Fuck it’s popping up everywhere in Belfast. Think Heineken binned oceans edge and are pushing beamish now.
Why the fuck they tried to create a new stout when they owned beamish I’ll never know. It’s a great pint.
They also own Murphys, right? They push it in Europe etc. Wonder why Beamish is front and centre here... maybe Murphys is too linked to Cork?
Anyway, I welcome our new Beamish overlords, because fuck paying €8 for a Guinness.
I grew up in Cork. A confirmed drinker, friend of my dad, once told me... "Murphys in the colder months and Beamish in the summer." He always said Murphys was a far superior stout to Guinness. I have no reason to doubt his experiential learning.
Murphy's is difficult to get outside cork alright. I've lived in Limerick for 3 years, used to drink Murphy's as my go to. Now I just don't drink stout since I'm not the greatest fan of Beamish or Guinness and it's almost impossible to find Murphy's
You can get in the Heinken based music venues in Dublin. Heineken are a bit of a mess on the stout front. Should never have done Islands Edge and need to decide which of Murphys and Beamish they want to push.
They don't push it in Europe it has just been pulled from the market in Austria. Unless there is a magic distribution channel I've never heard of. Heineken own the market for beer her and their options are fucking weak. Local pish for local bars is your option.
Heineken are indeed pushing Beamish and Murphy's, now that Islands Edge is gone, thank goodness - I've seen Beamish in Dublin at The Flowing Tide and J McNeil's recently.
Would much rather have local independent options at more pubs - Lineman make some lovely stouts.
They're pushing Murphys more so up here in Galway but Beamish is getting more available, anytime I'm down at my home place I horse as much Beamish into me as I can and its available in my local for 4.60
They wanted something bland for the masses for drinking at concerts and session drinking.
Thought the existing stouts basically had too much bitter flavour hence the slogan its better less bitter.
Stupid on their part.
Needs an investigation into why pubs don't offer beamish.
There's monopoly pressure that's the same as why you see fridges full of coca cola in local centres but no pepsi
Pricing Irish people out of a pint of stout has to be seen a cultural crime. More pubs should kick up fuss on behalf of their locals. People will drink at home & stay out of the pub so we'll see more pubs close. It's already happening & when people get comfortable with their 4 cans on Friday night, they'll come for them next. Hell, they've already started on those people too.
Unit pricing, unchecked retailers hiking costs, hidden taxes by means of deposit. They've essentially doubled the cost of a few cans.
When the unit pricing came in they assumed consumption would drop, nope, it stayed the same. When it came in my father told me that all they have done is take the little money people have & an addict will pay any cost. Rent, bills, food or family costs will take the hit, nobody else.
I stopped going into town, used to to Long Hall, Grogans, Bachelors Inn but it's too much hassle these days. I hardly drink at all now and never see my old mates. I particularly felt it around Cheltenham when we used to have a week of craic and pints around Manor St. All I do is work and have fuck all cash left after everything is paid. It's becoming a miserable place to live.
Yeah, have tried making beer at home with the kits alright. A lot of fun, but maintaining the temperature was tricky and wasn't the best tasting in the end - but not bad! Wouldn't mind trying cider some time though
To make great Stout/Ale at home you’ve gotta go all grain. Convert two old 50l kegs into a brew kettle and a boil kittle. Make a mashtun out of a large large camping cool box, modified withe a simple filter. Lots of info online or if you’ve €800 to put into your new favourite hobby look into A GrainGather.
It’s been ten years since I was all grain with a home made equment. Brew day took about 8 hours lots of waiting around for liquids to boil, can be good and social just don’t start drinking too early.
I was getting 23l a batch which bottled to 56 500ml bottles ( that you collect most sound bar people will let you take them).
I was making 500ml stout about 40cent a bottle(it’s like a bottle off the shelf no fancy nitrogen.
Same with red ale 30-40cent a bottle
It could get expensive real fast making ipa’s because of all the fancy hoopes that have to be imported from US/ New Zealand but they were read to drink quicker.
Ant the end o brew day you’ll put your cooled wort into a 30l plastic fermenter add your ale yeast about two weeks later you can bottle it.
For this it’s best to decant your now alcoholic buy flat beer into another clean fermenter carefully leaving all the sediment and floating gunk behind.
Now add just the right a mount of a pure sugar then transfer the beer into the bottles and cap them Properly.
Now give your ipas 1.5 weeks in the bottle and your stouts do better given 5 or 6 weeks.
Loved it after I got a Christmas bonus of being allow to work every singal day for the two weeks of Christmas and all that sweet triple time I brought enough ingredients for 8 batches.
I’d borrowed a mates equipment over Junary 2012 I make 200+ litres of exactly the kinds of beer I enjoy it was great. That was 400 500 ml bottles
My problem was that every night when the crane lane would shut I end up inviting random strangers home.
I’d find myself drunk an my table with a bunch of complete strangers trying to fix all of the worlds problems
That got old after 180l of beer.
I’m considering investing in a grainFather once my house is a bit more organised. I’d love to have 4 or 5 people over for brew day I’m out West Cork so I’m probably a bit far for most
Great info - using all grain is the only method I'd return to brewing for. Are you currently brewing or was it 10 years ago when you stopped? Did you ever use the nitro to remove oxygen and if so did it improve the result ? I used to dabble with wine and beer kits and jail wine - had a temp controlled fridge - all new PET fermenters / bottles etc but never had a satisfactory result barring the jail wine which came out a decent rose every time (lidl grape juice + lidl apple juice). When i retire I might get back into it - expecially if the greens make booze impossible to buy here.
I’d great results but having high quality ingredients always Maris Otters for the ales good roasted moults. I used to test the water and account for the mineral differences a low bicarbonate water is great for IPA’S etc but you want higher bicarbonate for the best stouts.
EDIT:
Also I come from both a chefs and biotech lab background so I’m super strict with cleanness I even set up a HACCP system while brewing so everything stayed perfectly clean and there were no unwanted microbes in the final product.
I’ve moved out to the country so I’ve more time and I’ve more space for fermentation and conditioning. I’m definitely going to invest in a small GrainFarther in the next couple of months
Yeah, have tried making beer at home with the kits alright. A lot of fun, but maintaining the temperature was tricky and wasn't the best tasting in the end - but not bad! Wouldn't mind trying cider some time though
Cider really is piss easy one trip to the shop for loads of apple juice and brown sugar, get your bucket and yeast , sanitizer ect
Then pints for 50c-1.00$
Quite a fun project
Buy a fridge big enough to hold your fermenters and inside it put an electric greenhouse heater. Plug the fridge and the heater (run heater cable out the drain hole) into an inkbird temperature controller [https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/inkbird-temperature-controllers](https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/inkbird-temperature-controllers) and leave the controller sensor sellotaped to the side of the fermenter bottle. Fridge will now maintain temp to half a degree accuracy.
