What’s the most you’ve paid for an alcohol free beer in a pub?
Posted by tmr89@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 133 comments
Today I paid £7.30 for a can of 0.0% Guinness (regular Guinness on draught was the same price, I found out afterwards).
Seems a bit of a scam to me. What’s the most you’ve paid for an alcohol free beer/wine/cider in a pub?
ProfPMJ-123@reddit
People massively overestimate how much of the price of a pint of beer is duty.
It’s about 50p per pint.
Now obviously that means soft and alcohol free drinks should cost, per pint, 50p less than a beer, and normally they are.
But people seem to act as if they should be free.
kickyraider@reddit
And they wonder why pubs are closing.
Amositey@reddit
Yeh I've paid £5+ for guineas zeros as that's the only alcohol free beer that's has the same weight as a proper beer without feeling like a soft drink or having that old wierd after taste, another good on was Sam adams , but back to the point,,, the worst bit is it coming from a generic can, I dunno if I expect Guinness AF from a tap but eveytime ordering it and paying 5 quid plus and then cracking a can kills me a little inside even though it's probably the same shit , I'd like a bit more effort for the specticle
_kapitan@reddit
i manage a pub, if you’re interested i can get you the exact cost of a guinness and a guinness 0 and you can make your own judgements on how much the pubs are marking up
Macrihanishautomatic@reddit
The price of alcohol free beer and soft drinks in some pubs are shocking. It doesn’t give one much incentive to be a designated driver.
ExecutorRex@reddit
There's usually very little profit in draught beers - corporate breweries sell the kegs to their own tenants at 150-200% of what they go for with wholesalers. Profits need to made up elsewhere i.e. soft drinks and spirits. If cokes were £1.50 people would just sit and drink those rather than a profitably priced bottle of alcohol free beer and the place would make no money. So they bring the price up to near the price of a pint so you don't get people sitting there taking up space and generating no profit.
Much_Winter2202@reddit
I've never been charged for a coke or Diet Coke in a bar, unless it's a comedy venue. But literally I go to settle up and they just look sad and are like "it's on the house." I also almost never get charged for coffee at a bar. It's odd. I think I must look pretty tragic or something.
marsman@reddit
Exactly what sort of sad do you look? Sort of, I've broken up with the love of my life sad, or more I could take out half the people in the bar before they stopped me sad?
Much_Winter2202@reddit
They're not flirting, they look concerned. Also a friend's mom once said I look like a "tragic waif." That's what I'm basing it on
gyroda@reddit
That's odd, I always get charged for soft drinks.
Might just be the places I go though. After work drinks are not the same as "group with a designated driver".
Much_Winter2202@reddit
I think I just seem tragic or something?
CrossCityLine@reddit
Alcohol free beer is more expensive to make than the proper version. So much so than it negates the savings on alcohol duty.
phatboi23@reddit
yup, basically make your normal beer, removing the alcohol is an extra few steps, then testing too.
gyroda@reddit
Also, economies of scale - 0% beer isn't as popular as the regular stuff so the cost per unit is usually higher.
phatboi23@reddit
accurate too.
a beer is 100% gonna be drank
0% is something maybe 5% to 10% of people what's the risk?
as one of the local brewers is it worth the save? lol
Ballbag94@reddit
This depends on the beer, some are made by removing alcohol, others are brewed to the 0.5%
phatboi23@reddit
hard to brew that low and taste the same, without having to remove the alcohol.
Jebble@reddit
Which is why there are so many that taste like ass
PassiveChemistry@reddit
Honestly Guinness is the only one I've properly liked so far
Jebble@reddit
Brulo and Bero are AMAZING. Don't drink anything else at home anymore, truly don't need alcoholic beers. For Grouse and Stout Brulo specifically is fantastic.
PassiveChemistry@reddit
Interesting, I haven't heard of those. Where do you typically get them from?
Jebble@reddit
Difficult, Brulo is online only. Beronl recently became available at Morrisons and I wanna say Asda as well
PassiveChemistry@reddit
Ah cool, I shop at Morrisons every Monday so I'll look out for it.
Kaiisim@reddit
Lol and luckily the amount it's more expensive Is the same as alcohol duty!
It's one extra step btw. Reverse osmosis. You pass it high pressure through a membrane and the water and alcohol passes through and the flavour stays and then you add the water back.
That absolutely does not add a 40% increase in cost to match the amount of tax on a 7 pint of beer.
UsablePizza@reddit
Not if they were producing them in the same quantities as alcoholic beer.
