Pints Vs Longnecks Vs spirits & mixers

rubadub · 03-11-2008 10:39am #1

Just a very general price/bargain issue, but if you are buying longnecks in pubs you are paying way over the odds.

Many just accept the prices without question and never do the math or think about it much. Got a bottle of heineken for a mate (it even drives me mad buying longnecks in rounds!), €5.20 for a bottle, this was around 8pm in a normal pub (the goat), i.e. no niteclub, or late nite pub prices.

€5.20 works out at €8.95 per pint, YES almost nine euro for a pint of run of the mill beer, almost twice the price of a pint of guinness. Last time I got them in tesco they were 83cent a bottle, so over 6 times the price.

A pint of guinness in my local is €4.20, 4.2% 568ml. So that is 23.856ml of pure alcohol. €176 per litre of pure alcohol.

A 200ml coke is €2.80, a vodka €3.85 37.5% 35.5ml, €6.65 in total. So 13.3125ml of pure alcohol. €499.50 per litre of pure alcohol.

2.84 times the price.

Also the cheapest unit per € price is often the apparently more expensive premium foreign beers. You often do really get a full pint in the oversized glass (room for head), and they can be 5-5.5% or more.

Bill-e · 03-11-2008 11:11am

Good point. I'm of the same school of thought.
I refuse to buy people bottles if I'm on rounds.
Draught beer is often not great compared to a bottle of the same beer, but the difference in price is not value for money spent at all at all!

snnowwy · 04-11-2008 11:24am

Good points lads but I think you may be a little obsessed.

http://www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie

S.

S.I.R · 04-11-2008 3:40pm

why do you boys think everyone gets half drunk in their place then go to the pub ??

common sense lads.... Common sense.

death1234567 · 04-11-2008 3:44pm

S.I.R wrote: »

why do you boys think everyone gets half totally drunk in their place then go to the pub bed??

Edited for accuracy.

Mimikyu · 04-11-2008 5:00pm

This post has been deleted.

Dord · 04-11-2008 5:40pm

Yeah, it doesn't really make much sense to buy bottles in a pub.

The only time I'd do it was if the bar only had awful beers on tap, like Carlsberg.

Gerbud · 04-11-2008 6:07pm

I understand the pain of getting a case of Miller on the cheap & then having to fork out over €4.50 for a bottle for the stuff but yas need to remember when you go to a pub, you're not just paying for the bottle of beer. You're paying to be in the pub also & all the rest that goes with it!!!

Like, you pay €30 for a decent steak in a restaurant & you could cook the same thing at home yourself for a fiver

Yee can go all night about the pricing of bottles / spirits but that's just the way it is I'm afraid.

Sangre · 04-11-2008 6:27pm

And as pubs are finding it out its not a way consumers are accepting.

Repolho · 04-11-2008 6:38pm

Gerbud wrote: »

you pay €30 for a decent steak in a restaurant & you could cook the same thing at home yourself for a fiver
quote]

This would be a good bargain alert; where are you getting decent steak for a fiver?

Darando · 04-11-2008 9:43pm

Bill-e wrote: »

Good point. I'm of the same school of thought.
I refuse to buy people bottles if I'm on rounds.
Draught beer is often not great compared to a bottle of the same beer, but the difference in price is not value for money spent at all at all!

Just get the round in!

Gerbud · 05-11-2008 10:43am

Repolho wrote: »

Gerbud wrote: »

you pay €30 for a decent steak in a restaurant & you could cook the same thing at home yourself for a fiver
quote]

This would be a good bargain alert; where are you getting decent steak for a fiver?

Em...the butchers :P

seamus · 05-11-2008 1:18pm

A lot of people find that bottles impose a certain level of self-control on you. They take longer to drink than pints in my experience, which means that by the time the round comes in, everyone else has had a full pint, and you've only had a bottle. Useful if you really have to get up the next day.

The main reason why bottles are more expensive is the same reason why shorts and mixers are ridiculously expensive - publicans are greedy f*ckers. Bottles, shorts and minerals tend to be drunk more by women, or other people who consume less than a man on pints (someone driving, on a diet or whatever). Therefore in order to extract maximum rapeage from people who drink less, their drinks are priced higher.

delllat · 05-11-2008 1:56pm

I agree with longneck bottles being a rip off but i would and do drink pint bottles of decent beer like erdinger and paulaner etc

these are still a bit more expenisve than a pint of draught beer but they are delicious and worth the extra 40 or 50 cent in my opinion

the draught beers we have here are stale,flat,and lifeless

theres a huge differnce in a pint and a bottle of carlsberg,miller ,bud or harp

rubadub · 05-11-2008 2:23pm

snnowwy wrote: »

http://www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie

"I'm not an alcoholic, alcoholics go to meetings!"

