The average price of a pint of bitter topped £4 this year, and Surrey, not London, became the most expensive place to buy a pint of beer at £4.40! For a more pocket-friendly pint, head to Herefordshire or Yorkshire where you’ll pay an average £3.31. And yes we are still one of the highest tax paying countries on a pint, second only to Finland – that’s 53p in every pint.
Oliver Strümpfel a German tax inspector broke the world record in September for the number of beer tankards carried over 40 metres (130ft). He carried the 29 litre vessels, weighing almost 70kg (154lbs) at a Bavarian beer festival, breaking his own previous record of 25 jugs in 2015.
The number of UK breweries pushed past the 2000 mark for the first time since the 1930’s, an increase of 64% in the past 5 years! The increase has been attributed to both the UK craft beer boom and to the tax break afforded to micro-breweries that brew less than 5,000 hectolitres, and subsequently pay 50% less duty.
The CAMRA Good Beer Guide celebrated its 45th year in print. The 2018 edition (released in September) is a hulking 1032 pages, with 648 pages of pubs and 283 pages of breweries, in comparison to the 1st edition printed in 1972 which was just 18 pages long!
A group of friends who set out to visit 300 pubs together have chalked off their 20,000th ale house 33 years later! Members of the Black Country Ale Tairsters began their epic charity pub crawl at a boozer in Wales in 1984, where they camped in a graveyard, and completed their trek at the Knot & Plough in Stafford in March. Co-founder Pete Hill, 60 has knocked back 46,632 pints and helped raise £24000 for charity by asking licensees at each pub for a £1 donation.
March 14th saw the release of 10,000 Special Edition cans from Coopers Brewery in Australia, commemorating the Bible Society’s 200th Anniversary. Coopers Premium Light Ale cans featured bible verses and the message: Live Light: Happy 200th birthday to Australia’s longest-living charity, from Australia’s longest-living family brewery. Bible Society 1817-2017. Tim Cooper said he didn’t expect any negative response, but the beer was pulled two days later due to public backlash at a subsequent marketing video.