Won't be bothering with pubs from now on.

[C0ffin D0dger]

In many respects I don't really miss going out anymore. As a father of a 3 & 5 year old I just don't have the energy for it or the ability to deal with the after effects the next day, kids are usually up by 7am and want entertaining. You can only put them off with TV for so long.

Having a few beers at home is very cheap for me as I brew my own, roughly 60p a pint plus my time and effort to make it.

Did go out this weekend with a mate to watch the rugby (never mind about the result), first pub we were in was quite good value, £2.60 for a pint of Broadside & we got give a loyalty card with our first round, buy seven get the eighth free which we managed between the two of us. However after that we moved onto All-Bar-One in search of better eye candy, was a bit taken aback when handing over £10 for to pints of some "craft" beer job they had on draught to be told that I need to add another 20p on top of that! Made me quite glad that my "out out" days are over, would be quite skint if they weren't!

[ZedLeg]

ambuletz said:

okgo said:

Where is that place that charges £8.90 for a pint of soft drink - I want to ring them to double check, assume that was in England?

The Cock Tavern in Hackey is fking expensive. Full of £8-9 pints, though they do tell you the price before doing it (which is good), and it's full of hipsters. Some of their beer is also 'raw'/unpasturised from a local brewery called Howling Hops.

No such thing as raw beer, it's heated as part of the brewing process.

I like a good beer and I'll happily pay £4 or £5 for a pint I like. Won't pay it for a mass produced lager in a city centre chain bar though.

A lot of the problem with the pub trade is the strangle hold that big breweries have on supply. You have to work very hard to stay out of their network and if you do it makes things more expensive.

Not a big fan of Spoons either, they're the pub equivalent of McD's with a matching amount of character.

[oxford drinker]

HappySilver said:

Condi said:

They buy it in bulk and will take the 'older' stock which is still in date but not the latest brew. They know they will sell so much volume they dont have to worry about it going out of date.

No, they buy in bulk so are able to negotiate a lower price, they also work on a low margin high-turnover basis which is a different model to most pubs. The beer is exactly the same stuff as you get elsewhere. Most keg beers have a short shelf life so there generally isn't old stock floating around to be bought up cheap and then distributed to several hundred 'spoons. If the beer quality tastes off it is because it hasn't been looked after on premise, however, they do have some pretty rigorous standards so that should be pretty rare.

Exactly this. I met a brewer in Yorkshire a few years ago now who had signed up to sell to Wetherspoon. The going rate at the time for his beer to the free trade was £60 a firkin (72 pints); the deal struck with JDW was £20, but they would take 75% of his production for 6 months.

[toon10]

okgo said:

Beer is less than that in the most exclusive places in London so I'm struggling to believe that.

Look up a bottle of Samichlaus from the Bottanist in Newcastle.

[Trabi601]

toon10 said:

okgo said:

Beer is less than that in the most exclusive places in London so I'm struggling to believe that.

Look up a bottle of Samichlaus from the Bottanist in Newcastle.

To be fair, if you go to a place like that, you deserve to get anally raped for the price of a beer.

[okgo]

toon10 said:

Look up a bottle of Samichlaus from the Bottanist in Newcastle.

So you've picked a remarkably expensive beer that seems to cost £5 online. That is hardly normal is it. Like saying a glass of Champange is expensive, but it turns out you're buying Krug Private Cuvee.

[Trabi601]

okgo said:

toon10 said:

Look up a bottle of Samichlaus from the Bottanist in Newcastle.

So you've picked a remarkably expensive beer that seems to cost £5 online. That is hardly normal is it. Like saying a glass of Champange is expensive, but it turns out you're buying Krug Private Cuvee.

But it did give the poster opportunity to be smug about his superior knowledge of craft ales and how he's so rich he's happy to pay that much for his 'favourite' hipster piss.

[brrapp]

I'm going out to a pub next week. It'll be my second visit to a pub this year.
I'm quite happy to pay £6 a bottle for the same beer I can buy in a supermarket for £1.50 as it's part of an enjoyable night out . I'll be in nice surroundings with a few friends,cosy open fire, listening to live music, with whatever food or drink I want served up by friendly staff on request.
When you pay for a drink in a pub, you're not just paying for the drink. I can't expect a pub to exist and lay on the type of service it does for tuppence a pint more than the local Asda all on the off chance that someone like me will drop in once in a blue moon.
I'm happy with pub prices.

[okgo]

Trabi601 said:

But it did give the poster opportunity to be smug about his superior knowledge of craft ales and how he's so rich he's happy to pay that much for his 'favourite' hipster piss.

Just looked up the place. Cocktails are £8 - lol, trying to make it sound like The Dorchester, but its actually priced like b@1.

[battered]

brrapp said:

I'm going out to a pub next week. It'll be my second visit to a pub this year.
I'm quite happy to pay £6 a bottle for the same beer I can buy in a supermarket for £1.50 as it's part of an enjoyable night out . I'll be in nice surroundings with a few friends,cosy open fire, listening to live music, with whatever food or drink I want served up by friendly staff on request.
When you pay for a drink in a pub, you're not just paying for the drink. I can't expect a pub to exist and lay on the type of service it does for tuppence a pint more than the local Asda all on the off chance that someone like me will drop in once in a blue moon.
I'm happy with pub prices.