CleanHunt7567@reddit
Heineken 0/0 is £3:90 a pint in my local which is near Bournemouth so you would expect it to be pricey. That is the real price.
Thunderoussshart@reddit
That's not a bad price. I was charged £4.95 for a 330ml bottle of Heineken 0/0 last week! Felt robbed.
CleanHunt7567@reddit
You were robbed mate, that's about 9 quid a pint.
CleanHunt7567@reddit
They can sell it at lower prices than normal beer in shops and also it is not liable to alcohol duty in pubs. It's a con.
CrossCityLine@reddit
I forgot you were being forced to buy it, sorry.
CleanHunt7567@reddit
Just telling the truth mate.
audigex@reddit
Yes, this is true
This is absolutely not true
Pushing the beer through a RO filter does not add 60p a pint (assuming 4% beer, £22.58 per litre of pure alcohol effective duty rate = 90.3p/liter = 61.6p/pint), and the suggestion that it does is faintly ridiculous
Anyone repeating this gumph is either deliberately misleading people, or has fallen for the breweries giving it the whole "Yes, we have to use, uhh, technology, and it's very expensive" bullshit
Pumping through an RO membrane costs pennies per litre, if that
nunsreversereverse@reddit
Is it even true though? I have no knowledge other than seeing them in supermarkets and they're always cheaper than the proper one.
BuildingArmor@reddit
The way to make alcohol free beer is to brew beer and then remove the alcohol.
So it will naturally be more expensive because you're effectively doing the same process and then a process on top of that.
I would imagine they're cheaper because of the reduced duty, or maybe even just the supermarkets understanding of what people are willing to pay for it.
baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab@reddit
And on top of that, the demand is much much less. So not only have they got to make alcoholic beer and remove the alcohol, they need to invest in equipment for a not-in-demand product
Floss__is__boss@reddit
That is why lots of smaller breweries will have limited AF releases, they will share equipment with other breweries and not be able to make their drinks all the time.
TheOldGodsnTheNew@reddit
It was a can that OP bought. The markup is ridiculous no matter what it costs to make and there's no tax for alcohol. I can buy 10 cans for 12 quid.
majkkali@reddit
It should be well cheaper though to incentivize people to drink less alcohol
CrossCityLine@reddit
Other non alcoholic options are available. Price fixing is bad.
boldstrategy@reddit
Diet Coke costs more to make than Beer and Wine, doesn’t mean you pay Alcohol tax on it
valax@reddit
Re-read the comment. They are saying that producing non-alcoholic beer costs more than producing normal beer including tax.
CrossCityLine@reddit
What?
boldstrategy@reddit
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-duty-rates
CrossCityLine@reddit
What’s your point?
boldstrategy@reddit
You answered why it is more expensive, there is your answer
CrossCityLine@reddit
I feel you’ve misunderstood me.
Much_Winter2202@reddit
I don't think I've ever been charged for a soda in a bar? Unless it's in a comedy venue. They always look sad and refuse my money. I think they think I'm a recovering alcoholic. Or just assume I'm broke.
QuizzicalSquid7@reddit
I paid more for a Coke than a beer recently. £6 for a pint of Coke, £5 for an ale…
Acid_Monster@reddit
Not drink driving is usually the biggest incentive.
CamflyerUK@reddit
I just volunteer to be the designated drink
NullandVoidUsername@reddit
This is why I ended up getting a pint cider or water. I'm not paying crazy prices for lemonade or a small serving of fruit juice.
confuzzledfather@reddit
Pint of Lime and soda water is just about the only decently priced alcohol free option these days, and some places still take the mick
marsman@reddit
Got charged £4.20 for a cordial and water a few weeks ago..
Namiweso@reddit
You'd have to pay me to drink that shite
JohnnyBravosWankSock@reddit
If I'm not having a beer while I'm out that's all I'll drink. I've had it go from 50p a pint to about £4.50 a pint.
Infinite_Switch1412@reddit
Yeah alcohol free beers are extortionate. I was complaining about this to someone in my family who has a degree in brewing and they explained to me that it's because it's the way they are made.
The beer is made with alcohol in it first and then the alcohol is extracted, so I kind of get it with beer. But soft drink prices are literally a joke lol.
marsman@reddit
Seems to depend on where, Weatherspoons (yes, I know, but...) seems to price them below, or at the same point as the non-alcohol-free options.
confuzzledfather@reddit
But you'd think they'd pass on some of the duty savings
CrossCityLine@reddit
The production cost for zero vs alcoholic beer outweighs the costs of alcohol duty savings.