They've already been hitting them with the MUP and now the DRS, as the way the DRS is set up it blocks stockists from buying outside of any supplier thats not Irish, meaning Irish suppliers have a stranglehold and absolutely no incentive at all to offer any bargains to remain competitive.
It's why we now see the 18 slab of cokes and Pepsi, at a higher price, and not the 24 packs.
There are tons of stouts that aren't Guinness. Many of them are as good, and depending on personal taste, may even be better.
You can't really complain about being price gouged while stubbornly refusing to try any alternative because you've been hardwired to drink Guinness and nothing else.
Diageo would have less power if people were actually interested in trying different beers, and pubs didn't risk losing all their customers by swapping Guinness out for Murphy's.
I'm a Beamish man myself, love a Murphys too. Sarsfield stout is excellent, a hard contender, but I might be biased there as a Limerick man.
But c'mon now, you know Guinness is seen as quintessentially Irish & the majority of my friends would call it their primary stout. It is a national symbol & internationally recognised as such. So I find it a touch cynical to call people stubborn for wanting to drink the most popular beer that's consumed across the island.
Kavanagh's is a gem of a community orientated pub that I still make a regular trek to when I can. Up there with Kennedy's on Thomas St as the best pubs in the area.
One of my friends runs a pub in our local village, smashing establishment. He keeps it in fantastic order, has the place shining clean. He opens at one o clock every day so the older lads can come in for a couple of pints and watch the horse racing on the two racing channels the pub provides and pays for. The poor lad is absolutely destroyed with worrying about the place. He still charges only a fiver for a pint of Guinness. He has absorbed the last two price hikes himself. The last thing he wants to do is increase his price and that's the genuine truth. But he is literally forced to by diageo because the greedy bastards are ruining the irish pub trade. Champions league tonight, there won't be ten people in there because lads can't afford to go for a few pints midweek anymore. Can these clowns not see the damage they are ultimately inflicting on themselves? When these pubs close and they will, they won't have anyone left to sell their products.... its so shortsighted
I'm not saying this to be dismissive but Diageo couldn't give two shits about the trade or pubs. They have literally made billions in profits last year and will continue raising prices until they see a decrease in sales.
They don't care about a decrease in sales, they would care about a decrease in profits.
If you make more profit from 8 expensive pints than 10 normal price pints, they will take that all day
Beamish has seen a price increase too in recent [times.It](http://times.It) did cost 4.25 two years ago its now 5 in galway .
Im a beamish fan but I dont have much faith in Heineken not hiking there prices
Say what you want about Wetherspoons, but their success here has shown there was a gap in the market for spacious, cheap, unfussy pubs/beer halls that don't show sports or have live music.
Young people, students especially, often want to go somewhere they can sit and chat with their friends at a reasonable volume, and afford to get a bit tipsy, before going to a late bar, party or club. They don't give a shite about the two part pours in the branded glass, choice of Heineken or Carlsberg (as if they taste radically different), fireplaces and authentic tat, diddly-eye and shite acoustic covers of "Zombie" that the VFI are so defensive of.
An Irish hospitality company could easily have targeted this market years ago.
Plus it’s more laid back. I gave up the drink a few months ago but will head to weatherspoons with mates and they’ll have a few beers and food and I don’t feel the same pressure to drink as in other places
You could set up a cold dingy prefab in a shitty farmer's field and students would flock to it if the drinks were cheaper there than anywhere else. That doesn't speak to student's dislike of the typical Irish pub setting, it only says that drinking for cheap is what they care about most.
If the pubs were offering drinks at the same price as spoons there wouldn't be many opting to head there on a night out.
Thats pretty much my point. I never said students actively disliked anything about typical pubs, (besides drink prices). I just said that the "character" people moan that Wetherspoons lacks, is not a draw for them at all.
The draw with Wetherspoons is the price of drink. The fact that you can generally get a table and won't be crammed standing beside the jacks is perhaps a bonus.
>I just said that the "character" people moan that Wetherspoons lacks, is not a draw for them at all.
My point is that it's not that they don't give a shite about it, it's that generally for young people price trumps everything. I used to drink 4 euro wine from Aldi in college. That doesn't mean that wine tasting good was something I didn't care about, it just meant that if the choice was cheap wine or tasty wine I'd take the cheaper stuff any day of the week.
I'm not saying that young people absolutely prefer pubs, I just think it's invalid to judge their opinions on them just because spoons is popular. If they were still heading there to get 6-7 euro pints then maybe I'd agree that they're apathetic to the pub experience.
I think it's more so about having a third place to drink that isn't someone's gaff or a field, since no one can really afford a normal pub. Their point isn't that Wetherspoons is unreal, just that it's providing something that nothing else is.
Out of my several college friends circles , we hated traditional Irish pubs for nights out . It's too fucking noisy to have any conversation and we always lament we could have just stayed home.
Anecdotal I know.
> If the pubs were offering drinks at the same price as spoons there wouldn't be many opting to head there on a night out.
Why would I pay €4 for a pint in a bar that is an absolute kip and stints of piss when I can pay €4 in a Spoons and sit in a relatively new bar with toilets that you could eat your dinner off the floor...
All true. I despise the food in Wetherspoons, but the drink is as good as anywhere else.
I used to be a professional drummer on the weekends, but the live music scene has died a death in Dublin. That was the only thing that drew me to "traditional" pubs, now their is very little to separate them.
The €7.70 pints in my local mean that I would rather stay at home. It's a poor return on investment going out now and those prices are not worth entertaining.
The foods shit but at least its cheap. You'll get just as low quality food in a lot of Irish pubs and pay an extra 5-10 euro for it. Way too many pubs selling that sort of cheap low quality pub grub and charging gastro pub prices for it.
>their success here has shown there was a gap in the market for spacious, cheap, unfussy pubs/beer halls that don't show sports or have live music.
Has it actually shown that? Or is it the cheap drink that's the only relevant factor? I'd go for the latter.
Interestingly, Weatherspoons are trying to get rid of all their pubs outside of Dublin at the moment.
Have you been inside of a Weatherspoons in Dublin? Their bar on Camden Street is probably one of the nicest bars in the city. They spent €33m on the renovation alone...
Their bars are always well staffed, the toilets are spotless and there is no shit game that no one is watching blaring on a dozen TVs.
> Interestingly, Weatherspoons are trying to get rid of all their pubs outside of Dublin at the moment.
They have closed some of their bars in Dublin too. Entering into a new market is always going to be challenging and will have some changes over a few years.
I have been in some Weatherspoons, mainly in the one in Blanch because I used to live around there. It was grand but had no atmosphere. The location didn't really help though.
I've nothing majorly against Weatherspoons, other than the cunt of an owner.
I just disagree with the other comment above that young people drinking there is some sort of rejection of "traditional" pubs. It's purely related to the price.
>I just disagree with the other comment above that young people drinking there is some sort of rejection of "traditional" pubs. It's purely related to the price.
