OT Craft beer..

Just curious to know what prices are like in UK supermarkets.

Wine here is absurdly cheap even in restaurants (albeit high end still have a high markup. Decent house wine can be as little as 5 euros for a litre carafe in many pizzerias/ family run restaurants. Bottles in supermarkets for table wines 1.50 upwards. Really good stuff can be had for anything up from 5 euros to 30 euros.
For that reason I have always considered that beer is expensive here, but seeing some comments on prices in pubs in UK makes me think I have got it wrong. Our small village (comune) boast 900 inhabitants for the entire area within its boundaries but has a craft brewery set up by two guys who trained in Rome. They sell a variety of brews (occasionally using me as a guinea pig being a Brit, in the mistaken belief I actually know a lot about beer.
Some test beers (once they gave me something with citrus which was gross!! but the ones they put on general sale are excellent). Most are unfiltered and for someone like me who has minor allergic reactions to sulphites akin to hayfever is a bonus. I buy a box of 12 x 33cl bottles direct at the brewery 5 minutes drive away for 30-35 euros depending on strength (6.9% IPA is the dearest) and is IMO excellent but I drink it like belgian beers singly. They do a weaker 4.9% beer aromatic and quite hoppy floral with slight bitterness at the end for 30 euros 12x33cl
The IPA works out at £3.30 a pint at current exchange rate. They sell to local bars and restaurants where the same will cost you around 3.50 euros for 33cl. How does that compare to its equivalent in UK supermarkets and pubs? ( I am assuming you can get unfiltered craft beer that do not contain sulphites)

There is also large brewery that sell an unfiltered beer over most of Italy called Ichnusa from a brewery in Sardinia (now owned by Heineken) that is in supermarkets here as well as a filtered version that is pretty good (5%) and often on offer at around 1.30-1.50 euro for 33cl bottle . Decent IMO but not a premium beer like the local stuff.

 

Where about’s do you live mate?

 

Varies greatly by both supermarket and brand.
If you have a preferred beer you may find yourself paying up to £3 for a 330ml can, but equally if you go to home bargains and take what they have you can get some for 89p a can and they are often known branded beers.
Also have also started doing some “knock off” brewdog copies such as “Anti Establishment” which is like the Punk and “Memphis something” which is like Elvis Juice. They’re not exactly the same, but are more than palatable and are just £1.69 for a 440ml can.

 

There are so many breweries now that it depends.

Typically supermarkets do a mix and match on craft beers here, usually around the 4 for £6/7 mark. Or 4 for the price of three.

This is typically restricted to 330ml cans and bottles, but you can sometimes get some of the cheaper 500ml beers on those offers too.

On draft, again dependant on where and what you're drinking, your more popular IPA's like Punk are around £4-5 a pint.

Of course they're marginally cheaper if you go to the brewery taps for them. In Leeds, I used to drink Faith by Northern Monk at a pub over the road from my work. It was £5.20 a pint. 5 minutes down the road, Northern Monk were selling it in their tap room for £3.50 a pint.

 

Obviously as everyone knows by now we are in Italy, but more specifically about 30 minutes inland from the Adriatic about halfway down the country in Le Marche (regional capital Macerata) overlooking the Sibillini mountains in the confines of comune called Ripe San Ginesio but on the opposite side of the valley to the hilltop town.

 

We buy all our beer direct from independent brewers. Depends on the style of beer and i suspect whether a core offering and what the batch size is, but if we get a case of 24 (440ml), it's usually not far off £100 give or take 15-20% either way.

I also suspect independent european brewers offering their wares in the UK is much more difficult and much more costly. My missus follows tonnes of beer/brewery groups on social media, as well as pubs we frequented back in the day. They don't seem to have the familiar names from mainland Europe that were almost a staple just a few years ago. Can't imagine why that may be!

 

ALDI do a lot of good beers for cheap prices starting at like £1.49 a bottle. Most of them are really good too.

