Monday 7 November 2011

First they came for the Special Brew drinkers

Well, I said that High Strength Beer Duty would be just the start, and it now looks as though they’re planning to extend the principle to wine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, in the next two or three years, they come back and have another bite at the beer cherry. Given that there aren’t really any mass-market beers in the range from 5% to 7.5%, I would expect to see the cut-off point at 4.5% or even 4.0%. Enjoy that Pendle Witches Brew while you can...

(H/t to Leg-iron)

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried Tring's Death or Glory, or Oakham's Black Baron? Both well over 5.5%.

    That's it, you've got my taste buds hankering for an apocalyptic pint. Armageddon outta here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hard call, this. Tried Special Brew once when student. Vile. Never tried Tennents Super, probably equally vile. These drinks are brewed almost exclusively for consumption by alcholics. Same goes for turbo white ciders. Hard things to defend. However, your point re the cut-off point is well made; if a level of 7.5% is accepted, they will only come back and have another go. The ironic thing is that as beer duty has gone through the roof, duty on spirits has lagged behind "to protect the Scotch whisky industry". Of course alcoholics don't drink whisky, do they...

    ReplyDelete

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