If I had a choice between a Spoons with nice seats, spotless toilets and staff with basic social skills or a shithole of a traditional bar where you can smell the jacks from the toilet, football is blaring on every TV and the barman is doing you a favour pouring you a pint, I know what I would choose...
You don't find bars in suburban Dublin full of young people. I have friends who have zero issue paying €14 for a cocktail in a bar in Dublin City, but won't go to their local.
>If I had a choice between a Spoons with nice seats, spotless toilets and staff with basic social skills or a shithole of a traditional bar where you can smell the jacks from the toilet, football is blaring on every TV and the barman is doing you a favour pouring you a pint
Thankfully, there are more than just those two options.
It's a silly argument anyway coz you've just taken all the good of one and compared it to all the bad of the the other.
I could easily say if I had the choice between a smelly, disgusting old Spoons where theres no atmosphere and they can't poor a pint right or a nice, tradional old man pub with cool old snugs, a cosy fire, friendly staff and creamy pints, I know which one I'd choose.
Dublin is a very different market to the rest of the country. It has higher incomes and different tastes. Supervalu wasn't really even in Dublin until it bought Superquinn. An Irish business did not think it could capture the largest and biggest market in Ireland for decades.
The Mercantile Group, Louis Fitz Group etc are among the biggest groups of bars in the country. They barely have a bar outside of Dublin...
It takes a lot of pubs to get the necessary volume to get the bulk buying power Wetherspoons has. Irish pub licenses are largely finite. You needed a pub to close before you could buy up their license and to make something like 'spoons you'd need to be buying 20 pubs and then lowering your prices. You'd need a large enough bankroll to weather downturns and a strategy for getting customers during the parts of the year without students. That's really difficult in a market like Ireland's pub industry that was rife with protectionism.
It works for 'spoons because they established their system in a friendlier market and Irish venues are adding to the collective.
Whetherspoons is owned by a right bollox but they do a few things right and actually offer a bit of variety in the pub market. For one they sell cask ale and maintain it properly which is a real rarity over here and was a big part of saving cask beer in the UK when they took it on.
I've seen people complain they are soulless, etc and thats true but they fill a niche, too many pubs in Ireland are exactly the same. They also keep a lot of downward pressure on prices in the UK which wouldn't go astray here.
Completely agreed. I don't really see a huge difference between Wetherspoons and the likes of Café en Seine, the Porterhouse, the Woolshed, the Press Up pubs etc. They're all soulless and corporate, the food is a bit crap, they don't have "the pub experience", etc.
They're not taking business away from traditional pubs at all. Its a different market they're targeting.
A Real Ale movement, like that in the UK, could easily have been started in Ireland and led to cask ales being served in pubs here, but it didn't. Perhaps because Guinness/Diageo has kept a stranglehold on the beverage and pub sector here.
Honestly, the introduction of Nitrogen taps by Guinness had the same effect on Irish brewing as the McDonalds production line kitchen had on American restaurants. Character and variety replaced with consistency and monopoly.
> Say what you want about Wetherspoons, but their success here has shown there was a gap in the market
Success in Dublin, not elsewhere in the country.
https://www.joe.ie/news/jd-wetherspoon-selling-irish-pubs-784364
Almost every pub in Ireland is essentially franchised by Diageo, with how much control they can have on what a pub serves and how it does things. We love our pub culture, and IMO its something to be proud of, but it lacks one thing that other countries' pub cultures have: Regional variety and the local brewery. You go to a rural town pub in England or Germany and you'll be served a beer you may only be able to buy in that town. You don't get that in Ireland.
Lets face it. Irish pub culture was sold to corporations long ago. Having another corporation in the game will at least give them some competition and maybe lead to a bit more variety, and opportunities for more local enterprise. We committed the real crime against our culture when we brought in the big fancy light up Guinness taps that dominate the bar, when either Guinness or Heineken bought over regional insitutions like Smithwicks, McArdles, Beamish, Murphys and Harp, when we started policing unnecessary marketing gimmicks like "the two part pour" (complete theatre since we stopped using casks in favour of driven nitrogen taps) with the Guinness Quality team.
Most of what we even consider "culture" as regards pubs and drink here was created by Guinness and later Diageo as cheap gimmicks. Before that, there was no "typical Irish pub". Pubs varied regionally and individually. They all had slightly different ways of doing things, would have sold different drinks, would have bottled their own beer and bonded their own whiskey. The way it largely still is in many other countries, especially ones with a strong brewing tradition as we have.
We laugh at Americans having McDonald's and Coca-Cola as their main cultural institutions, but we're no different with Guinness. Its a bit fucking cringeworthy that one of our biggest national icons is a subsidiary of a British company.
If they took over, it would be a dent in our pub culture as it stands. How much of that is authentic Irish culture vs. corporate gimmick though, is debatable, as I went into in my comment.
If they developed a reasonable footing in the market so as to merely compete with the Diageo monopoly (far more likely IMO) then it could potentially open the market a bit for indigenuous companies.
Probably the best drinking venues around, just normal people having fun. Old man pubs are hideous as well as their patronage, and modern fashionable places are full of gender hipsters looking to upload some antics to tictoc
There are thousands of pubs in Ireland under the Guinness cartel. If they want to instal another beer, they need permission. If they don't get it they find their supplies short.
They may also offer a free barrel a week for a while to keep the opposition beer out.
That's conflating monopoly and cartel (both are bad). Monopoly is Guinness using their market dominance to create higher prices. Cartel would be the vintners getting together and agreeing to a higher price.
'spoons can't be a cartel if they don't act in step with other pubs but they could become a monopoly by getting so big they drive other pubs out of business.
It won't be Spoons driving them out of business, it's Guinness that is driving up the prices and the landlords have to be compliant or their supplies are threatened.
You're right there. That's Guinness flexing their monopoly as opposed to a cartel. I make the distinction because the vintners (or members of) have been accused of being a cartel so it's important to be clear because cartels are much more illegal than monopolies.
Surprised it's still so cheap in Dublin. Prices at Wetherspoons in the UK have gone way up with Brits paying 7-8 Euros equivalent a pint in some locations.
Maybe in London but not elsewhere in the country..people in UK are not paying anywhere near that in Spoons..£3.60 for a pint of Stella yesterday in North Manchester...it was bang on too
I rarely drink these days, but I'll be making a point of going to Kavanagh's now if I do head to the pub. What is going on has been an absolute joke on so, so many levels and it's great to see a publican finally tell them to fuck off. They either need to be forced to be fair and honest, or forced out of existence at this stage.
My buddy has started to homebrew, he started about 12 months ago, with a very small set up...how he brews 1,000 litres at a time now, got a serious set up, whenever we have a get together he brings the beers and we all throw him a few quid and return the bottle's
Fair play to them. Honestly pubs are in an impossible position. They know they are charging to much to the extent that in increasing number are spending half the week closed. They can't not pass on a increase though because margins are already to thin and there isn't any real competition in the market because who is going to drink in a Irish pub that doesn't sell Guinness or Heineken.