Most supermarkets do deals too on them like 3 bottles for 6 quid etc. which isn't bad.

in pubs it just depends where you are and what they have on. My local do a good ale on tap and its £3.50 ish a pint as its brewed not far away but then other pubs will happily charge £5 plus for a craft ale.

 

Sounds idyllic mate, jealous not jealous

 

Our brewers sell to the local bars and restaurants in the immediate area and locals who drop in like myself to stock up, as well as setting up an outside bar at the shop/bar in the main piazza which is in the same building as the micro brewery when events are being held in the spring summer and autumn months.
There is a bar BBQ/Burger joint also close to us that sells their own beer brewed in a microbrewery underneath the main building. I have never been but recently tatsed some of their beer on draught at a private party where they did teh catering.
Very little gets exported. Even wines tend to remain in Italy except for the big mass produced stuff like Ciu Ciu you see in UK markets. They tend to keep the good stuff for themselves. We are surrounded by lots of small producers but also have a very large vineyard a few kilometers away from whom we bought lots of wine, Prosecco and champagne (although not allowed to call it that) for our daughter's wedding in the UK several years ago. Even paying several pounds a bottle corkage to the wedding venue (robbing sods). it was still far cheaper than the drinks package they offere, and much better quality to0.
I asked the owners of the vineyard why they do not export to the UK and they told me the transportation costs and export duties and licenses are far too expensive and they can sell all they need to within Europe and to holiday makers and people coming by car with holdiay homes.

 

What precisely is “craft” beer ?
Does it simply mean it’s brewed by an independent brewer ?

I’m mainly a lager drinker

 

Its one of the reasons I love Italy. Their pride in produce and the localism by each distinct region.

The week I spent venturing round Emilia Romagna was a joy, though sadly I see droughts are affecting the river Po.

Given changes to markets and the additional customs hurdles, getting good stuff to the uk is only likely from an Italian deli and the bigger stockists will take whatever they’re given… things the Italians would never dare serve their customers and guests.

 

A bit of a catch all term really. I think it was a bit trendier than real ale so it caught on and shifted the dial to younger audiences.

I just call it beer really.

 

A hippie commune? Or more like a religious cult?

 

It's got cheese slices in it.

 

The pubs around darton, barugh and mapp are now eye wateringly expensive. It's cheaper in town now.

 

only spelt with one 'm' !!

FYI It is the Italian equivalent of a local urban district council each with its own budget and town mayor. Many financial decisions are made locally and regionally here but most funding comes from central Govt in Rome as rates for prima casa(first house) do not exist. You pay for local services...rubbish, collections lighting road maintenance etc but the amount is around 240 euros per annum per household. You also get free festas some lasting for 4 or 5 days being Italy always food or drink themed. Als free concerts organised by the pro-loco and paid for by the councils during the summer months and often huge firework displays on the last night VAT and personal taxation is high though.
Regions are divided into Comunes (ours is a small fortified medieval hilltop town with around 800 registered occupants).most around us are larger but not by that much between 2000 to 10,000. due to the terrain and the fact that they tended to be feudal and fight each other) . Ours still has the original tower ((Keep) in the square as do many others. Loro Piceno near to us has a huge castle still inhabitable. The bar next to our town hall (also called the comune) used to be the communist headquarters many decades ago .
The comunes are also divided into fraziones often numbering several houses . Any problems? You can just pop into the town hall and speak to the mayor , local geometra who deals with planning, or the town accountant or clerk -no appointment needed albeit in a small comune that is easier than some places. They do drop everything to help out when they can.
The result is that people seem to come first - probably why Italy is more or less bankrupt.

 

France has something similar I believe.

 

Not a gimmick, there is a valid reason, Craft... was a name given to keg beer of a much higher quality than the vast majority of processed beers. It doesn't contain live yeast as in real 'traditional' ale, or hop flowers in the container, it may be filtered, sometimes pasteurised to give it a longer shelf life than real ale, but it will generally have far higher malt and hop contents than similarly processed beers from major concerns.

 

Perfect … that’ll come in helpful when the question is discussed in pub talk.

If I remember that is !