A word of science

[hirez]

Ok, chaps (and I mean that in the gender-agnostic sense). Here's a project for some of you. The next time you're in a boozer, point your camerphone at the tariff (it'll be on/near the bar, by law IIRC) and send me the result (boozer [at] mysparedomain [dot] com). What I'm after is the relative pricing of draught ale vs. softies, so try to make sure that's legible in the photo. A note of the location of the boozer would probably help, too. Or you could just write it down.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Are we meant to be comparing like volumes?

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

Draught ale vs. draught softies (ie. default cola and lemonade from the squirty-hose).

Comparing draught lager with bottled orange juice, or with branded Coca-Cola in trademarked ribbed-for-her-pleasure glass bottles, don't count.

[aeia.livejournal.com]

I see war! :)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

That's why I mentioned phonecams - bag the whole price-list in one and we can worry about the details later. They're supposed to be A4, yes? I suspect that the image from my old phone wouldn't be legible, but anything S-60 and/or MIDP-2.x should be ok.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

:p

I see a valid excuse to visit many pubs. And to get some documentary evidence.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

It should all be logged on the tariff. It's been a while since I studied one while sober.

[steer.livejournal.com]

http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pricesurvey.htm#Anchor-Drinks-43054

DTI price survey -- as I expected shows v. little difference in the price per litre of coke and beer.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

I disagree. If ones only source of softies are bottled then it doesn`t matter if they are compared with draught ale - as this is the only valid comparison *for that venue*. Being able to say "I`m paying bottled prices for my coke compared to my mates draught stella" has no bearing on the fact that my pint of coke has cost more than his pint of stella.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Mmm. On the way home I undertook a quick test run in my pub of choice (the Vic, Gt George St, Leeds).

1 pint of lemonade & black = 2.55, so about 2.30 for the lemo and 25p for the black. It wasn't a full pint, until I muttered something.
1 pint of Black Sheep = 2.20

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

But I wouldn't expect someone to buy me two or three bottled drinks in exchange for one draught pint. That's my whole point. You'd buy me one bottled drink and I'd see that it was in a bottle and think "Fair enough, it's bottled". Where I'd get peeved is if you bought me a half pint of draught drink in your round when I'd bought you a full pint of draught drink in my round.

My hypothesis is that draught soft drinks on average cost approximately the same, or less, per volume as draught beers. The corollary being that it is bottled vs. draught that accounts for the biggest price differential, not soft vs. alcohol.

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

Black is not on draught. The price of the lemonade from the squirty-hose is what we're interested in here. Otherwise we'd have to compare, say, the cost of lemonade-and-black with the cost of cider-and-black.

Lemonade = £2.30 per pint
Beer = £2.20 per pint

Approximately the same.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

Ah, I`m not challenging the assertion that you have been skanked in rounds by your booze guzzling chums sir. Merely the assertation that one may drink softly more cheaply than boozes, which is not my experience of late (it certainly used to be the case though, so I`m restricting my current assertations to present day London, itself an unsubstantiable but reasonable extrapolation of the true facts - namely that soft drinks, or to be even more true to the facts, diet coke/equivalent are not cheaper than boozes in the places in London I`ve been to of late - including draught. This assertation that you are incorrect about the prices of London cola based beverages as regards their comparison to fermented grain based beverages should not be extrapolated into a notion that I would not provide you with a full pint of such a beverage, or would only do so under duress were I buying a round.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Yep, not disputing that. I'm just throwing my data into the mix. The rest I leave to the statisticians.

FWIW, a pint of soda and black in the same pub costs 60p, so it's possible the pint of lemo could have been 2.25 (depending on whether they charge 10p for the soda or not), making it even less of a difference.

[jozafeen.livejournal.com]

In our old venue, snakey was £2 and draught cola £2.20. It was mentioned by our non-drinkers and now it is £2 for either as part of the special offer thing we negotiated.

Most pubs in Sheffield sell soft drinks for around £2 a pint which is about the same as bog-standard beer though I was shocked at £1.70 for half a lime and lemonade when out but driving last week.

[specialunclet.livejournal.com]

at last an experiment i can partake in

the side effects may get the better of me though

[specialunclet.livejournal.com]

my last time was 'the jolly sailors' in whitby

and yes it was £1.29 a pint

[silverskull.livejournal.com]

I have personally visited 2 pubs so far to obtain documentary evidence but have got distracted doing so - OK I got pissed but either way no photo's from the phone.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Bother. You'll just have to go back. One must make such personal sacrifices when engaged in Scientific Investigation.

[silverskull.livejournal.com]

Far be it from me to let the side down :D