Solitaryman666 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I have a weird habit of always calcualting stuff. Fact is most are oblivious to it. The guys paying €9 per pint, would go mental at the thought of paying €9 for a pint in a glass. One guy I know will even buy bottles even at gigs, they do not let you even have the bottle, some idiot who can't even pour turns the bottle upside down and gives you a little over a half pint of flat muck in a plastic cup, often costing more than the full plastic pint.

Dord wrote: »

The only time I'd do it was if the bar only had awful beers on tap, like Carlsberg.

Yes, I have seen some who will get pints, and then only switch if the pints of the same stuff are poor. Thing is kegged beer is usually less processed & fresher than the bottles too.

Gerbud wrote: »

yas need to remember when you go to a pub, you're not just paying for the bottle of beer. You're paying to be in the pub also & all the rest that goes with it!!!
that's just the way it is I'm afraid.

I fully accept the increased price. The issue is the huge difference in price for the essentially the same thing in the pub.

you pay €30 for a decent steak in a restaurant & you could cook the same thing at home yourself for a fiver

A better analogy would somebody going to a restaurant and buying 2x6oz steaks on 2 separate plates at €35 each, while they could get a 12oz one for €40.

seamus wrote: »

A lot of people find that bottles impose a certain level of self-control on you. They take longer to drink than pints in my experience, which means that by the time the round comes in, everyone else has had a full pint, and you've only had a bottle. Useful if you really have to get up the next day.

And conversely you have these people imposing quicker rounds on the pint drinkers as they finish the bottles so quick. Happened to me again the other night. Had a 5.5% pint of Paulaner, which is in a tall glass with head room so was actually over a pint. That is 568ml (min) @5.5%=31.24. Mate had his heineken 330ml @4.3% =14.19. The paulaner was €5.30, the bottle €5.10! I had over TWICE the alcohol and what most would consider a superior beer, and then he is rushing to get me another when he finishes. I just avoid rounds because of this, might go in 1 or 2 rounds just for convenience of payment etc, and then pass since you end up too drunk. Most do not see the difference, and just see it as "a drink", like "I drank the same as him, 8 drinks"

delllat wrote: »

I agree with longneck bottles being a rip off but i would and do drink pint bottles of decent beer like erdinger and paulaner etc

these are still a bit more expenisve than a pint of draught beer but they are delicious and worth the extra 40 or 50 cent in my opinion

So do I, as I mentioned in the OP, these apparently "expensive" beers can be the best value, since they are in bigger bottles & high %. And TBH the majority of people I know drink with the aim of getting drunk. But I will pay more for a decent tasting beer, and it just so happens the good ones can end up the cheapest to get tipsy/merry/drunk on.

sceptre · 06-11-2008 2:25pm

rubadub wrote: »

Had a 5.5% pint of Paulaner, which is in a tall glass with head room so was actually over a pint.

If it comes in a typical Paulaner glass, there's a marking on the glass at 500ml and that's where bar people stop the beer (all the rest is for head). Obviously for other beers, the head has to fit in the pint glass but it might well not be correct to say more 568ml of Paulaner fitted in your glass, or perhaps not more than 500ml either.

rubadub · 06-11-2008 2:44pm

sceptre wrote: »

If it comes in a typical Paulaner glass, there's a marking on the glass at 500ml

Yes, and it was well above that line, I often get erdingers well over a pint too, and under too, many can not pull those pints well at all, the guy doing the paulaner used a second small glass doing it ended up throwing lots out, probably lose a fortune to bad barstaff!

I have many of these glasses at home, and know what a pint looks like in them. The 68ml is less than a double shot, and since the glasses get much wider at the top it only takes a little over the 500ml line before that is reached.

TerrorFirmer · 06-11-2008 4:13pm

Flagon of Tesco brand vodka, 2 cans of own brand red bull equivilent, 1 large sports bottle = ten euro. Then maybe just one or two drinks in the club.

It sees me through most nights.

rubadub · 06-11-2008 5:47pm

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Flagon of Tesco brand vodka, 2 cans of own brand red bull equivilent, 1 large sports bottle = ten euro.

Flagons of vodka for under €10! now that is a bargain alert

I presume (& hope) you mean naggin. Most call 200ml bottles naggins, and 350ml bottles shoulders or half bottles. Again these tend to be overpriced per ml. I used to just hang onto a small bottle and buy 700ml bottles and fill then with it.

TerrorFirmer · 07-11-2008 12:37pm

Flagon as in 350ml - sorry, that's what I've always known that as, and same for everyone I know. That's a fairly normal price, even my local Super Valu sells naggins of Vladivar for 5.50 euro (so giving you 400ml for 11), Tesco is slightly cheaper again with their own brand stuff. 700ml is 14.99 both there (value brand) and in Dunnes (kinsey).