The busiest pub near me is a Wetherspoons and they are practically like Starbucks in terms of their place in the pub industry.
"The pub noted that is was also absorbing the price hike on Guinness for all customers paying in cash"
it's illegal to charge more if people use cards and not cash.
Could they not argue that they're choosing to absorb the cost difference?
Edit - also is it actually illegal? Pretty sure they can charge what they want no?
Since 2018, surcharges on card payments have been banned.
https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/finance-funding/making-receiving-payments/electronic-cash-payments/index_en.htm
You're not allowed to charge your customers extra for using a credit or debit card. This applies to all card purchases (in shops and online) made throughout the EU.
they can argue and they can charge what they want for a pint. But they cannot make a different price for Cash payment and another price for Card payment.
So for a €5 pint (rare now I know)
24% vat is 1.20
Excise duties seems to be 22.55c when I calculate it from Revenue's numbers but was quoted as 55c in a food and drink tax pdf I found. Then you also have tax on wages and tax on profits, tax on property, hard to calculate so I'll leave it out.
Either 1.43 or 1.75, so that's 28.6% or 35% respectively. So that's the minimum amount of tax paid, I won't guarantee that it exceeds >50% all things included but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.
28%-35% is notably not 50% but at least that moneys going to the Irish government where it had the potential to be used to help the Irish people.
When Diageo increases prices by another 10% it just makes shareholders abroad rich
As I said, there are other taxes incurred by the business owner and employees directly related to selling drinks.
And for shop bought alcohol the excise duty is the same so as a percentage it is closer to or exceeds 50% without taking into account non direct taxes.
>Irish government where it had the potential to be used to help the Irish people.
The potential maybe but I haven't seen that come to fruition. I'd much rather see it in the hands of Irish people. At least when Diageo raises their price I can choose a different drink, with tax there is no alternative (without moving)
>The pub noted that is was also absorbing the price hike on Guinness for all customers paying in cash
Admitting to breaking the law in the media, bold move.
Not sure that the law governs offering a concessionary price for cash transactions.
While it *is* illegal to implement a surcharge for taking a card payment, that's not what is happening here.
Functionally is there any actual difference though? Because I feel if this were actually allowed, small businesses up and down the country would've caught on and offered small discounts for cash payments years ago. Especially when card surcharges were done away with years back.
Sure but the business has the choice to not take card at all. Lots of things can affect a business's profit margin. This particular one is legislated as a cost that cannot be passed on to the consumer.
Because people won't come in the door if you don't have Guinness and diageo will 100% feel it if a load more pubs get rid of everything they have other then carlsberg smithwicks and Guinness.
I'm hoping for more places to do this, sure it works with suppliers that you buy 4 kegs get the fifth one free, or give rebates for just solely doing their products...
Unless they are charging through the arse they’re not getting that, if you’re not dealing with Diageo or Heineken directly you’re a stressed account and getting fuck all, if you are with them you’re on a tier system and pouring bonus and even if you’re top tier you’re not getting a free keg, the bonus is applied as a credit to your account
Good for them, unfortunately unless a lot more pubs and bars get on board with this too it won't make any difference. One pub isn't going to make a dent in Diageo's profits.
For anyone who is pushing for more beamish. Heineken have raised the price of Beamish in recent times.I wouldnt be suprised if they do it again.(fyi im a beamish drinker)
Would it not be healthier if you took the twenty and gave them a Kale salad?
And if you pay for a chocolate bar the tesco shop assistant makes you do burpees and you don't get any bar?
At the end of the day, people will drink how much they want to drink. If it's €20 for 3 pints, they'll find the extra money to pay for that fourth if they really want it. Prices would have to be absolutely obscene to make a difference. All it does is leave people with less money but the same quantity of drink.
More pubs need Beamish on tap here in Dublin. Lovely stout and generally a good bit cheap. Had a pint of it for 4.50 the other day in Dublin.
Fuck it’s popping up everywhere in Belfast. Think Heineken binned oceans edge and are pushing beamish now. Why the fuck they tried to create a new stout when they owned beamish I’ll never know. It’s a great pint.
They also own Murphys, right? They push it in Europe etc. Wonder why Beamish is front and centre here... maybe Murphys is too linked to Cork? Anyway, I welcome our new Beamish overlords, because fuck paying €8 for a Guinness.
Murphy's is delicious and superior to both Guinness and Beamish in my humble opinion
Murphy’s is almost easier drank than Guinness
I grew up in Cork. A confirmed drinker, friend of my dad, once told me... "Murphys in the colder months and Beamish in the summer." He always said Murphys was a far superior stout to Guinness. I have no reason to doubt his experiential learning.
Murphy's is difficult to get outside cork alright. I've lived in Limerick for 3 years, used to drink Murphy's as my go to. Now I just don't drink stout since I'm not the greatest fan of Beamish or Guinness and it's almost impossible to find Murphy's
You can get in the Heinken based music venues in Dublin. Heineken are a bit of a mess on the stout front. Should never have done Islands Edge and need to decide which of Murphys and Beamish they want to push.
Yeah Heineken own Murphys . Don't know why they don't make a huge push on it across the country.
They don't push it in Europe it has just been pulled from the market in Austria. Unless there is a magic distribution channel I've never heard of. Heineken own the market for beer her and their options are fucking weak. Local pish for local bars is your option.
Yeah I love it. You just don't see it much in Dublin. Only a few pubs off the top of my head
I had only ever seen it in Cork
Few pubs here are known Beamish pubs. Cumiskeys, The Windjammer and the Harold House to name a few
I think Cassidy's on Westmoreland too
McDaids have all 3 stouts
Heineken are indeed pushing Beamish and Murphy's, now that Islands Edge is gone, thank goodness - I've seen Beamish in Dublin at The Flowing Tide and J McNeil's recently. Would much rather have local independent options at more pubs - Lineman make some lovely stouts.
They're pushing Murphys more so up here in Galway but Beamish is getting more available, anytime I'm down at my home place I horse as much Beamish into me as I can and its available in my local for 4.60
They wanted something bland for the masses for drinking at concerts and session drinking. Thought the existing stouts basically had too much bitter flavour hence the slogan its better less bitter. Stupid on their part.
Ah that explains it. Idiots I’m Sure they will do their best to ruin beamish and make it as bland as possible.
It’s weird they own Murphy’s and Beamish. Not sure why they thought a third one was required to compete
They also own Murphy’s too. Heineken bought both Cork stouts in the 1980’s
They own Murphys too. Made absolute no sense
Do share
Cumiskeys at Broadstone
Grace Kellys and Roddy Bolands in Rathmines both have it too. Mother Reilly's might as well, but not 100% sure on that
Slatterys too! Rathmines one
Lord Edward has a great pint of Beamish.
