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Like gas prices, the price of a beer, is often used to explain rising costs across an economy. And some noted beer writers explain why…
Speaking to the Drinks Business, food and drink author, broadcaster and ‘Beer Writer of the Year’ Pete Brown shared his thoughts…
(Courtesy Pete Brown.net)
“Beer cuts across class and habit. Even people who don’t drink beer recognize it as an affordable everyday treat that’s open and accessible to everyone – or should be. The fact that it’s more associated with working class people than other classes just underlines this. It’s also why some people get seriously upset at the idea of expensive craft beer. But in fact beer has been going up more than lots of staples – particularly when you look at on-trade beer – it’s going up far quicker than RPI.”
Beer and food judge Bill Simmons agreed with Pete Brown and explained to the trade publication that the reason beer is used as a measure of the economy is due to how Brits have historically used pub visits as a yardstick of their daily expenditures…
“Years ago, most men went to the pub multiple times a week. The price of a pint was their barometer on how the cost of living was going. It was the one constant they had to gauge how far their purse strings would stretch.”
Beer author and journalist Adrian Tierney-Jones told the Drinks Business that all of this is due to the way we consider beer is as a regular affordable commodity….
“Beer still has that democratic, everyday value that everyone can afford – like bread it is the staff of life.”
Even energy CEOs use the price of a pint to measure price increases (in this case gas price increase). Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson on Radio 4’s Today program…
“I think the spate of failures within the 29 companies that went bust last year, that was driven by gas prices roughly doubling. They’re currently nine to 11 times higher than usual. Look, to put that in perspective, if this was beer, we’re talking about the wholesale price being £25 a pint.”
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