Minimum alcohol pricing is nigh

Ipso wrote: »

Try three weeks fermenting and another three in the bottle, makes a big difference.

Ohh I know it depends on the kit really, ill leave it in the bottles for a few weeks once ready for sure

Somebody else was on radio stating that it will reduce public order offences and other anti social behaviour.

Can that be true? The majority of drunken public disorder offences occur outside pubs over the weekend.

If people are at home drinking their off licence alcohol then surely they're less likely to be out on the town/city streets brawling at 2am.

The way they go on you'd think that 'pub alcohol' doesn't have the same impact on users as store bought drink.

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Somebody else was on radio stating that it will reduce public order offences and other anti social behaviour.

Can that be true? The majority of drunken public disorder offences occur outside pubs over the weekend.

If people are at home drinking their off licence alcohol then surely they're less likely to be out on the town/city streets brawling at 2am.

The way they go on you'd think that 'pub alcohol' doesn't have the same impact on users as store bought drink.

If the government was serious about reducing public order offences and other anti social behaviour then we could follow Spain/France/Germany with liberal opening hours

Leroy42 wrote: »

Home Brew stuff will probably go up in price as well.

How do you figure though? It's literally malt extract, sugar and yeast - all of which have a variety of uses unrelated to brewing - baking for starters. They can hardly put up the prices of all of those ingredients just as a way to hit home brewers, there'd be outcry from other sectors using those ingredients, whose costs would go up as a side effect. And as far as equipment goes, I don't see how they can put a minimum price on food-grade plastic buckets just in case someone decides to make beer with them Most I could see them doing is trying to put a price on caps or capping equipment. And guess what - those screw-cap bottles some beers come in can be re-used as long as you unscrew the caps when drinking rather than using a bottle opener. :cool:

Are you suggesting that the industry itself will put its own prices up, or that the government will seek to somehow increase the price of homebrew ingredients and equipment? I'd love to hear any suggestions as to how they could achieve this without upsetting other food producers, both home and commercial, who require the same stuff.

However, home brew takes some work, planning, patience and space. It is not ideal for everyone. It takes up front costs. So if you are a higher than moderate drinker it probably makes sense, but if you only drink a few cans every few weeks, maybe watching the footy etc, it seems to much effort than simply letting the offy do the work. Certainly that would be the case for me.

That's a fair argument, but I'd counter that at least for me, once I started doing it I quickly realised I'd keep doing it even if this bill was somehow killed in the Dáil. It's fun, relaxing and you get an incredible sense of pride watching your beers mature over the few weeks that it takes. Obviously this wouldn't be true of everyone, but I can totally imagine this exploding among students and young folk - I can see a serious niche market now for home brew suppliers to get involved in Freshers' Weeks with some free, branded equipment to get their name out there and get people coming to them again and again for kit ingredients

Funny aside - I learned a few months ago in a TIL thread on Reddit that during prohibition in the United States, people would sell "grape bricks" with grapes and yeast, with a "warning" attached to the label - "WARNING: Do not mix the contents of this box with 10-15 litres of warm water - and if you do, do not store in a sealed container at warm temperatures for several weeks. An illegal alcoholic beverage could inadvertently be created."

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Pricing changes prompt changes in behaviour.

Happens in every sphere of life.

It's hardly that difficult to comprehend now is it.

I find it very difficult to comprehend.

If you think you should drink less, drink less, don't look at the change in your pocket and think "but I still have a few quid left, sure what else could I possibly do with it?"

It takes a peculiar brand of gobshíte to view being forced to pay double the price for something as a bonus.

Wheres Me Jumper? wrote: »

as a country we always have had a seriously dysfunctional relationship with alcohol.
could be genetic, could be cultural, could be the weather, could be our colonial past, could be the catholic church, could be our repressed sexuality?

who knows. but 1 thing is certain is when it comes to "the drink" we are like a bunch of ADHD kids let loose in a sweet shop.

Perhaps. But if you are trying to address that issue, legislating what people do in the comfort of their own homes but not in licensed premises makes no sense. If the bill contained a directive with a warning on pub glasses I could at least appreciate the sincerity of what they were trying to achieve. But it's nothing more than thinly veiled protectionism.

My opinion is that they can add whatever warnings they want - I'm an adult and can make my own informed choices. However the financial element is yet another measure to push people back towards pubs.

JMNolan wrote: »

If the government was serious about reducing public order offences and other anti social behaviour then we could follow Spain/France/Germany with liberal opening hours

See what happened over the weekend with that new donut shop in Blanchardstown - Ireland has a serious issue with people desiring urban areas to have some kind of "curfew" on commercial activity. I'd love it if Dublin was like New York or London with 24/7 activity - if you want a quiet life then don't choose to live in the centre of a capital primate city for f*ck's sake. Unfortunately, in that climate I can't see opening hours being extended. It's not about drinking even, it's about this mindset that there's a national "bedtime" which city life itself must adhere to, not just individuals who happen to work regular daytime hours.

