That average beer price is to be taken with a large grain of salt.
It is the un-weighted average of some random prices they found.
Weighted by volume sold it would probably be a lot closer between countries.
In a super market, brand beer is usually 0.79€/0.5L, store brand is at less in germany. That 4€ figure is what you pay for a beer in a moderately expensive restaurant.
The gap between off and on-license prices (i.e. supermarket versus bar) will differ depending on country as well. As anecdata, I found that in the UK, buying beer from a supermarket tended to be more expensive than my home country of New Zealand, but buying beer in a pub was usually cheaper. I guess in New Zealand we charge a much higher alcohol tax to on-licenses rather than off-licenses.
Those numbers are distorted by the fact that the cheapest (and most popular) beers generally aren't the well-known brands they counted in their study. In the Czech Republic I've seen beers go lower than 0.30USD for a 500ml bottle, and if you were to spend a full dollar on a bottle you'd be getting a fairly posh local beer.
First are you sure that the cheapest 'beers' are actually 'beer'? In the US the cheapest tend to be 'malt liquor' masqerading as beer without actually claiming to be beer and only saying what they are as small type.
Secondly, regarding your final comment, are you saying that 330ml seems smaller or larger than you would expect?
330ml would be considered small, the standard size is 500ml. Europeans just drink substantially more.
Isn't malt liquor just beer with high alcohol content? I haven't seen that much outside of craft beers, you're probably likelier to get something that's not a traditional beer if you're paying more than if you're paying less.
Not at all, in UK supermarkets the cheap beers often came in what we call 'stubbies', 330ml bottles. They were usually some generic unspecified supermarket own brand labelled 'beer de alsace' or something. Per litre they were significantly cheaper than the 500mls. They've now disappeared from shelves, but even today, one of the cheapest beer at the moment available in most Tescos is a 6 pack of 330ml cans of moretti.
Why talk so confidently about something you're ignorant about?
It's easy to see price per 100ml in the UK as the supermarkets have to show it on the price labels.
And the great-grandparent was saying nowhere has 330mls apart from America. You're both wrong, many countries have 330ml beers, and they can be the cheap beers.
I don't care what great-grandparent said. I just added that _in Germany_ a 33cl bottle will usually be more expensive by volume than a 50cl one since that's the standard.
Right. They are calles a Mass (or a Masskrug). While "stein" is a German word, it isn't used in German for the glasses[1]. The German term is "Krug" or "Bierkrug", or in the case of 1 liter, a Masskrug.
In the Oktoberfest time you can find bundles of a 1l can of Oktoberfest beer and the fitting Masskrug in the supermarkets. For Oktoberfest, special charges of beer are brewed. To compensate for the large servings (1 liter) it is even stronger than normal beer at about 6.5%. So the inexperienced should be careful with that, or they are going to make experiences. Been there, done that! :)
1) I would expect the name comes from "Steingut", which is a ceramic. It was traditionally used for making beer mugs, but today, mostly glass is used.
Here in the UK the most common volume for beer cans is 440ml. There are also pint-sized cans (568ml). Bottles tend to be 500ml. 330ml cans are mostly for soft drinks.
On the other hand, in France 330ml for beer is more common, indeed.
Yeah. The foreign known brands are mostly imports and quite expensive in India. No one here regularly pays $3 for a beer at a supermarket. Even a higher end local microbrew is $1.50 - $2. Mass market lagers are more like $0.80
> Also, no-one buys 330ml of beer except Americans.
Most of good strong-ish craft beers (imperial stout, barley wine, etc.) are served in 330ml or even 250ml glasses and sold in 330 cans/bottles (~350 in case of USA-made).
The US makes this hard. A case of Nati Ice at a state university will be cheap. In a craft beer bar in a big city they charge prices of $1/oz, and $2/oz is becoming more common. Many will stand in line for the privileges of paying these prices for bottles that sell quickly.
It's not uncommon to see high alcohol (8%+, so getting similar to wine) beers, often served as 8 oz. or so be getting to $10+ in big cities. And it's not even just a matter of alcohol content, though it often is. Why should the best craft beers be a lot less than middling wines?
Kind of a pity they didn't include Scandinavia in this.
Also those prices don't seem right. At least the last time I was in Prague 0.5L bottles of beer cost well under a dollar in super markets. Same for Germany where you can easily find beer for 0.5€ a bottle.
Using the average price of a beer can be quite misleading. Without knowing how popular each beer is, it is unlikely to provide a sense of what locals are actually paying for beer.