EmojiRepliesToRats@reddit
No, it really doesn't.
phatboi23@reddit
it's expensive to remove alcohol without messing with the flavour.
much more than the duty.
takesthebiscuit@reddit
Yet they are not subject to the massive amount of duty….
There is a reason they are being pushed so hard the profit is insane
The cost is anchored to the alcohol version, maybe a. Little extra production cost but the duty savings are huge
tmr89@reddit (OP)
Fair enough. I wonder if the fact they don’t have to pay tax on the alcohol content offsets it at all?
Infinite_Switch1412@reddit
Yeah I wonder lol. Let's me honest they are probably still making massive profits and we are still being ripped off lol.
CrossCityLine@reddit
“Company makes a profit” shocker.
Infinite_Switch1412@reddit
That's not what I was saying of course companies need to make profit, but what I was saying is even if there was savings made for them on duty (Im unsure with the extra processes it would even be much) I doubt they would pass those savings on to the customer.
CrossCityLine@reddit
No it doesn’t.
tmr89@reddit (OP)
Seems like it’s the case, thanks. Seems it costs as much to produce and serve a can of alcohol free Guinness as it does to produce and serve a pint of regular alcohol draught Guinness. Learn something every day!
HaydnH@reddit
Considering it's the same price as normal Guinness I would assume the cost of the additional process to remove the alcohol is exactly 100% offset by the reduction in alcohol duty... But... That assumption is assuming there's no profiteering involved.
I_up_voted_u@reddit
But they sell the alcohol for industrial uses.
Prior-Beach-3311@reddit
I was going to say the same, and decaff drinks are made that way too. But you would think the tax would be lower so that should offset it to some extent
marsman@reddit
I accidentally bought an alcohol free cider for something like £2.60, which is how I noticed it was alcohol free as I was expecting to pay £5+
greyhounddreams@reddit
If you still think they make alcohol free beer so consumers can enjoy it then you need to jave a rethink. They make it so they can keep advertising in sport. See Guiness 0 and the Six Nations. They don't care if it's nice or affordable or anything else because that's not why it exists.
Fenrir-The-Wolf@reddit
£0
Why the fuck would I buy alcohol free beer?
I've drank the stuff exactly once and it was by mistake. Was provided in ice buckets at a party I attended. Took a swig, immediately knew something was off, and sure enough, 0%. The fuck. Found the hosts father(we were underage, but when has that ever stopped anyone in this country?), asked wtf that's about, and he introduced me and my mate to his secret stash in the garage and told us to help ourselves. Result. Later came out to us with a massive tub of weed and told us to to similarly help ourselves. Legend.
I pulled that night. It was a good night.
Effective-Stretch951@reddit
£5.90 for alcohol free Guinness. Doesn’t even come with the good stuff
lol_ginge@reddit
I drink cordial and soda water when I go out it usually ranges from £1.50 - £2.50 a pint
CleanHunt7567@reddit
£5 for a 300ml bottle which works out around £9:50 a pint and £6:75 for a 330ml can which i had to pour myself.
Much_Winter2202@reddit
I paid I think £9 for a non alcoholic cocktail (a lavender mint mojito) but it at least had some high-end garnishes and fresh muddled mint at the bottom
CoachSevere5365@reddit
That's shocking. The one I'm drinking cost £3.90.
8track420@reddit
i've been sober for 2+ years and i always go for soft drinks in pubs now after i paid £5.50 for a 330ml bottle of corona 0%
rapafon@reddit
£5 for a fucking Heineken 0% yesterday at MOJO in Sheffield 😠
Had water and ice for the rest of the evening
kekonn@reddit
Someone paid you only 5 quid to drink a Heineken, that seems low... /j
rapafon@reddit
It's crazy haha I can buy a six pack at HomeBargains and it works out less than a pound a can, I'm sure a bar will get even better wholesale prices but conservatively let's say they also pay around that, 500-600% markup is crazy.
I mean obviously that's how bars make money I'm not arguing that fact but bars that find the balance between a good enough margin and not making customers feel they're being bent over a barrel are the ones who tend to stay in business longer.
