Lowering Percentages

Frankiestylee

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but loads of alcohol products have had their abv% reduced but not the price.
I still haven't figured out why this is, but for example : Castlemaine, Strongbow and another cider (can't remember if it's Stonehouse, Scrumpy or Linden Village) have all been reduced in volume over the last month.

Anyone have any ideas? One thought was perhaps the wholesalers were importing stock from a differant region etc, but um, I dunno.

guildofevil

Well, just off the top of my head and with absolutely no way of knowing if it's true, it would be a way for the breweries to increase their margins.

A decrease in ABV is brought about by a decrease in fermentables, so they are actually using a bit less malted barley, or apple juice in the case of a cider. There would also be a slight decrease in the duty payable, which is another saving. They wouldn't save much per can, but it would add up over all the cans they make.

heggie

would it be that they changed stock from the domestic can/bottle to imported? they can be different

Frankiestylee

It could be a change in stock from domestic to import as the cans on Strongbow and Castlemaine have changed, some others are more sneaky and look the same... but I dunno, doesn't seem cool, I mean, what was wrong with the original stock. Castlemaine is now in bright yellow cans and is 3.6% for an example. Strongbow afaik is now in a kind of orangey can and is ranking in at around 4.5%

rediguana

In wines, the backlash has started against high (13.5%+) wines. Maybe it's the same in beer, and the relevant companies are just displaying an admirable market orientation?

Um, maybe not.

I was wondering this too. . .

Theta

The higher percentage in wines has generally been caused by much hotter summers causing more sugers to be produced leading to higher ABV's in general!

Blisterman

I found an old bottle of Southern Comfort in my granny's house, and it was 50% ABV. It's 37.5% now, so it's not a new thing.

I hope they dropped the price, when they did that.

rubadub

A lot of places buy in beer/cider intended for the UK market, where it is usually lower %. UK heineken & carlsberg is around 3.4%, (easily confused with 4.3% at a glance).

Tax is also a reason as mentioned, some drinks fall under different brackets, I know Gordon gin dropped from 37.5% from 40% and saw a dramatic reduction in sales so I think they went back again. In some cases it is not just a straight reduction it is a different bracket. e.g say beer was 4% and another was 6%, you might think the 6% has 50% more duty but it could be in another tax bracket and be 100% more duty. It can depend on the main country it is sold in.

Tax on all ciders was increased some years ago, bulmers took the hit for a while and slowly increased the price, now bulmers is one of the most expensive drinks in an offie, while in the 80s it was relatively cheap.

If you ever see beer going cheap check the % it could be very weak.

Frankiestylee

I know this lark isn't new in the grand scale of things, but that's at least 3 cans that have done it within a month or so of each other, and from differant wholesalers aswell.

rediguana

http://fdin.co.uk/news/index.php?type=related&news_article_id=18275479

oblivious

rediguana wrote:

http://fdin.co.uk/news/index.php?type=related&news_article_id=18275479

Great, another insipid product to add to their collection

Frankiestylee

Well 4.5 isn't especially low for a "light" beer. Normal Coors light is what... 4.2% maybe?