A better methodology might have been to compute the expected value of a beer (essentially weighting the price of a beer by the probability of purchase of that beer)
(Also, as others have noted, the standard size of a beer varies, so only including data for a particular size can bias the results). Knowing the price/ml might be an interesting statistic too, but it would have been good to know the price of a beer (for whatever ‘a beer’ means locally)
>Beer is cheapest in South Africa, where a culture of buying in bulk
That makes little sense given the data provided. SA is cheapest at the hotel bar (where you can't buy bulk) but not cheapest at the super market (where you can).
Alternate theory: Cheap labour, cheap local inputs. Plus loads of capacity. Up until recently the worlds 2nd biggest producer was SABMiller. The SAB part stands for South African Breweries.
1.90 USD for a 0.33 liter in Germany. Not sure where that Supermarkt is at. The 0.5 starts at 30 cents. Drinkable starts at 50 cents for the half liter. Anyway i liked there inforgrpahic style.
> We collated the prices of a 330ml bottle of beer in supermarkets around the world using online shops, focusing on well-known beer brands such as Corona and Heineken.
There in lies the problem. I was wondering why some low income but high grain output countries like China and India have high beer prices. In case of China, it seemed odd that beer was even costlier than its rich neighbours like South Korea and Japan. If you look at the prices of imported beer which are subject to high import duties and shipment costs, it is not going to give a fair picture.
Even Heinekens in China are not that expensive. It mainly comes down to Chinese not drinking beers in "hotels". Chinese usually drink as a part of a meal and the beers in a restaurant, even one attached to a hotel, are market price. But an actual bar at a hotel is mainly used for business meetings and such where you're mainly renting the real estate so the same beer can be 10x the price of 1 30m away sold by the same vendor.
I believe their conclusions are a bit flawed. Namely, the amount that people spend on beer per year.
Here in Germany most of the time I see beer prices at 3.00-5.00€ for 500ml in bars. However, I would say a large portion of beer consumption here is what people get from supermarkets, which is significantly cheaper, with most prices in the range of 0.70-1.00€ for a 500ml bottle.
Furthermore, nobody here really drinks well known brands such as Corona or Heineken, rather more regional beers.
Therefore, I don't see their conclusion that Germans spend an average of $1.9k on beer per year being valid.
Considering that the data on prices is pretty much complete garbage I wouldn’t be surprised if they just multiplied the ‘average’ price and per capita consumption they obtained from WHO (they seem to be implying as much in the methodology section).
i had the same conclusion. Most people would be buying (for example) Franziskaner 500mL cans at ALDI for 80 cents, or getting a crate of beer for about 1 EUR / bottle. I have never even seen a Corona beer in Germany besides at an overpriced Mexican restaurant
Depends on the country. In many smaller countries (and even some medium-sized ones, such as South Korea), a majority or plurality of the population lives within the metropolitan area of the capital.
Okay so honest question, you people can drink beer every day and not feel awful and like your brain is on fire, with weird neurological problems the next day? Like if I drink a few beers I’ll have a hard time picking up a glass of water the next day, I’ll be trembling and it feels like my ability to move properly is severely inhibited. I’ve tried gluten free beer with the same effects. My mood will be severely affected, and I’ll be more prone to outbursts and anger. Drinking liquor or ciders does not do the same thing, it seems exclusive to beer. Anyone know why this might be?
This could be a sensitivity or allergy to hop oils which will be present in quite high amounts in currently popular craft styles like NEIPAs. Old school macro lagers don’t have a lot of hops and use German hops which are lower in those oils.
I think it's more due to the funky high-temperature fermentation of the top-fermenting ale yeasts used. This will create more fusel alcohols than a clean bottom fermentation.
Well managed ale fermentation shouldn’t produce much fusel alcohol which is a byproduct of yeast stress. Some of the DDH 8% IPAs place make now and try to turn around too fast will have some detectable fusels.
There are also clean (which means low water production) ale yeasts.
As a minor nit all yeasts ferment in the whole column of liquid. Ale yeasts do often form a thick Krause though.
I remember finding this out years ago by drinking Natural Light many years ago. I went to nurse my hangover the next day and could barely lift a glass of water.
Could be allergy/sensitivity to any of a wide variety of ingredients of beer. Yeasts, barley/sorghum and associated malts, and hops are things that could make this common across a wife variety of beers.
In the last 6 months, many of the posher shops in my gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood have suddenly started selling a new category of "serious" craft beers that come in a four pack of tall shiny 1pt cans with all the branding on a sticky label, connected by a rigid plastic widget. The price is an astronomical $7-8 per can, or $30 for a four pack. Who is spending that much on beer?
