comelately

Wild Horses
The keg beer, especially from key-kegs, often costs more for a reason, not *necessarily* because the margins are significantly higher. The Evening Star swear blind that they often put on kegs where there's barely any margin at all.

The Old Coffee House on Beak Street in Soho now has 5 Brodies kegs on at £4.80 a pint - one of them is Mikkeler-collab 10.5% Big Mofo Stout; a serious bargain at that price. London Sour and American Wheat also amazing. They actually had a 6% IPA on cask at £3.50, but cask IPA usually gets a bit syruppy at that point and this is no exception.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
To be honest, I've got no major problem with the price thing - if people are making a beer that you can drink slowly and appreciate in the same way that you would good wine or malt whisky then it seems a bit churlish to expect it to be priced competitively with Carling. Or to put it the other way round, expecting all beer to be priced competitively with Carling represents an implicit sense that all beer should be straightforward inoffensive stuff that you can pour down your neck all evening to get drunk and that any beer that isn't is getting ideas above its station...
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I have no problem with some beers being more expensive than other beers, I have a problem with the fact that so much of the price of a pint is beer duty thanks to the paternalistic attitude of successive governments in this country. And the fact that it's a big part of the reason pubs are closing left, right and centre.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
brodies costs £2.50 a pint in their pub though so whats going on?

I would guess it's the Wetherspoons model of selling big volumes at a small margin. Sounds like a wicked pub, I'll have to visit next time I'm in town.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
There are few places in London with some slightly mind boggling expensive imported key beer - eg £4.50 per half. Craft at Angel/Clerkenwell springs to mind. However to be fair to them they always have some cask real ales on from £3.30 or so per pint. Anything in a key just seems to be be a lot more expensive.

Also, some of them are like 7, 8, even 10% so I think we have to get out of the British mindset of thinking '5 pounds a pint, what the fuck' a bit, cos you'd only want a half of an 8% beer anyway.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
It occurred to me the other day that possibly the reason that there's so much air chatted in the UK about "craft beer" vs whatever is not, as is commonly claimed, that there's no definition of "craft beer" over here, it's that there are about four, to whit:
* good beer served from kegs, not casks
* beer in an "extreme" and unconventional style with strong flavours or high ABV
* beer with hipster-friendly branding
* beer brewed by people who are passionate about producing a quality product
and that a number of people tend to lose sight of (or deliberately ignore) the fact that none of these definitions are, in fact, equivalent to one another.

It's an interesting one. I'd add something about it being small scale to the last one maybe?

This blog post suggests there is an official definition of sorts in America.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Also, some of them are like 7, 8, even 10% so I think we have to get out of the British mindset of thinking '5 pounds a pint, what the fuck' a bit, cos you'd only want a half of an 8% beer anyway.

Well yeah, if it's basically a barley wine then of course you'd expect it to cost a bit more (unless it's Brodie's, apparently).

What's this 'key keg' thing people keep mentioning?
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
It's an interesting one. I'd add something about it being small scale to the last one maybe?
Good point, yes. In any case, the major issue is that the conflation of the various definitions leads to ideas like "if you don't directly support good quality keg beer then you aren't interested in craft beer and if you aren't interested in craft beer then you aren't interested in small, independent brewers or any beer other than moderately hopped mid-strength brown bitter" or "if you aren't producing triple hopped IPAs and Imperial Porters then you clearly care more about the crap innuendo on your badly drawn pumpclip than you do about the quality of your beer."

This blog post suggests there is an official definition of sorts in America.

Yes. Although the size limit thing is hilarious - they basically keep increasing it in line with Sierra Nevada's output so that they don't get disqualified because, y'know, they're obviously a craft brewery.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Americans have some weirdly stringent definitions of what makes a certain drink a certain drink, though. I recall reading a blog post by an American woman who was gushing about trying the "beer, ale *and* bitter!" at some festival, like they were three non-overlapping categories of drinks.
 

Immryr

Well-known member
it's only about a year since the brodies pub put their prices up from £1.90 a pint! I think the main reason they can sell it so cheap is they're selling their own beer which is brewed right next to the pub.


mr tea: a key keg is probably the most widely used of the few types of disposable kegs used at the minute. it's an American invention iirc.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Ha, that was a catty Pernod reponse. As a beer aficionado you should just punch me in the jaw. I've noticed that organic beer drinkers are a touchy lot.
 
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