A London boozer is selling what is believed to be Britain's most expensive beer – offering punters a pint for a staggering £80.15p.
The Craft Beer Co chain has welcomed the pricy craft ale after importing it from an "artisanal" microbrewery in San Diego, California.
Pub bosses have put the "overwhelming" beer on sale at the boozer in Brixton, south London, which has been priced at £105 for a 750 ml (1.3 pints) bottle.
The Reforged 20th Anniversary Ale has a thick syrup consistency and is aged in a bourbon barrel for a whopping 18 months.
The beer, made by AleSmith Brewing Company, has received mixed reviews, with pub-goers highlighting that although it is "tasty", it's too pricy for just 11% alcohol.
Beer lover Ben O'Neill, 22, who manages The Needle and Pin pub in Loughborough, said even he wouldn't pay that much for one bottle of beer.
"Compared to most other Imperial stouts it is a bit on the thin side," he said.
"I would not pay £70 for a pint of that.
"Without the price, I would rate this as an 8.2 out of 10. With the price factored in it is more like a four out of ten."
The dark sour ale contains roasted malts and hops, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and barley wine.
-
Fed-up man divorces wife for cooking instant noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Elliott Clark, 26, of Brixton, was left unsatisfied by the beer and said: "It does grow on you, but I would not pay that much for it even to have it once.
"It is not what I want from a beer. I would not pay to buy that. I have spent a couple of hundred pounds on a bottle of wine before but I would not buy that."
It is a fusion of three other beers brewed by the same company- Speedway Stout, which sold on tap for £22.50 at the same pub chain in 2018, Wee Heavy and Old Numbskull.
Dan Jones, 25, an assistant radio producer of Clapham, south London, said: "You can taste every single bit of that 11 per cent alcohol.
"A pint of that would really sit in your stomach for a long time.
"I didn't think it was a beer when I first looked at it.
"I would maybe pay £8 for it and that is accounting for the alcohol percentage."
Agata Chudziak, 27, who was visiting the capital for a gig at the O2 Academy Brixton, believes no one would want to pay that much.
The hospitality worker from Bristol said: "It is tasty, but I would pay no more than £8 for it- not £70."
The pub's general manager Andrew Barton said: "We have only ever sold one before to a group of six guys who absolutely loved it."
The Brixton pub's next most expensive tipple is another American ale called the 'Brewery Out of the Lunch Box', which is cheap by comparison at £45 for a 750ml bottle.
Andrew added: "We campaign for small craft breweries and we try to help them by buying them.
"We understand the cost of living at the moment is very expensive.
"With the beers we have on tap, we try to make craft beer very accessible and we try to be cheaper than other pubs nearby – we sell one IPA for £6.50 when they sell it for more than £7.
"It is not all about charging people these crazy prices.
"We charge what we charge because the cost of a keg is very expensive.
"We could raise our prices further, but we want to make this accessible for people."
The Brixton bar's most expensive beer on tap costs £11.
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here .
Source: Read Full Article