FornyHucker22@reddit
to be fair alcohol free is more expensive to make so I guess it does cost more so I wouldn’t expect it cheaper.
but buying alcohol free beer is sacrilegious anyway
splinterandsawdust@reddit
Operating a pub is seriously expensive. Sadly the cost of buying, storing, refrigerating and serving drinks, along with the following cleaning costs negates any profit. If the pub is chain owned the landlords may be tied to inflated stock prices. Staffing is expensive, electric and heating is expensive, business rates are expensive, and to top it all fewer and fewer people are using pubs so the ones that do are having to shoulder a larger financial burden.
I promise, the pub saw a tiny tiny profit from that drink.
tmr89@reddit (OP)
Fair enough. But because of that they won’t be getting any more tiny profit from me
matt_paradise@reddit
£8 for a can of Impossibrew once in a dalston pub. I'll never make that mistake again!
Psychological-Bag272@reddit
£6 for a pint of Thatchers at a local village pub in the East Midlands. Had to pinch myself in case I was dreaming.
phatboi23@reddit
fuckin' WHAT?!
west midlands here.
spoons is £1.99 for thatchers.
at most £4 in the whole town lol
Takklemaggot@reddit
Got a time traveller here
Fuck me..!
You posting from the 90s..?
phatboi23@reddit
sorry was thinking stowford.
they're £1.99 locally in spoons, others i'd have to do a pub crawl but i ain't got that kind of money lol
https://i.ibb.co/7dK5m4JH/Screenshot-20260516-204427-Wetherspoon.png
Psychological-Bag272@reddit
Yeah... wanted to try something different, should have gone to spoon.
phatboi23@reddit
can't beat the place for a decent ale for the cheap.
my town has a micropub, old school pub, 2 sports pubs and a spoons.
bit for everyone in a 20k person place in a census lol
Poison_Jaguar@reddit
£0 that's like meat free bacon.
Fun fact the supplier does not have to pay HMRC duty, so your getting rinsed badly.
feathersmcgraw24601@reddit
It costs a lot more to produce alcohol free beer
Poison_Jaguar@reddit
4% ABV Beer: Excise duty is charged at (£22.58) per litre of pure alcohol.Calculation: (0.5\text{L} \times 0.04 \times £22.58 = £0.45) duty per bottle.0% ABV Beer: Falls under the low alcohol exemption (ABV not exceeding 1.2%).Calculation: (£0.00) duty per bottle.2. Sales Price & VAT4% ABV Beer: A typical branded 500ml bottle or single can at a UK supermarket or shop retails for around (£2.10) to (£2.30), which includes (20\%) standard VAT.0% ABV Beer: Non-alcoholic alternatives typically retail at a similar premium price point, ranging from (£1.80) to (£2.20).3. Margin & Profitability0% ABV higher profit noted: While the 4% and 0% bottles might sell for a similar retail price, 0% ABV beer is significantly more profitable for a few key reasons:Zero Duty: The brewery or retailer pockets the (£0.45) that would have gone to the Exchequer.Production Costs: Fermentation, aging, and de-alcoholization processes can vary, but the elimination of excise tax combined with current retailer pricing strategies allows a greater cash margin per unit.
feathersmcgraw24601@reddit
Is that copied from AI? It doesn't actually say anything relevant other than the cost of de-alcoholisation can vary.
Old non-alcoholic beers were much cheaper to make, and taste terrible. Newer process taste much better but are much more expensive.
After that you've got to take into account that normal Guinness has had R&D, the brewing process, marketing strategies etc in place for decades, whereas for Guinness 0% this'll have come at a significant cost over the last few years. Add to that the fact that draught is always cheaper than individual cans because of packaging and logistics as well as factoring in quantities of scale, and it's not all that much of a scam
Poison_Jaguar@reddit
Nicely put .
CrossCityLine@reddit
Urban myth. The production cost outweighs the tax savings.
Poison_Jaguar@reddit
Ran a distillery £10 tax on a bottle of vodka, 0% Gin has no tax sells for same as Gin £16-18.
Basis_Safe@reddit
Expresso_Presso@reddit
I have never paid for alcohol free beer.
aveirodog@reddit
£7.50 for a tiny rebel beer in my local! It’s craft but that’s expensive.
markvauxhall@reddit
Aside from the fact that AF beer is as expensive / more expensive to make, the pub still has to cover wages / utilities / business rates / rent etc.
Same reason drinks in any kind of hospitality outlet are more expensive than in a supermarket.
madmossie@reddit
So basically being AF should in no way mean it warranty being cheaper than a regular pint? Despite common conception that it should.
markvauxhall@reddit
I mean to take a simple supermarket example, Guinness is £5.65 for 4 from Tesco, and Guinness 0.0 is £5.45 for 4.
