How much would you pay for a pint?

At what point is a pint too expensive?

178 votes

£3 is my limit

£3.50 at a push

I'd stretch to £4

I'd pay up to £4.50, but it better have magical properties and come with a free car

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Comments:

ahunter

30-04-2008, 10:46

The most expensive pint i ever bought was at Jimmyz nightclub in Monte Carlo. It was 25 Euros. Second to that was a can of Carlsberg i bought at Fan Ling Racecourse in Hong Kong - £13 (130 HKD).

I find it sickening paying more than £3.50 in the UK, regardless of where you are.

Duncs

30-04-2008, 11:00

My most expensive pint was something daft like £15 for a pint in a hotel in Spain somewhere (went on expenses thankfully!).

My Ceapest: my Grandad’s ‘club’ in Nottingham: 90p fora pint of bitter. He was gutted when it went up to £95p…gutted.

hartberg

30-04-2008, 11:03

The Le Meridien Etoile Hotel in Paris once tried to fleece us €26 for a beer. I was so horrified i took a picture: http://tinyurl.com/62glv4

We bailed over the road where thery were still a pretty pricey €6.50.

aLii

30-04-2008, 12:05

The most expensive pint I ever bought cost me $9 + tip, back when dollars were actually worth something, so I guess £6.50 or so.

However, the most over-priced beer I’ve ever drank was a $10 (+tip) 330ml bottle of becks, which was bought for me at a rather expensive bar on my 25th birthday.

In the UK the most ripped off I’ve ever felt was in Birmingham’s mailbox area when I remember paying £4 for a pint from one of the bars in the middle of the afternoon.

Brightonian

10-05-2008, 17:14

Right now I’m in the George just down from Brighton Station (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/39884-The-George-Brighton) drinking a Hoegaarden at £3.90 a pint. This is acceptable for something as wonderful as a cold Hoegaarden with a slice of lime after a heavy time on real ales the night before, but I’m too much in debt make it a regular thing.

I remember the shock I felt a few years ago at my first £3 pint - it was a Guinness at the Coach & Horses in Soho (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/108312-Coach-and-Horses-London) in around 2002. And I remember the bigger shock I got at my first £2 pint (Speckled Hen?) in around 1991. But the biggest shock to my system ever was my first £1 pint - it was in Paddington (long forgotten the pub name) in maybe 1982 or 1983 and it was a pint of Holsten at £1.16.

Quite a change from the 1970s when I paid 26p for a pint of cider in a bar at uni! At least I’ve got better taste now.

Siany

11-05-2008, 21:41

I remember when I went to Oslo last Christmas, ALL the beer is at least £7. There is no cheap option. It was the cheapest, most sober holiday I’ve ever had.

aLii

12-05-2008, 19:39

So you’re saying that you didn’t actually do any drinking in Oslo Siany?

Siany

13-05-2008, 00:54

Well, we had a pear cider each in a bar to hide from the cold. They were tiny and cost about a fiver each. We also treated ourselves to a couple of beers on our last night out.

Other than that, there was no drinking for us! We tried! We got a few beers from the supermarket, but they were just as expensive! And they don’t sell wine or spirits in supermarkets either… and there are no off licenses anywhere… where do Norwegian people buy their booze? Are they all so happy on life they don’t need to go to the pub? It’s not just the booze. A cheap dinner cost us twenty quid each.

It’s not all bad, while we were smoking and drinking our expensive supermarket beer in our hostel, my friend met his current girlfriend… awwww!

aLii

13-05-2008, 10:13

Actually I think it’s the opposite. There’s so much dark in the winter and therefore so much SAD syndrome, that they ration the alcohol so everyone doesn’t go mental.

It probably helps keep policing and health-care costs down too :P

thorplands

14-05-2008, 20:32

I no longer drink in pubs because it is much too expensive. Beer is mainly made from water and used to be a cheap drink for working folk, today it’s a luxury.

culpitt

15-05-2008, 11:19

£4.00 for a bottle of Becks in the bar at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West end of London…..HOW MUCH!!!!!!

Netty

15-05-2008, 11:56

I am not used to these high beer prizes (coming from Germany) in the UK. The British pubs are great - unique but the prices are out of this world!!

I agree with Siany beer from supermarkets can be just as expensive - even in Wales.

A beer in a pub is nice for the atmosphere. I love Guinness and Worthington’s in the pubs, also some Welsh beers!

Sometimes in Machynlleth we buy Polish beer from NISA petrol station for 1,09 pound which is very good, too. If the price is more than 3,50 pounds in a pub one has to look for alternatives (friends bringing beer over in their campavan, Lidl’s Grafenwalder is okay).

CHEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siany

15-05-2008, 11:59

Am I the only person who still finds it weird you can buy beer in a petrol station? I’ve never seen anyone drive off drinking wine from a bottle, but still…

ahunter

15-05-2008, 12:03

@Netty - I love German Hefeweizen. Particularly Franziskaner. Delcious! Must pay a trip to Machynlleth for some £1 beers!

@Siany - Yeah - Weird that you can buy booze from the petrol station. Although, I’ve been saved many a time (particuilarly in DE) by petrol station booze!

Netty

15-05-2008, 12:51

@ Siany: your description made me smile! People driving off drinking wine….

I was surprised to see this in Wales at the NISA petrol place first, a great selection of wines and beers (many local beers). From Göttingen, I am familiar with wine from the “Tanke” as they say.

@ ahunter: Hefeweizen is one of my favourites, too, in the summer. Good to quench the thirst! 1 pound beers in Machynlleth - a bargain! You must come!!

Templar

23-05-2008, 18:43

The Barge in Grimsby (I did a review on it) was £2.05 a pint but customers complained it was too expensive so they dropped the price. Lloyds in GY have student night on Tues and all beers £1 a pint. I find the prices in the south a real rip off.

dmj1962

28-05-2008, 19:05

I remember beer being £7 a pint in Norway back in 1984. Since then, I’ve been asked to pay the equivalent of over £25 a pint in a Tokyo hotel restaurant, and the set food menu (without alcohol or service) was over £120. But that’s Tokyo for you. Fortunately, I wasn’t paying.

Closer to home, a pet hate is being ‘served’ a 33cl bottled beer at £4.50 a throw in London gay bars, by a narcissistic muscle queen who can’t add up, but thinks that they are so gorgeous they can sneer at customers and then suggest a tip for buying a beer at the bar. (Needless to say, I try and avoid going on the ‘scene’).

I think the differential between pub and supermarket prices is now beyond a joke, as it’s killing off pubs. Across the country, 2 are closing every day.

Hoo! Rant over. I’m sounding like my Dad.

Netty

28-05-2008, 21:01

@dmj1962: I totally agree with you and your Dad!
I love the British pubs for a good pint but I do not like the high prices for the bar owners and customers. It is sad to see a pub closing.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

How can we prevent this from happening?
I find licensing absurd or eating places where you bring your own beer and wine.

AND: I also hate places where they say if you do not eat you cannot have a beer. Hey? What? Where are we?

theduck

28-06-2008, 20:24

It is all such a rip off…I did say I would give up when it got to £3 a pint and £5 a packet of smokes. I havent though, so I guess i will suffer and continue moaning.