There comes a time in every man’s life when he realizes that he has become his father. Mine came last year at the bar of a well-known pub in central London; An almost apologetic card reader from the bartender informed me that I owed close to £8 for the mass-produced beer I had ordered. I swallowed hard. I almost spit it out. £8 for a pint? How?
Of all the indignities of modern British life, expensive beer is one of the most annoying. Beer should be an affordable indulgence, yet having a pint in the pub is now a “luxury”, according to the Campaign for Real Beer (Camra). According to the Office for National Statistics, the price of Lager has increased by more than 28 per cent on average since before the pandemic. Nothing but a pint of tastrophe.
And while it would be nice to be able to identify a culprit (perhaps the mustache-twirling, beer-slurping brewery boss), the reasons aren’t that colorful. The Ukraine war increased energy and raw material costs and had a knock-on effect on everything else. Rents have risen as landlords try to recoup money lost during Covid-19 lockdowns. Staff in London have to survive in a ridiculously overheated housing market, driving up wages – and the city attracts large numbers of tourists who are keen to experience London pubs and are often less price-sensitive than locals.
All this, alongside other long-term factors such as sky-high beer taxes and the fact that many pub tenants have to buy their beer from their “pubco” (the company that owns their pub) at invariably higher prices than usual. on the open market. And not the brewers Entirely Not guilty: Some beers are understandably expensive because they’re produced in small batches by small breweries with expensive ingredients, but others are expensive because their multinational owners know (or believe) they can keep prices high and punters will keep giving them away.
Ask a proprietor how much he paid for a barrel of the world’s most beloved stout.
But it’s not that bad. Even London has cheaper beer. In fact, I’ve never seen a time where the price of a beer varies so much depending on where you buy it. Wetherspoons is reliably cheap: this is based on the philosophical belief in “fair prices” achieved through purchasing power and a rigid purchasing structure, according to a spokesperson. Others, such as Sam Smith, once known for his worth in London, abandoned this policy.
And then there are blessed places in the UK and abroad where good beer is available at reasonable prices in pubs of all kinds. If you don’t want to have a nervous breakdown at the bar, here are my suggestions.
Black Country
A few years ago I interviewed Tim Batham, the genial owner of Black Country brewery Batham. “I think beer should be cheap, it’s a basic thing that everyone should have,” he told me. I was delighted to later discover that this philosophy was shared by most people in this part of the world. Tim’s beer – or should I say his daughter Alice brews it at the brewery next to the Vine (popularly known as the Bull and Bladder) pub in Brierley Hill – remains a great value. Also try the charismatic Beacon Hotel in Sedgley, home to the legendary strong soft Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby; Still well under £4 for a truly delicious 6 per cent beer.
Sheffield
Debates about Britain’s best beer city can keep pub borers going all evening, but when it comes to good beer at excellent prices, one city stands out: Sheffield. It’s full of charismatic pubs and, according to the latest Sheffield beer report, there are more breweries per capita than anywhere else in the UK. Arguably the best part of the city for a pint is around Kelham Island, home to the Fat Cat and the Kelham Island Tavern; Here a good pint of perfectly kept cask beer can often be yours for much less than £4. There’s plenty of choice too: around 600 different beers are on sale in Sheffield on any given day.
North East of England
For my third selection, I enlisted the help of Britain’s top pub expert, Martin Taylor, who completed Britain’s longest pub crawl of all businesses in the Good Beer Guide in 2022. He recommends the North East of England, particularly the coast between Stockton and Sunderland. “Try the banked Bass at the Sun Inn [in Stockton] and Camerons Strongarm in Hartlepool for maritime heritage and affordable ales,” he told me. Banked beer (with its huge, bobbing foam) has to be seen to be believed, and at under £3 a pint, it’s a luxury anyone can afford.
Franconia, Germany
There are many places to find cheap beer on the continent. In terms of capitals, Minsk is the cheapest according to travel booking site Omio, with beers hitting the bar at 90p every time – although I can’t see why you’d want to go to Belarus at the moment (and the Foreign Office advises against it).
It’s much better to head to Franconia, the northern third region of Bavaria and the largest beer-producing region in what may be the world’s leading beer country. There are dozens of microbreweries here; They produce delicious, characterful beers at prices that barely seem possible given the quality. In the heart of Upper Franconia lies Bamberg, a town of 70,000 people with more than a dozen breweries. Spezial, Schlenkerla and Keesman, the last-mentioned producers of Germany’s best Pils, are a must-visit.
Bohemia, Czech Republic
Many Brits go to Prague to drink and the beer there is much cheaper than here. But for really good value, head out of the Czech capital. Here are two options that will please drinkers of both political persuasions: Cvikov, in the north of the country, saw its brewery closed by the Communist government in 1968 (there is still graffiti on the brewery’s wall berating the minister in charge) but reopened in 2013. complete with a hotel in the former malting yards; and the brewery of Kutna Hora, east of Prague, was bought and closed by Heineken in 2009, but was reopened by locals in 2017. The latter is a particularly delightful town, boasting a remarkable gothic church, Saint Barbara’s – just the sort of place that appealed to tourists of the period. We appreciate that we are slowly becoming our fathers.