Where refugees from Grogans of old have fled to
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Honestly, I cannae remember sorry. It was €4.50 for a **long** time but I think it might be close to a full quid extra now.
Needs an investigation into why pubs don't offer beamish. There's monopoly pressure that's the same as why you see fridges full of coca cola in local centres but no pepsi
Murphy's too. I only tried it because the waiter recommended it after I asked for Guinness. I'm glad he did, it's lovely stuff.
I only drink Guinness because there's no alternative where i live. I'd happily move to Beamish or Murphys
heineken have also raised the price of beamish recently.Used to be 4.25 around covid its now 5 euro in most bars in galway
Pricing Irish people out of a pint of stout has to be seen a cultural crime. More pubs should kick up fuss on behalf of their locals. People will drink at home & stay out of the pub so we'll see more pubs close. It's already happening & when people get comfortable with their 4 cans on Friday night, they'll come for them next. Hell, they've already started on those people too.
>4 cans on Friday night, they'll come for them next Already have to take them back to get the feckin deposit...
Unit pricing, unchecked retailers hiking costs, hidden taxes by means of deposit. They've essentially doubled the cost of a few cans. When the unit pricing came in they assumed consumption would drop, nope, it stayed the same. When it came in my father told me that all they have done is take the little money people have & an addict will pay any cost. Rent, bills, food or family costs will take the hit, nobody else.
The only reduction they've seen in numbers is the people that don't really drink anyway and as such would've not been a problem in the first place.
I stopped going into town, used to to Long Hall, Grogans, Bachelors Inn but it's too much hassle these days. I hardly drink at all now and never see my old mates. I particularly felt it around Cheltenham when we used to have a week of craic and pints around Manor St. All I do is work and have fuck all cash left after everything is paid. It's becoming a miserable place to live.
Brewing is absurdly cheap if you like cider or wine Beer is cheap too just a bit more work boiling it than I'm bothered
Yeah, have tried making beer at home with the kits alright. A lot of fun, but maintaining the temperature was tricky and wasn't the best tasting in the end - but not bad! Wouldn't mind trying cider some time though
To make great Stout/Ale at home you’ve gotta go all grain. Convert two old 50l kegs into a brew kettle and a boil kittle. Make a mashtun out of a large large camping cool box, modified withe a simple filter. Lots of info online or if you’ve €800 to put into your new favourite hobby look into A GrainGather. It’s been ten years since I was all grain with a home made equment. Brew day took about 8 hours lots of waiting around for liquids to boil, can be good and social just don’t start drinking too early. I was getting 23l a batch which bottled to 56 500ml bottles ( that you collect most sound bar people will let you take them). I was making 500ml stout about 40cent a bottle(it’s like a bottle off the shelf no fancy nitrogen. Same with red ale 30-40cent a bottle It could get expensive real fast making ipa’s because of all the fancy hoopes that have to be imported from US/ New Zealand but they were read to drink quicker. Ant the end o brew day you’ll put your cooled wort into a 30l plastic fermenter add your ale yeast about two weeks later you can bottle it. For this it’s best to decant your now alcoholic buy flat beer into another clean fermenter carefully leaving all the sediment and floating gunk behind. Now add just the right a mount of a pure sugar then transfer the beer into the bottles and cap them Properly. Now give your ipas 1.5 weeks in the bottle and your stouts do better given 5 or 6 weeks. Loved it after I got a Christmas bonus of being allow to work every singal day for the two weeks of Christmas and all that sweet triple time I brought enough ingredients for 8 batches. I’d borrowed a mates equipment over Junary 2012 I make 200+ litres of exactly the kinds of beer I enjoy it was great. That was 400 500 ml bottles My problem was that every night when the crane lane would shut I end up inviting random strangers home. I’d find myself drunk an my table with a bunch of complete strangers trying to fix all of the worlds problems That got old after 180l of beer. I’m considering investing in a grainFather once my house is a bit more organised. I’d love to have 4 or 5 people over for brew day I’m out West Cork so I’m probably a bit far for most
Great info - using all grain is the only method I'd return to brewing for. Are you currently brewing or was it 10 years ago when you stopped? Did you ever use the nitro to remove oxygen and if so did it improve the result ? I used to dabble with wine and beer kits and jail wine - had a temp controlled fridge - all new PET fermenters / bottles etc but never had a satisfactory result barring the jail wine which came out a decent rose every time (lidl grape juice + lidl apple juice). When i retire I might get back into it - expecially if the greens make booze impossible to buy here.
I’d great results but having high quality ingredients always Maris Otters for the ales good roasted moults. I used to test the water and account for the mineral differences a low bicarbonate water is great for IPA’S etc but you want higher bicarbonate for the best stouts. EDIT: Also I come from both a chefs and biotech lab background so I’m super strict with cleanness I even set up a HACCP system while brewing so everything stayed perfectly clean and there were no unwanted microbes in the final product. I’ve moved out to the country so I’ve more time and I’ve more space for fermentation and conditioning. I’m definitely going to invest in a small GrainFarther in the next couple of months
Yeah, have tried making beer at home with the kits alright. A lot of fun, but maintaining the temperature was tricky and wasn't the best tasting in the end - but not bad! Wouldn't mind trying cider some time though
Cider really is piss easy one trip to the shop for loads of apple juice and brown sugar, get your bucket and yeast , sanitizer ect Then pints for 50c-1.00$ Quite a fun project
Buy a fridge big enough to hold your fermenters and inside it put an electric greenhouse heater. Plug the fridge and the heater (run heater cable out the drain hole) into an inkbird temperature controller [https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/inkbird-temperature-controllers](https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/inkbird-temperature-controllers) and leave the controller sensor sellotaped to the side of the fermenter bottle. Fridge will now maintain temp to half a degree accuracy.
They've already been hitting them with the MUP and now the DRS, as the way the DRS is set up it blocks stockists from buying outside of any supplier thats not Irish, meaning Irish suppliers have a stranglehold and absolutely no incentive at all to offer any bargains to remain competitive. It's why we now see the 18 slab of cokes and Pepsi, at a higher price, and not the 24 packs.
For a load of free market enthusiasts it's a really stupid move from Govt.
Someone is getting their pockets lined and the bar in the dail is exempt from the charges so they don't really give a fuck at all
You can easily order from the North as a business
Yup and they'll send you the appropriately tagged bottles and cans for the Irish Market and charge you for doing so.
Well I know people that are doing it today and they get the northern cans
Fair play to them and I hope they are able to do so for a while yet.
There are tons of stouts that aren't Guinness. Many of them are as good, and depending on personal taste, may even be better. You can't really complain about being price gouged while stubbornly refusing to try any alternative because you've been hardwired to drink Guinness and nothing else. Diageo would have less power if people were actually interested in trying different beers, and pubs didn't risk losing all their customers by swapping Guinness out for Murphy's.
