Sunday 12 April 2020

Mail disorder

I’ve seen a couple of messages on Twitter urging people to buy beer directly from breweries rather than from supermarkets during the lockdown. That’s all well and good, but it has to be recognised that it comes at a price. Beer is a heavy and bulky commodity, and shipping it around the country is expensive. That’s why, compared with clothing or books, mail order for beer has never really taken off outside a specialist niche. When many people will have been laid off from work and feeling the financial pinch, paying more for their beer will be the last thing on their mind. And businesses shouldn’t expect to be “supported” by the general public, unless they can provide a product people want to buy, at a price they’re happy to pay.

Having said that, I thought that, as I was saving money from not going out, I might take a look at what was available out there. I don’t want to buy beers I wouldn’t consider normally, or things that might turn out to be a pig in a poke, but I could see if I could find some beers from favourite breweries whose products we never see locally. So I looked at some that people had highlighted on social media, but quickly ran into the familiar problem of cost. While the headline prices may not have been that much above undiscounted prices in the local off-trade (although they always were higher), once you added on shipping costs, typically around the £8 mark, they became prohibitively so.

One twerp on Twitter predictably asked “how does that compare with prices in the pub?” but that really isn’t the point. A pub isn’t just a beer shop, it also offers atmosphere, hospitality and conviviality. The only valid comparison is with other off-trade prices, which are often only half as much for beers that may be a bit more familiar but, to be honest, are often of comparable quality. I looked at several breweries that all fell into the same category. And another problem is that the shipping cost is often not made explicit until very late in the process.

Another drawback is the time taken for delivery, so delayed gratification is inevitable. Plus you are subject to the notorious vagaries of couriers. Last year, I ordered a mixed case of ciders as a birthday treat. But I was out when it was delivered, so it was left with a newsagent in the town centre with no parking. Fortunately I was able to collect it by parking (legally) on double yellow lines, but that would have been of no use so someone who didn’t drive, or who wasn’t physically able to carry it fifty yards.

However, I did notice on Wadworth’s website that they were currently waiving delivery charges. So you can get a mixed case of twelve of their beers for £32, or £2.67 a bottle, which is still above shop prices, but not prohibitively so for something I like and never see locally. So I went for one of those, although it hasn’t arrived yet. You can also get twelve bottles of the 5.5% ABV Bishop’s Tipple for just £25, and, if that takes your fancy, 24 cans of 6X for just £38.50, or just £1.60 a can. The prices for Thatcher’s cider are also more reasonable – the main brands are available in supermarkets, but the “Cider Barn” specials aren’t.

If you’re happy to pay a substantial premium to get hold of beers that you can’t find in local shops, then that’s fair enough. Indeed I stated above that I just have. And, in the current situation, it may provide a lifeline for people for whom visiting shops is impossible or highly inconvenient. But, for reasons of cost and convenience, it has to be recognised that mail order beer is always going to remain a niche market.

And, unless you’re particularly snobby or fastidious, the range of beers that is now available in supermarkets and other off-trade outlets is such that most palates will find it at least adequate. For example, just confining it to British ales, my local branch of Home Bargains had stocks of Oakham JHB and Inferno, and Adnams’ Southwold Bitter, for £1.00 and £1.09 respectively, none of which you would sneeze at. And my local Morrisons stocks Cheshire Cat and Eastgate Ale from the Cheshire-based Weetwood Brewery for just £6 for 4.

And please don’t suggest that I should support a local business by getting a case of Tarquin Crudgington’s Bowel-Purger Railway Arch Murky IPA. If I didn’t fancy it before, I still don’t now.

Edit: The individual case prices for Hook Norton beers are pretty reasonable, but you need to add a whopping £9.50 on top of them for shipping. As with the Wadworth’s, I might have found a mixed case more tempting.

24 comments:

  1. If you think those shipping costs are high, try living in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I recently considered ordering some fining powder for home brew and found some on line for a reasonable £2.50. However they wanted £26 to ship it to Shetland. I didn't order it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Stafford Mudgie13 April 2020 at 14:29

      Unknown,
      And that's because the delivery companies now competing with Royal Mail don't have a Universal Service Obligation and so are only really interested in lucrative mainland deliveries.

      Delete
  2. My local brewery (Otter) is doing 18 pint 'beer in a box' for around £32 including delivery. Keeps for about a week. I ordered one last Sunday and it was delivered the next day. And very nice it was too.

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  3. Thirst Class are also waiving delivery charges, or were when I ordered from them. Admittedly you're looking at around £3/bottle, which isn't dirt cheap.