There's barely a discount for the stuff, and the overheads for the pub are the same.
TheShakyHandsMan@reddit
Costs the same to package and ship regardless of alcohol content
Wububadoo@reddit
Why?
ert270@reddit
Try and find places that have AF beer on draft. Usually a pint of AF draft beer is slightly cheaper than a pint of alcoholic beer. AF on draft is becoming more common in pubs thankfully. It’s the alcohol free bottles that are a piss take, especially if they are the only option in the pub. £4.50 for a bottle so you end up paying the equivalent of £9/10 a pint!
Basis_Safe@reddit
I saw somewhere that making alcohol free alcohol is expensive so thats why its so much. Dumb I know
AffectionateJump7896@reddit
There is absolutely no way that taking the alcohol out of beer, wine etc. (it's true that is an extra step that costs) costs more than the savings they make by not having to pay alcohol duty.
Eventually we will have an alcohol tax that is structured like the sugar tax: The alcoholic version has to be more expensive by the amount of the duty. Currently the lack of a price difference is a piss take.
CrossCityLine@reddit
Prove it.
You can’t. Because it does.
Rekyht@reddit
I don’t think anyone dispute that it costs a fair bit, but so much that they have to price it at exactly the same point as their alcoholic options? Little bit sus.
CrossCityLine@reddit
They don’t price it the same, don’t think I’ve ever paid the same price for a zero as a real pint in a pub.
fatherdougal@reddit
Absolutely, but you wouldn’t believe the amount boot licking greed apologists in similar threads when this has been raised.
mrtopbun@reddit
If they’re removing the alcohol using reverse osmosis which quite a few brewers are now it is very energy intensive, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that eats the difference
murmurat1on@reddit
All if which is dwarfed by the cost of running an establishment.
CamflyerUK@reddit
Part of the reason is higher production costs but also smaller economies of scale due to lower costs.
Good article here
BBC News - Why does alcohol-free beer cost the same as alcoholic beer? - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxg8l0qnevo?app-referrer=deep-link
deadlygaming11@reddit
Not to mention that if it tastes good and is cheap, then it takes away sales from their main alcohol one.
BulldenChoppahYus@reddit
The cost of making these beers is around the same as the full fat version. Dealcoholisation is an extra cost which outweighs the duty benefit. You are literally paying for a beer to have the bit that makes it taste really great removed and then a flavour and colour readded back.
I personally think all non alcoholic beer should fuck right the way off - it’s shite and even the Guinness one impressive though it does taste in practice is a waste of money. For me it’s actual beer or a soft drink.
FWIW this zero trend seems to be waning according to the latest drinks survey by Waitrose. Be interesting to see what happens next year but I think a lot of people feel they are not worth the money
mrfatchance@reddit
I thought the reason alcohol free beer costs the same was that the process to make it requires it to be alcohol first and then it’s de alcoholism for something? So from a tax POV it’s still alcohol?
BocaSeniorsWsM@reddit
Alcohol free beer was cheap, both in supermarkets and pubs, as recently as two-three years ago.
Then it started becoming increasingly popular. The more popular it has become, the more the price has increased. So it is primarily market forces and profit, IMO.
lildogeggs@reddit
Yes it costs more to make but there’s surely less tax so don’t get why they’re always similar price to alcohol versions… tends to only be a quid cheaper if not the same
Flat_Development6659@reddit
Generally something that takes up space and doesn't sell much has to be priced appropriately.
It's the same with top shelf stuff, you're paying partly because it's expensive but partly because nobody else orders it.
CareGullible5801@reddit
Lol only mugs are buying alcohol free drinks for £7 that's crazy.
ukbot-nicolabot@reddit
A top level comment (one that is not a reply) should be a good faith and genuine attempt to answer the question
tmr89@reddit (OP)
Apparently they are more expensive to produce than alcoholic drinks, so the price is worth it
crappy_entrepreneur@reddit
this is incredibly naive, duty is something like 20%
For pretty much any food and drink you have, manufacturing cost is a vanishingly small amount of the total.
_arch_tech@reddit
I was fuming today when I paid £4.40 for a Guinness Zero. I can imagine you feel violated.
lildogeggs@reddit
That’s extremely cheap.
tmr89@reddit (OP)
Oh wow, £4.40 for a can seems like a bargain
ZombieGash@reddit
Never bought it but when I saw the price online for the alcohol free beer and gin, I was shocked at the price. I’d have thought it would’ve been at least half the price of the alcohol versions
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