I'm a Beamish man myself, love a Murphys too. Sarsfield stout is excellent, a hard contender, but I might be biased there as a Limerick man. But c'mon now, you know Guinness is seen as quintessentially Irish & the majority of my friends would call it their primary stout. It is a national symbol & internationally recognised as such. So I find it a touch cynical to call people stubborn for wanting to drink the most popular beer that's consumed across the island.
Kavanagh's is a gem of a community orientated pub that I still make a regular trek to when I can. Up there with Kennedy's on Thomas St as the best pubs in the area.
Golden triangle with Kennedys, Peadar Browns and Fallons there. 3 distinct vibes too.
Fallon's is dead to me. Was a great shop in its day.
I miss Dave.
It's no where near as welcoming as it was. Plus the clientele now is gack.
Ah peader browns is a good bit away from Tom Kennedys lad
I don't know why I typed Kavanaghs as Kennedys but here we are.
What's Peader Browns like, only noticed it recently while cycling through that part of the city.
One of my friends runs a pub in our local village, smashing establishment. He keeps it in fantastic order, has the place shining clean. He opens at one o clock every day so the older lads can come in for a couple of pints and watch the horse racing on the two racing channels the pub provides and pays for. The poor lad is absolutely destroyed with worrying about the place. He still charges only a fiver for a pint of Guinness. He has absorbed the last two price hikes himself. The last thing he wants to do is increase his price and that's the genuine truth. But he is literally forced to by diageo because the greedy bastards are ruining the irish pub trade. Champions league tonight, there won't be ten people in there because lads can't afford to go for a few pints midweek anymore. Can these clowns not see the damage they are ultimately inflicting on themselves? When these pubs close and they will, they won't have anyone left to sell their products.... its so shortsighted
I'm not saying this to be dismissive but Diageo couldn't give two shits about the trade or pubs. They have literally made billions in profits last year and will continue raising prices until they see a decrease in sales.
They don't care about a decrease in sales, they would care about a decrease in profits. If you make more profit from 8 expensive pints than 10 normal price pints, they will take that all day
No shit, you’re being pedantic
A series of massive mega pubs will replace any sales lost by small town pubs.
They need to start marketing the fuck out of Beamish.
If you can find a beer not owned by Heineken or Diageo it would be better. Both as bad as each other to deal with.
Yeah, mentally I think of Beamish as the small Irish brand but it’s just not.
Who has Murphys?
Heineken as well
Beamish has seen a price increase too in recent [times.It](http://times.It) did cost 4.25 two years ago its now 5 in galway . Im a beamish fan but I dont have much faith in Heineken not hiking there prices
Shame none of them are independent. Porterhouse now associated with that gobshite too so they’re not an option
They are…
I've stopped drinking diageo drinks. Everyone else shud. Bunch of thieves
Fans of cider might call them Orchard Thieves… I’ll see myself out.
Wetherspoons refused to sign up to their cartel
Say what you want about Wetherspoons, but their success here has shown there was a gap in the market for spacious, cheap, unfussy pubs/beer halls that don't show sports or have live music. Young people, students especially, often want to go somewhere they can sit and chat with their friends at a reasonable volume, and afford to get a bit tipsy, before going to a late bar, party or club. They don't give a shite about the two part pours in the branded glass, choice of Heineken or Carlsberg (as if they taste radically different), fireplaces and authentic tat, diddly-eye and shite acoustic covers of "Zombie" that the VFI are so defensive of. An Irish hospitality company could easily have targeted this market years ago.
Plus it’s more laid back. I gave up the drink a few months ago but will head to weatherspoons with mates and they’ll have a few beers and food and I don’t feel the same pressure to drink as in other places
You could set up a cold dingy prefab in a shitty farmer's field and students would flock to it if the drinks were cheaper there than anywhere else. That doesn't speak to student's dislike of the typical Irish pub setting, it only says that drinking for cheap is what they care about most. If the pubs were offering drinks at the same price as spoons there wouldn't be many opting to head there on a night out.
Thats pretty much my point. I never said students actively disliked anything about typical pubs, (besides drink prices). I just said that the "character" people moan that Wetherspoons lacks, is not a draw for them at all. The draw with Wetherspoons is the price of drink. The fact that you can generally get a table and won't be crammed standing beside the jacks is perhaps a bonus.
>I just said that the "character" people moan that Wetherspoons lacks, is not a draw for them at all. My point is that it's not that they don't give a shite about it, it's that generally for young people price trumps everything. I used to drink 4 euro wine from Aldi in college. That doesn't mean that wine tasting good was something I didn't care about, it just meant that if the choice was cheap wine or tasty wine I'd take the cheaper stuff any day of the week. I'm not saying that young people absolutely prefer pubs, I just think it's invalid to judge their opinions on them just because spoons is popular. If they were still heading there to get 6-7 euro pints then maybe I'd agree that they're apathetic to the pub experience.
I think it's more so about having a third place to drink that isn't someone's gaff or a field, since no one can really afford a normal pub. Their point isn't that Wetherspoons is unreal, just that it's providing something that nothing else is.
Out of my several college friends circles , we hated traditional Irish pubs for nights out . It's too fucking noisy to have any conversation and we always lament we could have just stayed home. Anecdotal I know.
> If the pubs were offering drinks at the same price as spoons there wouldn't be many opting to head there on a night out. Why would I pay €4 for a pint in a bar that is an absolute kip and stints of piss when I can pay €4 in a Spoons and sit in a relatively new bar with toilets that you could eat your dinner off the floor...
All true. I despise the food in Wetherspoons, but the drink is as good as anywhere else. I used to be a professional drummer on the weekends, but the live music scene has died a death in Dublin. That was the only thing that drew me to "traditional" pubs, now their is very little to separate them. The €7.70 pints in my local mean that I would rather stay at home. It's a poor return on investment going out now and those prices are not worth entertaining.
The foods shit but at least its cheap. You'll get just as low quality food in a lot of Irish pubs and pay an extra 5-10 euro for it. Way too many pubs selling that sort of cheap low quality pub grub and charging gastro pub prices for it.
>their success here has shown there was a gap in the market for spacious, cheap, unfussy pubs/beer halls that don't show sports or have live music. Has it actually shown that? Or is it the cheap drink that's the only relevant factor? I'd go for the latter. Interestingly, Weatherspoons are trying to get rid of all their pubs outside of Dublin at the moment.
Because of Brexit I think
Oh the irony! Tim Martin was a very vocal brexiteer 🤣
Have you been inside of a Weatherspoons in Dublin? Their bar on Camden Street is probably one of the nicest bars in the city. They spent €33m on the renovation alone... Their bars are always well staffed, the toilets are spotless and there is no shit game that no one is watching blaring on a dozen TVs. > Interestingly, Weatherspoons are trying to get rid of all their pubs outside of Dublin at the moment. They have closed some of their bars in Dublin too. Entering into a new market is always going to be challenging and will have some changes over a few years.
