Liberty Beer clattered into London this week to see some brewers and some pubs.
We had the pleasure of meeting Gary at Redchurch (http://theredchurchbrewery.com/), Jasper and some of his team at Camden Town (http://www.camdentownbrewery.com/), Andy at Redemption (http://www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk/) and the brand new guys at By the Horns (http://www.bythehorns.co.uk/).
We wore out our shoes and cursed Boris's Buses, but we had a great time.
Look out for some exciting new beers being added to our list very soon.
Friday 4 November 2011
Binge drinkers, education or legislation?
To very little fanfare at all, last month the government introduced a new duty on beer that is above the arbitrary imposed limit of 7.5% ABV. The government framed this legislation as a response to the social issues surrounding 'binge drinking' . Do binge drinkers drink beers like that? I don't think they do.
Will a price increase on super strength lager really provide a disincentive to the binge drinkers, or will it simply move those with substance abuse issues away from the super strength lager and on to it's cider, wine or spirit equivalent?
One thing it will do though is disproportionately affect the independent publican and the growing craft and microbrewing community that we have here in Britain. Lets be clear, the mainstream producers, pubco's and supermarkets won't be affected in the slightest by this 25% raise in duty. Their sales of super strength products are all in the lower income end of the scale as far as they are concerned, niche beers for the low waged and the problem drinker that will easily be shifted to another product. When micro brewers produce high ABV products they are at the very top end of their market, a specialist product for the connoisseur or enthusiast.
If the Government is serious about the prevention of criminality and anti social behaviour around alcohol consumption then it is the massive price differential between the Supermarket and the controlled environment of the Public House that should be addressed so people don't turn up in our town centre pubs and bars already having consumed a large amount of cheap supermarket alcohol at home, and the number of cut price deals offered by the large chains for 2 for 1 drinks that encourage rapid consumption.
Although we at Liberty Beer don't currently deal with any brewers who produce a beer that will fall foul of the new duty, we hate to think that good beers will no longer be available to the british drinker due to some wrongheaded piece of legislation that does little to address the problem it seeks to solve. The other Justin at Moor Beer here in Somerset puts forward the facts for us here in his blog telling us how his product offer will be affected by the change.
I offer you this link to the online petition against the duty rise: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18346 and hope that by whatever means, we can together encourage the government to look again at the way that duty is applied to beer in general that threatens to further damage our fragile industry. We at Liberty have already written to our MPs.
Will a price increase on super strength lager really provide a disincentive to the binge drinkers, or will it simply move those with substance abuse issues away from the super strength lager and on to it's cider, wine or spirit equivalent?
One thing it will do though is disproportionately affect the independent publican and the growing craft and microbrewing community that we have here in Britain. Lets be clear, the mainstream producers, pubco's and supermarkets won't be affected in the slightest by this 25% raise in duty. Their sales of super strength products are all in the lower income end of the scale as far as they are concerned, niche beers for the low waged and the problem drinker that will easily be shifted to another product. When micro brewers produce high ABV products they are at the very top end of their market, a specialist product for the connoisseur or enthusiast.
If the Government is serious about the prevention of criminality and anti social behaviour around alcohol consumption then it is the massive price differential between the Supermarket and the controlled environment of the Public House that should be addressed so people don't turn up in our town centre pubs and bars already having consumed a large amount of cheap supermarket alcohol at home, and the number of cut price deals offered by the large chains for 2 for 1 drinks that encourage rapid consumption.
Although we at Liberty Beer don't currently deal with any brewers who produce a beer that will fall foul of the new duty, we hate to think that good beers will no longer be available to the british drinker due to some wrongheaded piece of legislation that does little to address the problem it seeks to solve. The other Justin at Moor Beer here in Somerset puts forward the facts for us here in his blog telling us how his product offer will be affected by the change.
I offer you this link to the online petition against the duty rise: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18346 and hope that by whatever means, we can together encourage the government to look again at the way that duty is applied to beer in general that threatens to further damage our fragile industry. We at Liberty have already written to our MPs.
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