PUBS have begun charging an astonishing £8 a pint for the first time – sparking fears punters will simply choose to stay at home.
Brits heading out to booze in London during the long Jubilee weekend could face shelling out a whopping £32.24 for a round of just four beers amid spiralling costs.
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Back in 2008, drinkers were paying an average £2.30 for a pint.
The rise in ingredient costs has pushed that to £3.95 in 2022, according to hospitality industry consultancy CGA – a 72 per cent increase.
Perhaps predictably, London boozers are selling the priciest pints. The most expensive found in the city cost an eye-watering £8.06, the Financial Times reports.
Lancashire has the cheapest. A drink at a pub in the county will cost punters £1.79.
Officials at CGA say it’s the first time the price of a pint has passed £8.
Industry leaders fear drinkers will stay away amid hugely inflated costs.
While the British Beer and Pub Association predicts that 90million pints will be sold during the course of the long weekend, there are concerns sales will then slump.
The problem has been made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Ukraine is a global supplier of wheat, meaning the cost of grain has soared.
Barley, one of the main ingredients of beer, has been badly affected.
Analysts believe costs could surge by 70 per cent this year in a “realistic worst case scenario”.
Clive Watson, chairman of City Pub Group, which operates 41 venues in London and the South, said ingredient costs had risen by 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, he said, “wage inflation is probably seven per cent and electricity inflation is 100 per cent, so that blended cost price probably puts the price of a pint of beer up 12 to 13 per cent”.
His company will hold its prices this year, and Mr Watson added: “We just want people to go back to the pub.”
The brewer Marston’s said it had increased its prices by roughly eight per cent in March.
Rival Greene King has put up the cost of beer by 5p a pint on average.
Brasserie Bar Co, which runs 18 gastropubs, has increased the price of stout by 3.8 per cent to £5.50.
However, the cost to the company itself has risen by 8.2 per cent.
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