I also normally try to buy these 700ml bottles but the trouble is before you know it, the entire bottles gone in the one night. Hence the safety in only buying the smaller ones!

Climate Expert · 07-11-2008 12:54pm

A flagon is 2Litres, no?
Shoulder is 350ml.

TerrorFirmer · 07-11-2008 1:00pm

Sorry, just used to my own terminology - I've no idea what the correct measurement for a flagon is, to be honest. Just so used to saying that - I did, of course, mean a 350ml bottle.

Blisterman · 05-03-2009 3:20pm

Yeah, it's funny to work out how much you're getting ripped off.

A bar near me is advertising bottles of beer for £2, which at first glance seems alright, seeing as a pint in most places here is about £3.20.

But, if you look at it, it's not so great. They are 275ml bottles of 3.8% Carlsberg.
Which equals barely 1 unit of alcohol, whereas a pint of Stella has about 3 units.

So it really equals £6 a pint. Pretty average by Dublin prices, but you're used to getting ripped off.

fitzcarraldo · 05-03-2009 3:42pm

Easy solution

Crouching Tiger

Hidden Nagon

Linku · 05-03-2009 3:59pm

Flagon is usually used for cider, for a big bottle like 2/3l I think!

I've noticed the 300ml bottles of Bud creeping into bars as well as supermarkets now. Last week Tesco had a deal, €17 for a a box of Coors or Bud, but the Bud was sourced in the North and therefore only 300ml, but the Coors was 330ml. Sometimes though the UK Bud is 5% where as the Irish is 4.2% or something, so I'm not sure how this works out. Another calculation for you to do!

kendragon · 05-03-2009 5:48pm

Most of the popular young people bars here in limerick serve beer on tap that is pure poison. Tastes like ****e and you suffer way more than you should that night and the next day.
Call me paranoid but i'd swear a lot of these disco-bars mess about with the kegged stuff so that you will buy bottles. They always claim they make no money off pints anyway so would you put it past them? I'd rather pay the extra for the bottles.... feels safer.

Blisterman · 05-03-2009 6:20pm

The one theoretical advantage to bottles, is that you can get a much better selection of beer in bottle, as it can keep for years, rather than kegs, which must all be used up in a week or so.

The problem is, most pubs have the exact same beers in bottles, that they have on draughts + corona, and that's it.

Jev/N · 05-03-2009 7:39pm

Just buy pint bottles of beer!?

Shiny · 05-03-2009 8:33pm

I always drink bottles these days.

I'm well aware of the price difference but it still takes me
the same length of time to drink one as a pint due to the
fact that I tend to gulp down pints ....

I find that the extra cost of the bottles pays dividend due to
not spending the following day feeling ****....

Oral Slang · 05-03-2009 11:03pm

I usually drink bottles of beer. Most places I go to the beer on tap in muck, so I don't bother even trying it anymore. It is a killer though, when a bottle of becks is €5.60 or something & going up to over €6 after midnight (that's dublin prices though).

If somewhere has Budvar or Tiger beer or something though, I'll drink them instead, because you're getting a pint bottle and they're yummy. The Foggy Dew in Dublin City has bottles of 660ml Becks for €6 though, so happy days when I'm in there. Can't pace myself at all though, drink them way faster than I would the 330ml bottles.

S.I.R · 06-03-2009 11:56am

rubadub wrote: »

Just a very general price/bargain issue, but if you are buying longnecks in pubs you are paying way over the odds.

Many just accept the prices without question and never do the math or think about it much. Got a bottle of heineken for a mate (it even drives me mad buying longnecks in rounds!), €5.20 for a bottle, this was around 8pm in a normal pub (the goat), i.e. no niteclub, or late nite pub prices.

€5.20 works out at €8.95 per pint, YES almost nine euro for a pint of run of the mill beer, almost twice the price of a pint of guinness. Last time I got them in tesco they were 83cent a bottle, so over 6 times the price.

A pint of guinness in my local is €4.20, 4.2% 568ml. So that is 23.856ml of pure alcohol. €176 per litre of pure alcohol.

A 200ml coke is €2.80, a vodka €3.85 37.5% 35.5ml, €6.65 in total. So 13.3125ml of pure alcohol. €499.50 per litre of pure alcohol.

2.84 times the price.

Also the cheapest unit per € price is often the apparently more expensive premium foreign beers. You often do really get a full pint in the oversized glass (room for head), and they can be 5-5.5% or more.

i pay 3.80 for a guiness or 4.10 or a bulmers...

but most places have offers on trying to shift rubbish like tiger beer for 4 quid per bottle...

either way you can get drunk on 40-50 quid.

Pints Vs Longnecks Vs spirits & mixers

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