Exactly this. If you want someone to serve you, pay their wages. Otherwise buy in an offy and pour it yourself. I will this week be eating in an hotel. Again. I know the menu inside out, most of it is microwaved tat from 3663 or Brakes, made in a factory very much like the one in which I currently work. The meals we manufacture cost £2-3 each and are rather good. The hotel tut is £12-15 and not as good. But I'm paying for the rent on the premises, the heating, the waitress, the washer up, and everything else. If I don't like this then I'm quite at liberty to go to the take away (which is a good strategy, some night) or drop in the Tesco for a pork pie, a bag of lettuce and a few bits of fruit. Done that too. So you choose, but don't complain if you spend all year sitting on your own and then don't have any friends.

[Cotty]

battered said:

Exactly this. If you want someone to serve you, pay their wages. Otherwise buy in an offy and pour it yourself. I will this week be eating in an hotel. Again. I know the menu inside out, most of it is microwaved tat from 3663 or Brakes, made in a factory very much like the one in which I currently work. The meals we manufacture cost £2-3 each and are rather good. The hotel tut is £12-15 and not as good. But I'm paying for the rent on the premises, the heating, the waitress, the washer up, and everything else.

They could just provide the meals in a fridge and a microwave. Cuts out the server, cook, washer up etc. If they are going to be st might as well go the whole hog.

[battered]

Cotty said:

They could just provide the meals in a fridge and a microwave. Cuts out the server, cook, washer up etc. If they are going to be st might as well go the whole hog.

Trust me, I could take a meal out of our despatch store, ping it for 3 minutes and chuck it on a warmed plate, it would be better than the crap that Holiday Inn dishes up. I'm not exaggerating. It's true.

[Cotty]

ZedLeg said:

Not a big fan of Spoons either, they're the pub equivalent of McD's with a matching amount of character.

Thing is they are almost identical inside and they are usually huge.

[berlintaxi]

HRL said:

I'm afraid your wrong. £2.50 at a Wetherspoon.

But for that you will be in a Wetherspoons, sooner stick pins in my eyes.

[markcoznottz]

battered said:

Cotty said:

They could just provide the meals in a fridge and a microwave. Cuts out the server, cook, washer up etc. If they are going to be st might as well go the whole hog.

Trust me, I could take a meal out of our despatch store, ping it for 3 minutes and chuck it on a warmed plate, it would be better than the crap that Holiday Inn dishes up. I'm not exaggerating. It's true.

True of a lot of factory trade food. Problem is a lot of restaurants are selling out and using this garbage, and charging high prices for it.

[vsonix]

Cotty said:

ZedLeg said:

Not a big fan of Spoons either, they're the pub equivalent of McD's with a matching amount of character.

Thing is they are almost identical inside and they are usually huge.

Happarently the carpets are unique to each pub!

There's a book about them and everything!


I totally agree about the McDs comment though, in fact I basically treat my local one as a Burger King with pints. There's the upside that it's near the uni and therefore there is a reasonable amount of eye-candy.
I remember when JDW first launched, people were incredulous... "A pub... with no music or pool table? It'll never work!" Fast forward 20-odd years and they're about the only pubs turning a profit. Lol.

[yellowjack]

Wow! Prices being described on here? Some are borderline incredible.

I "don't do pubs" much anymore. The odd pint after a MTB ride maybe, if part of a group, but I wouldn't bother with a pub as a 'going out' destination. A bottle of Leffe with a cork in it will do for me if drunk in one go anyway. I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking after being unable to drink alcohol because of meds I was taking for a couple of years. And being the only driver in the family means I don't often get the option to drink anyway.

My main exposure to the pricing of intoxicating brews is at gigs, mainly in London. I thought prices there were daft, from £4.50 to about £7.00 for bottles and draft beers/ciders. But reading the thread through and it seems they're not far off "normal" pricing for the capital.

I'll make an exception when I go 'home' and can get something nice like a Brains SA.

[JKRolling]

I drink in a craft type of place with about 80 bottles of craft beer 20 ales and ciders etc. I drink their german pils at 4.5% and £2.65 a pint. Last week they had an ale festival and all ales were £1.50 a pint.

You don't get any idiots in as they don't sell Carling / stella / strongbow and the like and it's fully refurbished with very attractive bar staff.

Also does homemade porkpies and scotch eggs for two quid a go. Have a picture of the nibbles.

Edited by JKRolling on Monday 20th March 16:57

[JKRolling]

It was lovely and the pie is a new yorker with gerkin pork and corned beef.

All of that with the pint was about £6 can't grumble really

[Zod]

Yipper said:

Rent and taxes are out of control in the pub trade. Very difficult to make money. And most people socialise online nowadays, making it even harder to profit.

Drinking canned supermarket laget while sitting at your computer posting here and on facebook is not socialising.