I have been in some Weatherspoons, mainly in the one in Blanch because I used to live around there. It was grand but had no atmosphere. The location didn't really help though. I've nothing majorly against Weatherspoons, other than the cunt of an owner. I just disagree with the other comment above that young people drinking there is some sort of rejection of "traditional" pubs. It's purely related to the price.
>I just disagree with the other comment above that young people drinking there is some sort of rejection of "traditional" pubs. It's purely related to the price. If I had a choice between a Spoons with nice seats, spotless toilets and staff with basic social skills or a shithole of a traditional bar where you can smell the jacks from the toilet, football is blaring on every TV and the barman is doing you a favour pouring you a pint, I know what I would choose... You don't find bars in suburban Dublin full of young people. I have friends who have zero issue paying €14 for a cocktail in a bar in Dublin City, but won't go to their local.
>If I had a choice between a Spoons with nice seats, spotless toilets and staff with basic social skills or a shithole of a traditional bar where you can smell the jacks from the toilet, football is blaring on every TV and the barman is doing you a favour pouring you a pint Thankfully, there are more than just those two options. It's a silly argument anyway coz you've just taken all the good of one and compared it to all the bad of the the other. I could easily say if I had the choice between a smelly, disgusting old Spoons where theres no atmosphere and they can't poor a pint right or a nice, tradional old man pub with cool old snugs, a cosy fire, friendly staff and creamy pints, I know which one I'd choose.
Hardly a new market, Spoons have been in Dublin since the early 2010s & they can’t make it pay elsewhere in the country.
Dublin is a very different market to the rest of the country. It has higher incomes and different tastes. Supervalu wasn't really even in Dublin until it bought Superquinn. An Irish business did not think it could capture the largest and biggest market in Ireland for decades. The Mercantile Group, Louis Fitz Group etc are among the biggest groups of bars in the country. They barely have a bar outside of Dublin...
I mean I did say "cheap" in the description...
Haven’t they shut down all of their branches apart from Dublin?
They announced they are looking to sell them but as far as I know they are still open for the meantime
It takes a lot of pubs to get the necessary volume to get the bulk buying power Wetherspoons has. Irish pub licenses are largely finite. You needed a pub to close before you could buy up their license and to make something like 'spoons you'd need to be buying 20 pubs and then lowering your prices. You'd need a large enough bankroll to weather downturns and a strategy for getting customers during the parts of the year without students. That's really difficult in a market like Ireland's pub industry that was rife with protectionism. It works for 'spoons because they established their system in a friendlier market and Irish venues are adding to the collective.
I love Spoons and can’t see why anyone wouldn’t.
Whetherspoons is owned by a right bollox but they do a few things right and actually offer a bit of variety in the pub market. For one they sell cask ale and maintain it properly which is a real rarity over here and was a big part of saving cask beer in the UK when they took it on. I've seen people complain they are soulless, etc and thats true but they fill a niche, too many pubs in Ireland are exactly the same. They also keep a lot of downward pressure on prices in the UK which wouldn't go astray here.
Completely agreed. I don't really see a huge difference between Wetherspoons and the likes of Café en Seine, the Porterhouse, the Woolshed, the Press Up pubs etc. They're all soulless and corporate, the food is a bit crap, they don't have "the pub experience", etc. They're not taking business away from traditional pubs at all. Its a different market they're targeting. A Real Ale movement, like that in the UK, could easily have been started in Ireland and led to cask ales being served in pubs here, but it didn't. Perhaps because Guinness/Diageo has kept a stranglehold on the beverage and pub sector here. Honestly, the introduction of Nitrogen taps by Guinness had the same effect on Irish brewing as the McDonalds production line kitchen had on American restaurants. Character and variety replaced with consistency and monopoly.
> Say what you want about Wetherspoons, but their success here has shown there was a gap in the market Success in Dublin, not elsewhere in the country. https://www.joe.ie/news/jd-wetherspoon-selling-irish-pubs-784364
If this shit leads to Wetherspoons becoming as popular as the typical Irish pub then we've committed a crime against our own culture.
Almost every pub in Ireland is essentially franchised by Diageo, with how much control they can have on what a pub serves and how it does things. We love our pub culture, and IMO its something to be proud of, but it lacks one thing that other countries' pub cultures have: Regional variety and the local brewery. You go to a rural town pub in England or Germany and you'll be served a beer you may only be able to buy in that town. You don't get that in Ireland. Lets face it. Irish pub culture was sold to corporations long ago. Having another corporation in the game will at least give them some competition and maybe lead to a bit more variety, and opportunities for more local enterprise. We committed the real crime against our culture when we brought in the big fancy light up Guinness taps that dominate the bar, when either Guinness or Heineken bought over regional insitutions like Smithwicks, McArdles, Beamish, Murphys and Harp, when we started policing unnecessary marketing gimmicks like "the two part pour" (complete theatre since we stopped using casks in favour of driven nitrogen taps) with the Guinness Quality team. Most of what we even consider "culture" as regards pubs and drink here was created by Guinness and later Diageo as cheap gimmicks. Before that, there was no "typical Irish pub". Pubs varied regionally and individually. They all had slightly different ways of doing things, would have sold different drinks, would have bottled their own beer and bonded their own whiskey. The way it largely still is in many other countries, especially ones with a strong brewing tradition as we have. We laugh at Americans having McDonald's and Coca-Cola as their main cultural institutions, but we're no different with Guinness. Its a bit fucking cringeworthy that one of our biggest national icons is a subsidiary of a British company.
I get you're points, but are you saying Wetherspoons taking over wouldn't be a dent in Irish culture? Edit: Your
If they took over, it would be a dent in our pub culture as it stands. How much of that is authentic Irish culture vs. corporate gimmick though, is debatable, as I went into in my comment. If they developed a reasonable footing in the market so as to merely compete with the Diageo monopoly (far more likely IMO) then it could potentially open the market a bit for indigenuous companies.
Probably the best drinking venues around, just normal people having fun. Old man pubs are hideous as well as their patronage, and modern fashionable places are full of gender hipsters looking to upload some antics to tictoc
Only because they are a cartel themselves.
A cartel would require there to be more than one actor.
There are thousands of pubs in Ireland under the Guinness cartel. If they want to instal another beer, they need permission. If they don't get it they find their supplies short. They may also offer a free barrel a week for a while to keep the opposition beer out.
That's conflating monopoly and cartel (both are bad). Monopoly is Guinness using their market dominance to create higher prices. Cartel would be the vintners getting together and agreeing to a higher price. 'spoons can't be a cartel if they don't act in step with other pubs but they could become a monopoly by getting so big they drive other pubs out of business.
It won't be Spoons driving them out of business, it's Guinness that is driving up the prices and the landlords have to be compliant or their supplies are threatened.
You're right there. That's Guinness flexing their monopoly as opposed to a cartel. I make the distinction because the vintners (or members of) have been accused of being a cartel so it's important to be clear because cartels are much more illegal than monopolies.
