Possibly a thread elsewhere already but
Temple Bar has always been overpriced but €9 for a pint is pretty insane.
Roughly 90 pints per keg × 9 = 1800 per keg they must be making a pretty penny. I know rents, insurance, staff etc
Locally i paid €4.90 for a pint of Birra Moretti
So would or do you pay €9 a pint..
I've started drinking Murphys lately when the Guinness is not up to scratch. It's harder to find Murphys than Beamish in my experience. However, in my local, Guinness, Murphys and Beamish are all €7.60.
Cans of Beamish and Murphys are more expensive in the supermarkets. 10x Guinness Nitros are €21, 4x Beamish or Murphys are €9. Especially when the ABV of Murphys is lower than the other 2 you can't factor in minimum pricing laws for the reason.
Diageo “incentivise” pubs not to carry any other suppliers stock.
My local Centra started stocking Murphys before Christmas, €8 for 4 pack. Nice, creamy tins. I note Lidl has started stocking them too, not sure of price.
This is very true, and when there is craft stuff on draft they always want their product front and centre of the bar. Any bar owner worth their salt should be giving Diageo the middle finger at this stage
It’s a forced monopoly and should be investigated, but our govt are too worried about the “optics”. (no pun intended)
There was a Government report in the 1960s which referred to the trifecta of brewery groups at the time - Guinness Ltd, Murphys and Beamish & Crawford - as acting in a manner which was "anticompetitive but not illegal"
60 years later, that is still the government/CCPC/etc view on it.
I doubt what Diageo nowadays gets up to is 100% legal.
It would seem Heineken are far and away the worst of the three. Paying to have craft lines removed, artificially supporting non competitive products (Applemans, Islands Edge etc) to keep lines away from other suppliers and so on.
More of a duopoly as Heineken would be doing similar but I take your point
That's interesting because anticompetitive business practices in other sectors is, in fact, illegal... I wonder why the alcohol industry is being subsidised by our govt in that way
C&C also do the same but with far less success.
Heineken and C&C will always argue that they are bit part players to a behemoth and hence cannot be anticompetitive. Diageo are just exceptionally careful.
Everyone knows all three are damaging the market
Five of the ten pubs in my town have been "bought out" by Diageo since November. Absolutely nothing but their products sold. Carling replaced by Tuborg and Coors by Harp.
How do they "sell" that to regular customers ?
It must be hard having the publican tell you that you can no longer drink the beer you like.
However, in my local, Guinness, Murphys and Beamish are all €7.60.
Jesus, do you live on O'Connell Street?
I shudder to think what a larger costs.
Lager drinkers are more flexible than Guinness drinkers, once they've heard of the other option, from my experience
Also shown up by the cycle of popular brands in lager over the decades - Harp, Carlsberg, Miller, Bud and Coors have all had their day in the sun. Heineken was once the niche premium rather than the near universal.
They would be more flexible than Guinness drinkers for sure.
But Coors to Harp sounds like a step back rather trying something new.
Harp gets a lot more flack than it deserves… but they're likely to also have Carlsberg, Rockshore and Hop House on an all Diageo bar.
There's nothing wrong with a nice pint of Harp but I was thinking of it as a bit old hat.
But maybe I'm not allowing for the younger crowd coming up who just take it as it is.
If I go into a pub I'm unfamiliar with I look around and order whatever I see others drinking.
Branded glasses are a big help, if I see 4 or 5 Heineken being enjoyed that does me.
I like Harp. I've only ever seen it in one bar and I was asking the barman about it. It's very popular with American tourists.
Last place I saw Harp on draught was JR Mahons near O'Connell Bridge.
Which is crazy as since then we've come under EU competition law.
That's a very disturbing trend and shouldn't be allowed, either.
The pub scene in the UK had tremendous damage done to it by "tied houses". It still does, by large pub owning groups tying themselves to particular brewing groups (for ££££, naturally) and then forcing that product exclusively on their landlords[*] often at uncompetitive prices.
[*] Bit puzzling how the tenant of a pubco can be called a landlord, but we are where we are…
Tied houses are actually owned by the breweries or as you say a pubco closely associated with one.
What is happening here is a publican cutting a deal with Diageo. There are no guns put to any heads so it's a totally different situation. It's just a publican choosing his supplier as is his right.
Not too well. There's five of us here at the moment. Usually around 12-15 customers on a Thursday evening. I'm only in to do the bonus ball.
The new Harp is completely different in a bad way.
Slightly tangential question, but when exactly did it become a thing for a pint to be served in its own branded glass only? I remember working in bars in the mid-to-late 90s, in Ireland and overseas, and I don't recall it ever being a consideration. Then - maybe sometime in the early 2000s? - it all changed and the idea of a beer being served in a differently-branded glass became anathema, as evidenced by the earlier conversation here, and my own preferences, to be honest. Anyone have a clearer idea on this, or am I remembering wrong (and was a sh*tty barman…) ?
At least in my time we were allowed to bring in two Guest Ales on rotation. That was in the 80's so don't know if it's still the same.
The first "proper" pub I worked in was around 2005 and branded was mandatory. It was only in late bars, or venues I would have used plain tulips or nonic pints.
The pub is happy because they get a good deal, Diageo is happy because they sell more.
The loser is the regular customer who can't enjoy his chosen beer in the pub he likes to go to.
If you just scroll back a couple of pages there was a good bit of chat about branded glasses 🍺
Around the mid 2000's it started in the trendy pubs. The same time the brewerys were competing to see who could get their tap mounts nearest to the ceiling.
Total nuisance. Slowed everything down and take up a lot more space because they don't stack.
You can get it in Westport
