The Great Lager Swindle

The average price for a pint of insipid yellow fizz in the Northwest of England is £1.89, while for Real Ale, the average is only £1.65.

That means that the less clued up amongst us are contributing 24p to the Advertising Agency’s pension fund with every pint. The stuff doesn’t cost any more to make. They just reckon you are daft enough to pay it.

Now doesn’t that make you think?

If it doesn’t, then the boys in suits love you.

One born every minute!

Lager: more fake than you thought

One of the eccentricities of the UK drinks market is the way in which otherwise rational people will pay top prices for lagers with foreign-sounding names and a trendy cosmopolitan image. This is all the more irrational when you realise that virtually all of them are brewed in Britain!

• Take, pour example, 1664, promoted by Kronenbourg as part of La Vie Francaise. It is in fact manufactured by Scottish & Newcastle in a factory in Reading. Vive la Berkshire?
• And Fosters - Think Australian? No, think Mancunian: it is made in Moss Side.
• Carlsberg: the Danes apparently don't want it to leave their country. Not much chance of them stopping this on its way out: it comes from Northampton.
• Stella Artois should perhaps be re-badged Stella Anglais: most of the UK supply is brewed here.

In defence of this somewhat cynical and misleading use of multi-national brand names, the guilty parties come up with the ingenious argument that this avoids the high transport costs of moving around large quantities of a product which is mostly water. Sound economic sense. I propose to take it a step further, and spend my hard earned pennies on Cheshire-brewed ales.
May I recommend that you join me in a pint of Beartown, Burtonwood, Coach House, Khean, Paradise, Storm or Weetwood? Brewed where it says on the pump clip!
I prefer an offering from someone who cares about his craft than one from some cost accountant with one eye on his balance sheet and a vacuous "brand" to promote.