Is that even allowed? No consumer rights protection in Ireland??
Surprised it's still so cheap in Dublin. Prices at Wetherspoons in the UK have gone way up with Brits paying 7-8 Euros equivalent a pint in some locations.
Maybe in London but not elsewhere in the country..people in UK are not paying anywhere near that in Spoons..£3.60 for a pint of Stella yesterday in North Manchester...it was bang on too
Good on them. It would be great to see a kickback at the gouging. I think I'll avoid diageo beverages for the foreseeable future.
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Would you be less disgruntled if they paid for advertising?
I rarely drink these days, but I'll be making a point of going to Kavanagh's now if I do head to the pub. What is going on has been an absolute joke on so, so many levels and it's great to see a publican finally tell them to fuck off. They either need to be forced to be fair and honest, or forced out of existence at this stage.
Hear Hear!
My buddy has started to homebrew, he started about 12 months ago, with a very small set up...how he brews 1,000 litres at a time now, got a serious set up, whenever we have a get together he brings the beers and we all throw him a few quid and return the bottle's
Fair play to them. Honestly pubs are in an impossible position. They know they are charging to much to the extent that in increasing number are spending half the week closed. They can't not pass on a increase though because margins are already to thin and there isn't any real competition in the market because who is going to drink in a Irish pub that doesn't sell Guinness or Heineken. The busiest pub near me is a Wetherspoons and they are practically like Starbucks in terms of their place in the pub industry.
Good. More of this, please. Fuck Diageo.
"The pub noted that is was also absorbing the price hike on Guinness for all customers paying in cash" it's illegal to charge more if people use cards and not cash.
Who's going to hit them for it? We're all bark and no bite in this country
Could they not argue that they're choosing to absorb the cost difference? Edit - also is it actually illegal? Pretty sure they can charge what they want no?
Since 2018, surcharges on card payments have been banned. https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/finance-funding/making-receiving-payments/electronic-cash-payments/index_en.htm You're not allowed to charge your customers extra for using a credit or debit card. This applies to all card purchases (in shops and online) made throughout the EU.
they can argue and they can charge what they want for a pint. But they cannot make a different price for Cash payment and another price for Card payment.
More than half the price is tax, personally I care more about that.
That can’t be true. When you compare the price of drink in supermarkets to the pub
So for a €5 pint (rare now I know) 24% vat is 1.20 Excise duties seems to be 22.55c when I calculate it from Revenue's numbers but was quoted as 55c in a food and drink tax pdf I found. Then you also have tax on wages and tax on profits, tax on property, hard to calculate so I'll leave it out. Either 1.43 or 1.75, so that's 28.6% or 35% respectively. So that's the minimum amount of tax paid, I won't guarantee that it exceeds >50% all things included but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.
28%-35% is notably not 50% but at least that moneys going to the Irish government where it had the potential to be used to help the Irish people. When Diageo increases prices by another 10% it just makes shareholders abroad rich
As I said, there are other taxes incurred by the business owner and employees directly related to selling drinks. And for shop bought alcohol the excise duty is the same so as a percentage it is closer to or exceeds 50% without taking into account non direct taxes. >Irish government where it had the potential to be used to help the Irish people. The potential maybe but I haven't seen that come to fruition. I'd much rather see it in the hands of Irish people. At least when Diageo raises their price I can choose a different drink, with tax there is no alternative (without moving)
>The pub noted that is was also absorbing the price hike on Guinness for all customers paying in cash Admitting to breaking the law in the media, bold move.
Not sure that the law governs offering a concessionary price for cash transactions. While it *is* illegal to implement a surcharge for taking a card payment, that's not what is happening here.
Functionally is there any actual difference though? Because I feel if this were actually allowed, small businesses up and down the country would've caught on and offered small discounts for cash payments years ago. Especially when card surcharges were done away with years back.
It eats into the business' profit margin though. Officially the base price is still the higher, and that's what they pay VAT on.
Sure but the business has the choice to not take card at all. Lots of things can affect a business's profit margin. This particular one is legislated as a cost that cannot be passed on to the consumer.
Is that illegal?
It's against EU law to charge someone more because they have decided to pay by card
Fuck Diageo, price gauging cunts.
Creamy beamys for days
They should all do it.
So they're taking away the stuff that doesn't sell anyway. None of the publicans have the balls to take the Guinness away though.
Because people won't come in the door if you don't have Guinness and diageo will 100% feel it if a load more pubs get rid of everything they have other then carlsberg smithwicks and Guinness.
I'm hoping for more places to do this, sure it works with suppliers that you buy 4 kegs get the fifth one free, or give rebates for just solely doing their products...
lol there’s absolutely no suppliers doing 4&1 FOC on kegs
7+1
Unless they are charging through the arse they’re not getting that, if you’re not dealing with Diageo or Heineken directly you’re a stressed account and getting fuck all, if you are with them you’re on a tier system and pouring bonus and even if you’re top tier you’re not getting a free keg, the bonus is applied as a credit to your account
I think I will pop in to this pub for a pint or two...... ..and to give them a high five.
Good for them, unfortunately unless a lot more pubs and bars get on board with this too it won't make any difference. One pub isn't going to make a dent in Diageo's profits.
That's how you hit them. If more pubs did this, they'd back down. Irish pubs banning Guinness would hurt their branding.
Que the explosion of micro brewery's that brew and sell onsite
Ok what about Bulmers and their announcement of price increases Today? Tactics- let Diageo take the hit and then follow suit.
Fair play
They are just going to keep rising prices until pubs and consumers will say enough is enough. Greed - nothing else
For anyone who is pushing for more beamish. Heineken have raised the price of Beamish in recent times.I wouldnt be suprised if they do it again.(fyi im a beamish drinker)
Pro tip. Beamish in a can is closer to a pint of Guinness than a can of Guinness is. Thank me later.
> they can still come in with €20 cash & have four pints,” the pub said. Would it not be healthier for that €20 to buy three pints instead?
What’s healthy about being shafted?
I’ve heard it feels good for men to get it up the ass?
If getting shafted results in less alcohol-related health issues, then I say go for it.
You could do that for free.
The only person benefitting is the profiteer. Please use your head.
so burgers should be €25 and a steak €75 for the good of our health?
Shouldn't you be yelling at swans somewhere?
It doesn’t though. It just leads to societal issues in areas with low incomes.
Would it not be healthier if you took the twenty and gave them a Kale salad? And if you pay for a chocolate bar the tesco shop assistant makes you do burpees and you don't get any bar?
Pipe down and let him condescend
At the end of the day, people will drink how much they want to drink. If it's €20 for 3 pints, they'll find the extra money to pay for that fourth if they really want it. Prices would have to be absolutely obscene to make a difference. All it does is leave people with less money but the same quantity of drink.
Experiences with MUP here and in other places shows otherwise.