Pint of Beer to Cost £4 a Pint in the New Year
The ringing in of the New Year will be bringing bad news to drinkers with the announcement that a pint of beer could rise to a staggering £4 a pint.
Poor crop harvests of barley and hops caused by a wet summer are the reason say breweries that the beer prices are set to rise in 2008.
This has led to a powerful committee of MPs who are pressing for beer tax to be lowered to compensate for the increase. Stephen Crawley, of the Caledonian Brewery, said: "The brewers have never known raw material prices to increase the way they are at the moment. We will see the £4 pint in 2008."
There are fears the increase of around £1 on London prices will lead hundreds of pubs to close.
Paul Waterson, of the Licensed Trade Association, said: "We have been a nation of take-home drinkers for some time, because of artificially low prices in the supermarket. More price rises will mean the death knell for hundreds of pubs."
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee are trying to establish what can be done with the tax system to bring the issue of rising beer prices under control.
Rise in Beer Price Predictions
It was predicted in November by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) that the average price for a pint of larger would increase by at least 15p, and now industry experts are saying it could well rise by 60%, bringing the cost of an average pint of beer to £4. Even higher in some pubs in different parts of the country
Iain Lower, research and information manger at Camra said "It is a bleak time for everyone. These price rises have been predicted for a long time. Hop farmers have not seen any price rises for years, but the appalling summer has finally forced the prices up. "Prices at the pump could easily go up by 60%."
It’s a case of ‘catch 22’ where the breweries are suffering from rises in fuel costs and the price of metals used to produce kegs and cans has already been added on to the paying customer. Beer kegs have become a target for thieves because of their growth in value. 60 million kegs have been stolen this year alone and melted down for their metal.
Food prices have also risen along with petrol, and the cost of production with transportation of beer has risen dramatically. All of which affects the price of beer in tins, bottles and barrels.
This is by no means a problem just for us here in Britain, indeed it is fast becoming a world wide problem as the rising increase in the cost of barley and hops is being felt in countries across Europe and beyond.
Breweries Struggling to Keep Companies Going
Some Breweries are now struggling to keep their business going and while some of the larger companies have been buying out other breweries, there has been a work force of some 2000 that have lost their jobs.
Mark Hastings, director of communications at the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "The price hike came against a general decline in British beer sales, with some 14 million fewer pints a day being served in pubs than in the past. But now there is no more to carve out of the business so the only thing that we are able to do is to put prices up. Nobody wants to do it. The last thing the industry wants is more expensive beer."
He further added "There have been crop failures and you have got the huge influx of biofuels into the agricultural market, which is squeezing other crops out, as people begin to plant crops for biofuel rather than consumption."
Home brewing could well be the way ahead for most of us in 2008!!