Sobs quietly into his last pint of reasonably priced beer

No coat/No door, I am making this one last awhile!

IT in the UK is doomed!!

As for "higher aluminium, cereal and crude oil (prices)" worryes me a little. What the hell are they putting in there beer.

If this happens, I'm switching to turps...

How many Euro is that per litre?

I long ago decided to remove myself from the system when it came to life's little pleasures. I quite happily brew my own beer (c 20/30p a pint), wine (c 2quid a bottle), and spirits (c 1.50 a litre).

Up yours gord !

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! my life is ruined, this means pubs are going to be empty, I also believe that every man woman and england will pay top dollar to find out who those doomongers are, what will life be like in britain now, just imagine the alcoholics that havent seen the light of day properly for 20years *shakes head* actually I'm not goin think about it.

This is shocking news, however it is no excuse for coining the word "doomonger", which simply does not exist*

Drinking more will increase demand, which may push prices down? I feel it is our duty.

* - in my lexicon.

...why their beers all taste like shite:

"The company has fingered higher aluminium, cereal and crude oil costs as the cause"

I know its fithy lager that is referred to, not real ale, but since when was crude oil used in brewing?

This sort of news is most unwelcome. It's like saying work to us members of the drinking classes. I almost choked on my pint.

"The company has fingered higher aluminium, cereal and crude oil costs as the cause, the Guardian explains"

There's crude oil in my beer???

Best look the bottle of turps out the garage and start claiming disability allowance in accordance with new government directives!!

but its actually pretty heavy =/

"The company has fingered higher aluminium, cereal and crude oil costs as the cause."

How much crude oil does my pint contain?!?

And the IT angle here would be...ah, yeah, The BOFH of course, who will now be forced to supplement his income in more nefarious ways to pay for his "lunch".

Looking forward to this new plot twist...

As the icon says........where is the IT angle?

If you tolerate this piss, then your bitter will be next!

A pair of quadruple whiskies and another pair of pints........

OK smartarse. Where did you get a pint of reasonably-priced beer in the UK? Go on, tell us.

Still look at it this way. You'll be able to fly cattle-class to Prague, stay the weekend, get thoroughly wankered, fly back and still save money. The best part is that your flight will contribute to Global warming*, pushing up the price of beer in the UK and next time you do it, you'll save *even more money*.

Yippee!

The Bomber jacket with the Pilsner Urquell logo please.

*Unless, of course, it's nothing to do with Global warming at all and it's just making an appearance as the usual trendy cop-out, in which case this won't work. Boooo.

With many a good deal being closed in the pub over a pint or ten and those pints being claimed back as expenses and those expenses claimed back from the client via increased costs, could we be seeing compound inflation (have I coined a new phrase?) on the way?

£4 per pint: That will be about €9.85 per litre, or €3.28 per 33cL glass

"How much crude oil does my pint contain?!?"

none, however the heating of the mash probably uses oil in some way or other, delivery trucks all use fuel which is based on crude oil so the delivery costs go up (which has tobe taken into account in the price) etc etc.

aluminium - cans and the barrels. I assume at some point they make new barrels.

grain - too much is beimng diverted for biofuels, see the pasts protests in italy the other month over Durum wheat being too expensive.

to the "where's the it angle" brigade it's in bootnotes so really it should be "where's the paris hilton angle".

"The company has fingered higher aluminium, cereal and crude oil costs as the cause."

Glad I don't drink....crude oil and Rice Krispies beer? bad enough, but think of the company bods having fingered your aluminium cans first!

I'll open with £4 for a pint of Staropramen at the Duke's Head in Putney.

I was literally gasting flabber.

Can anyone trump this? Criteria is a pint of normal bitter or lager (none of that fancy cherry flavoured stuff) and purchased from a pub, not a nightclub.

To get a good Irish or English pint over here already cost anywhere from $5.50 to $7.00 so this is not to much of a shock for us...your just catching up to the rest of the world. On the other hand if your over here you can always have domestic US beer...errr....

If no-one here sees the IT angle in this, I want to know where they work. Tis a sad day when the price of forgetting a hard days 'work' will get little change from £20.

To be honest for you, I feel sorry for the curry house.

£4.40 for a pint of Peroni in the Waterside.

Brewing your own starts to look like the way to go. Mind you. I live in Bavaria, where the 1/2l lager is still under 1€.

I think we need a campaign to promote the production of biobeers - they're cheaper (due to lower taxation) and better for the environment too (the exhaust fumes aren't as toxic, unless you combine it with a curry).

Can you drink LPG?

Once again the universe takes it upon itself to dump on me from a great height.

I've been working in Oslo for the past nine months and finally come to terms with the £5 pint (plus or minus 50p say for local Ringnes chemical pish, gets up to around £7 or more for owt decent, especially down Aker Brygge).

I'm finally leaving this Friday to return to the UK, and was looking forward to getting change from a fiver for 2 pints. And then this!

At least with these you won't find you've mistakenly identified a hot blonde lady with a 38DD chest, who is actually a 6'4" metal-head rocker with a 54" barrel chest.

Then again, if you're drinking halves or shandies that's probably your thing.

I'll be sticking with the Hoegaarden, Franziskaner, Schneider Weisse, Ayinger, Paulaner, Erdinger, Schoefferhoffer, Maisells Weisse, Etalon Weissbier and (to a lesser extent) Grolsch Weizen then -- nary a hop in sight, so hopefully no price hike! Hurray for wheat beer!

Not that the fuckers are particularly cheap to begin with though...

Ok bottled beer (half litre, just under a pint) from the off-license: from 60 cents ('bout 40p).

Mid-range pub in the west (with table service), ca €3 (2 quid).

The german laws on beer purity means there's no aluminium, cereal or crude oil either ;-)

Sounds like the typical rip-off britain scenario - pay the highest prices for the lowest quality. I'm think sometimes that the europhobia in the British establishment is due to the fact, that if the majority of people in the UK were to compare their quality of life with their european neighbours, there'd be an instant uprising...

"On the other hand if your over here you can always have domestic US beer...errr...."

Sam Adams Oktoberfest? Yum!

numbers as comment titles not allowed, for some reason...

Sorry bluesxman, Erdinger uses hops (I just checked the label of the bottle I am drinking), and I suspect some of the others if not all of them use hops too...

Oh yeah, right in the West End. I was paying £3.50 for a pint in some pubs in central London six years ago so it's hardly a surprise. 5% lager has gone over £3 in most city pubs in the North now (the range in Leeds is downright bizarre sometimes: something like Carlsberg Export will be £2.60 in one pub and £3.05 in the next. It has something to do with the number of flashing lights I think). We'll keep on paying it though, don't you worry.