12.5% bottle of wine has 74 grams of alcohol and it cannot now be sold for less than €7.40. A bottle of spirit like vodka or whiskey cannot be sold for less than €21. A point to note here is that the price of a bottle of champagne (which cost more than €7.40 in 2021) or fine whiskey (which cost more than €21 in 2021) remains unchanged.

The main issue is that it is a price floor instead of a tax. The HSE believes that “people drink more alcohol if it is cheap. If you raise taxes for alcohol, you are raising the cost of alcohol for everyone. Minimum pricing most impacts people who are drinking alcohol harmfully. It is designed to target the heaviest drinkers who seek the cheapest alcohol, which means it will have the greatest effect among those who experience the most harm.

However, no evidence is provided for these claims. Is it wise or correct for the Government to base an economic policy on the assumptions that price is enough to deter heavy drinkers and that heavy drinkers only seek cheap alcohol?

Why minimum pricing for alcohol won’t reduce harmful drinking (RTE)

Yesterday: Can-Kicking Exercise

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Grolsch on sale in Tesco has gone up in price but lost an Alcohol Volume Percentage point

This afternoon.

Are supermarkets selling watered-down beer?

Sea writes:

‘The best example currently is Grolsch, owned by the Ahasi Group. When last available in Ireland it was 5% and roughly €1/1.25 a can.

It’s now reintroduced, at €2 per can and 4%.

So, less beer, bigger profit, lower tax liability…. Shrinkflation in the extreme.

Both Grolsch/Ashai and Tesco (though many supermarkets practise this) have refused to answer my queries, via twitter both in private and public messages.

Other brands have been doing it for years but the recent re-introduction of Grolsch serve as a timely example.

Carlsberg is frequently sold at 3.8%

Heineken is 5% everywhere else in the world.

Sierra Nevada is sold often at varying strengths.

Frankly, the list goes on and on.

If a pub behaved this way, they would lose their license. Why should a retailer be any different?

I hope I’m not alone here. I’m very passionate about beer, and believe others would be too if the Diagio and Ashai groups couldn’t manipulate the market and effectively bully out competition against their own swill.

They have other methods – Don’t get me started on keeping much better beers out of pubs, free stock, construction of beer gardens and so on.

With minimum pricing on the horizon, I believe the consumer is at risk of even further dilution and price gouging under the cover of regulation.’

Anyone?

Pic: Tesco

Following a break this year…

…The Fidelity Beer Festival will return in 2021 to the Round Room in Dublin’s Mansion House on July 16-17.

Leah Kilcullen writes:

Fidelity will once again bring world-class breweries to the city, many for the first time, for two evening tasting sessions over two days

Tickets cost €62.50 plus fees, which includes all your beer samples (no messing around with tokens!) and your tasting glass, and will be on sale  here from tomorrow at 9am

*burp*

Fidelity Beer Festival 2021

Stuck in LOKdown?

Bring the boozer to you.

Dublin-based Rascal Brewing Company write:

We are offering FREE DELIVERY on beer orders to anyone in the beautiful counties of Laois, Offaly and Kildare. Sod the LOKdown and treat yourself to some Rascals beers; we’ll treat you the delivery charge.

In fairness

Rascal Beers (Rascal Brewing Company)