Beer %/volume difference, UK & ROI

steo87

Been looking for an answer to this for ages:

Why do the cans in the North and the UK have a lower volume and percentage than cans here in the Republic?

As an example, a can of Carlsberg in England/the North is 440 ml and (about) 3.8 %, whereas here in the Republic the same can is 500 ml and around 4.3 %.

Why is this?

Ciaran500

IIRC its different tax rates depending on the strength.

iPlop

I have always wanted to know this.I went the offe last night and was gonna buy stella ,cans were wierd lookin ,then wat the foook 5.0%
instead 5.4% ,same with carlsberg although i dont drink that piss:eek:

FlutterinBantam

steo87 wrote: »

Been looking for an answer to this for ages:

Why do the cans in the North and the UK have a lower volume and percentage than cans here in the Republic?

As an example, a can of Carlsberg in England/the North is 440 ml and (about) 3.8 %, whereas here in the Republic the same can is 500 ml and around 4.3 %.

Why is this?

How can the same canbe 440ml in the North and 500ml in the South.

Karoma

Moved from AH.

mikemac

Possibly offtopic but don't forget a measure of spirits in ROI is 35.5ml ( a quarter gill if you're old-skool) but 25ml in the UK

Just saying....

yoyo

UK fosters is only 4%, Our one is 4.3%, I made the mistake one nite buying (drunkenly) the UK one, same price and lower strenth, they were 500ml cans strangely though...

Nick

Mr Magnolia

A few beers are stronger in the North than they are in the South also. I don't like the 440mls myself.

BeerNut

In part it's because UK beer drinkers have a greater tolerance of low-strength beers, because they have a long tradition of very good low-strength beers. So stuff will sell at under 4% ABV in the UK, even if it's only a fizzy BUL lager. Though I'd say the weaker Carlsberg will be phased out eventually, just like the sub-4% Heineken was a few years ago.

Beck's Vier is an interesting one: made solely for the UK and Irish markets, but brewed to 4% for the former and a presumably significant 4.3% in the latter.

kenmc

Septic Leper wrote: »

I have always wanted to know this.I went the offe last night and was gonna buy stella ,cans were wierd lookin ,then wat the foook 5.0%
instead 5.4% ,same with carlsberg although i dont drink that piss:eek:

:rolleyes:

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

a long tradition

Thats what it really is, breweries simply change beers to suit what the general market in that country want. The UK have become so used to weaker beers that "export" has sort of come to mean "strong" there.

BeerNut

rubadub wrote: »

breweries simply change beers to suit what the general market in that country want.

I think it's more that they change it to what they can get away with: there are better margins on a mass-produced lager at 3.8% than one at 4.2%.

loyatemu

what is the significance of 4.3% here though - all the major draught beers are this strength...

noby

Probably a duty cut-off point in the past. That's my guess anyway.

BeerNut

It's really just the draught lagers that tend to be this strength. They're a strength-sensitive lot, the Irish macrofizz drinkers, because their chosen tipple doesn't really taste of much. The market has determined that 4.3% ABV is as weak as you can make a lager in Ireland and still get people to buy it. Any stronger and the extra cost won't offset the extra sales; any weaker and drinkers will choose the other guy.

RDM_83

micmclo wrote: »

Possibly offtopic but don't forget a measure of spirits in ROI is 35.5ml ( a quarter gill if you're old-skool) but 25ml in the UK

The vast majority of places in Northern Ireland serve a 35ml measure (though when I was way younger a nighclub with drinks promotions upstairs served a smaller measure upstairs)
Much prefer the taste of northern cans of Carlsberg less ughh (is only way I can describe it)