Being a shift worker in Dublin would be an absolute nightmare in terms of never being able to get a drink or a decent bite to eat after dark.

I live directly beside a fairly new cafe-bar which is inside to a public park. A few months ago, on a FRIDAY night no less, they had a 60th birthday party booked as a private function. They had the absolute temerity to be playing music (fairly quietly I might add!) which could be heard through the window of the place as one walked past. I was getting a lift home (from Blackrock Wetherspoons, if ye must know ) from a friend, and one of my favourite songs - U2's Beautiful Day - came on just as I hopped out of the car outside the place. Stopped for a few minutes to listen through the railings before heading home.

As I listened, some absolute douchebag from up one of the streets came storming over and started roaring through the railings that there were families with children trying to sleep (again, this was at 11PM on a Friday night in June, it was barely even dark yet) and that he'd be rounding up other "annoyed residents" and marching straight down to the council the next day to demand the revocation of their license and other such bullsh!t.

In perhaps the slickest move of gatecrashing I've ever done, I waited for your man to feck off and popped into the place myself, sought out the manager who'd been on the receiving end of the aforementioned barney, and as he was irritatedly telling the lads to turn the music off, I informed him that I lived directly next door, that the majority of local residents here love the place and regularly drop in for some food or drink, that your man was an unrepresentative dry sh!te and that I knew of at least six neighbours who'd heavily protest at any move to curtail their opening hours or get rid of their bar license.

Manager and the guy who was organising the birthday party was so chuffed that they asked me to stay for a bunch of G&T while they went to turn the music back on

Shameless bragging about being the hero Dublin deserves aside, this is the kind of thing which really pisses me off. If people want to live as if they're in a rural area, then f*cking move to one. If you live in a capital city or a major suburb of a capital city, then you have to accept that such an area does not follow a pre-teen "curfew" schedule, places will open late, people will make some amount of noise going about their business (especially on a Friday night during a heatwave in mid-June) and that if you don't like it, you really shouldn't be living in any sort of built-up area.

Just my two cents anyway. New builds with better soundproofing might go some way towards solving this problem, but personally I find it immensely comforting hearing the sounds of music and people enjoying themselves outside even as I drift off to sleep. It provides a happy atmosphere and makes you feel as if you're living in a "happening" place. My admittedly unsympathetic attitude towards the moaners is similar to my attitude towards the residents of Balybough Road, Sackville Road and Croke Villas when there's a concert or match on - It's a capital city and you live beside its largest sports stadium. Such are the sacrifices of living in the centre of such an area.

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I find it very difficult to comprehend.

If you think you should drink less, drink less, don't look at the change in your pocket and think "but I still have a few quid left, sure what else could I possibly do with it?"

It takes a peculiar brand of gobshíte to view being forced to pay double the price for something as a bonus.

It's very obvious that this mentality isn't regarded for the sake of those posting it - they want to see others forced to change their lifestyles, because those pedalling the "virtues" of coercive measures disapprove of the aforementioned lifestyles. It's essentially a form of social conservatism.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Income is finite..

So is sense it would appear

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I enjoy alcohol, I'd like to have a few drinks every night, but I know that that is not a very healthy approach to life.

Do you know it enough to just not drink every night (like most of us do), or do you need to be priced out of the market for your own protection?

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I've loads of self control.

On average I drink about 1 unit of alcohol a week.

But if the price doubles I'll probably only drink 1/2 unit per week.

But if you want to reduce your consumption, and you have self-control, then you can just reduce it to 1/2 unit per week without the need for a price increase. If the price increase is necessary for you to reduce your consumption, then clearly you don't have the necessary self-control.

So I again put it to you that advocating a policy which will force everyone to make similar lifestyle changes, just because you want to make them yourself but you can't do it without the government corralling you into doing it, is profoundly selfish and regressive.

I suppose someone who desires to have fewer one night stands but can't bring him or herself to make that choice unaided, would be justified in advocating legislation restricting individuals' sexual freedom in order to "help" them make that lifestyle change for themselves?

elperello wrote: »

We could probably have a whole new thread discussing why people drink.
For my part I drink because I like the taste of it.

Mainly that.
And wine is a supercondiment with most meals... for me no other drink enhances the taste of the food the way it does, red wine with red meat, white wine with fish, rose with shellfish.

Finally I dont have to have a drink to relax but when I drink it is a signal that I am off duty for the rest of the night.