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  4. You don’t realise how cheap beer is in the U.K. compared to the rest of the world.

    You obviously don’t Value Beer or the People making it, in any way shape or Form, just your Pocket.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And there was me thinking that off-trade prices in the UK were much higher than in most of the rest of western Europe because of our vastly higher rates of duty...

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    2. I wouldn't bother feeding the troll.

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    3. I suspect he's a well-known micro-brewer and axe-grinder ;-)

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    4. If you are a beer geek that values the small incremental differences in beer, you might value the supply chain as something that supports your own geekery. Value isn't just your own brown alcohol gravy. The local specialist offie may be expensive and high margin, but he shares your geekery and may even be around when the fad has gone.

      You can only judge value for yourself, but some clearly see value in these places.

      Delete
  5. Several micros on Tyneside are delivering at no extra charge, cases of bottles, 5l bag in box cask beer and growlers of keg. All at much less than pub prices although bottles can be had in supermarkets for less.

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  6. Professor Pie-Tin13 April 2020 at 08:25

    Apologies for repeating a link I posted a week or so ago but the good people at the Somerset cider farm of Tricky Cider make some exceptional farmhouse cider at what I think is a very reasonable price.
    I got 4 x 5 litre boxes plus shipping to Ireland for around £60 and to the UK it's around £50.
    I recommend the Medium. The Dry and Porter's Perfection are fine too but do come with an added sharp intake of breath.
    www.trickycider.com

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  7. Hadrian Border brewery in Newcastle delivers free and their delivery area reaches as south as Durham.

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  8. Price is what you pay.
    Value is what you get.

    A group of people with a geeky interest in something are going to value it highly. Most of beer geekery is the narcissism of small differences. The quid a bottle ale in the Home bargains is decent. But there's a small difference in the 3 quid a bottle stuff and if you are a geek you notice and value that. It becomes snobbery if you were to look and sneer at those that do not value that small difference.

    Enjoy what you enjoy. You might be dead tomorrow.

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  9. Cookie has said it all really on the snobbery front. I have been mainly been using the supermarkets for my beer requirements, one because there's a Tescos 400 yards from my doorstep and there is a great range of beers available that suit my taste with the added bonus of being relatively cheap. Before the pubs closed I rarely drank at home,over the last couple of weeks or so I've never had such a diversity of beer, which is great but as soon as the pubs reopen, home drinking will become a rare thing again.

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  10. Our Friends over at Localbeer.club sell beer from a selection of different micro-breweries across the UK. It's a great way to try new beers that wouldn't necessarily be in your local area. Their prices are reasonable and don't charge an extremely high carriage charge!

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  11. My local is doing takeaway. The landlord had somethign like 50 casks in the cellar when they were made to close. Rather than pour it down the drain he got a load of 5 pint and 9 pint containers and is selling it off. You ring up, tell him what you want, pay over the phone and then he leaves it at the back door with your name on it. As long as you drink it the same day it is pretty decent. It's the closest thing to cask beer we are going to get for a while. Only problem is he's down to less than 20 casks now.

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    Replies
    1. One of our local pubs has been operating a similar system since the lock-down begun. As you point out it's the closest thing to cask, but it does need to be drunk quickly.

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    2. yes several of our local pubs have done the same,but the authorities seem to be adding more rules to them as this goes on, and its getting to be more hassle than its worth in my view for what you get and especially as you do have to drink it quickly. So its not great but Ill stick with supermarkets for now, as the range is good enough,reasonably reliable still, though our local Co-op was virtually cleared out of beer over the Easter weekend, and I can get a decent bulk amount to last. Ive looked at the online stuff, but theres been nothing that grabbed me as a must buy yet, plus yeah you do have to watch the delivery charges, though Ive seen some breweries are mixing it up now with more mixed cases.

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  12. Took delivery this afternoon of a case of 20 cans from East Sussex-based Gun Brewery. Ordered online, through Flavourly, a special offer at £32.

    Works out at £1.60 per can, so not bad for a selection from one of the best local breweries in the area.

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  13. I've gone down the 9 pint mini cask route. A local beer shop has had a link historically with Tring brewery and the session strength ales (virtually all of them) work out at £2.62 a pint. What to do with the casks, though - my current plan is to recycle them as weights now the gyms are shut.

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  14. if you look at the fullers website, they are flogging pins labelled up as cask @ home, 18 pints for £38. Get 2 & you go over £50 for the free postage. Can't tell you what it drinks like but if you want cask bitter i guess its decent enough. i guess you have to neck it before it goes off

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