(I was going to add "in a pandemic", but perhaps that's the point: no-one is going to bars but maybe some are happy to pay bar prices at home.)
Anyone know where this is coming from? Although each shop carries a wide range of these cans, they all conform so closely, and they all appeared overnight, that I wonder whether there's been a change in packaging or distribution technology, or a new consortium of microbrewers?
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 76.2 ms ] threadWeighted by volume sold it would probably be a lot closer between countries.
In a super market, brand beer is usually 0.79€/0.5L, store brand is at less in germany. That 4€ figure is what you pay for a beer in a moderately expensive restaurant.
Also, no-one buys 330ml of beer except Americans.
Secondly, regarding your final comment, are you saying that 330ml seems smaller or larger than you would expect?
Yes, you can get some excellent beers for 30 cents in Czechia.
Isn't malt liquor just beer with high alcohol content? I haven't seen that much outside of craft beers, you're probably likelier to get something that's not a traditional beer if you're paying more than if you're paying less.
I wouldn't say there is much attempt to pass it off, people are buying the cheap stuff because it's cheap, not because they think it's beer.
500ml bottles are typical in Germany, but you'll find 330ml bottles in every supermarket, they're not rare at all.
Why talk so confidently about something you're ignorant about?
It's easy to see price per 100ml in the UK as the supermarkets have to show it on the price labels.
I see them everywhere in the UK and in France (although 330ml cans are more frequent)
Popular beers sell for maybe USD 2.50 a bottle I think?
On a side note: I can't remember ever seeing all three South African capital cities listed in a data table like this. Nice!
In the Oktoberfest time you can find bundles of a 1l can of Oktoberfest beer and the fitting Masskrug in the supermarkets. For Oktoberfest, special charges of beer are brewed. To compensate for the large servings (1 liter) it is even stronger than normal beer at about 6.5%. So the inexperienced should be careful with that, or they are going to make experiences. Been there, done that! :)
1) I would expect the name comes from "Steingut", which is a ceramic. It was traditionally used for making beer mugs, but today, mostly glass is used.
On the other hand, in France 330ml for beer is more common, indeed.
In Greece, they are staples in the supermarkets!
Most of good strong-ish craft beers (imperial stout, barley wine, etc.) are served in 330ml or even 250ml glasses and sold in 330 cans/bottles (~350 in case of USA-made).
On tap it's $3 or $4 for 16 fl-oz.
(this is in the US)
Really expensive small batch beer is often 10+% alcohol by volume.
Also those prices don't seem right. At least the last time I was in Prague 0.5L bottles of beer cost well under a dollar in super markets. Same for Germany where you can easily find beer for 0.5€ a bottle.
A better methodology might have been to compute the expected value of a beer (essentially weighting the price of a beer by the probability of purchase of that beer)
(Also, as others have noted, the standard size of a beer varies, so only including data for a particular size can bias the results). Knowing the price/ml might be an interesting statistic too, but it would have been good to know the price of a beer (for whatever ‘a beer’ means locally)
That makes little sense given the data provided. SA is cheapest at the hotel bar (where you can't buy bulk) but not cheapest at the super market (where you can).
Alternate theory: Cheap labour, cheap local inputs. Plus loads of capacity. Up until recently the worlds 2nd biggest producer was SABMiller. The SAB part stands for South African Breweries.
Yeah, no : https://super.walmart.com.mx/cerveza-vinos-y-licores/cerveza...
1 USD ~ 20 Mexican pesos
There in lies the problem. I was wondering why some low income but high grain output countries like China and India have high beer prices. In case of China, it seemed odd that beer was even costlier than its rich neighbours like South Korea and Japan. If you look at the prices of imported beer which are subject to high import duties and shipment costs, it is not going to give a fair picture.
Here in Germany most of the time I see beer prices at 3.00-5.00€ for 500ml in bars. However, I would say a large portion of beer consumption here is what people get from supermarkets, which is significantly cheaper, with most prices in the range of 0.70-1.00€ for a 500ml bottle.
Furthermore, nobody here really drinks well known brands such as Corona or Heineken, rather more regional beers.
Therefore, I don't see their conclusion that Germans spend an average of $1.9k on beer per year being valid.
I’d like real crowdsourced data.
What kind of beer are you drinking? I find many of the craft ales give way worse hangovers than regular lagers.
There are also clean (which means low water production) ale yeasts.
As a minor nit all yeasts ferment in the whole column of liquid. Ale yeasts do often form a thick Krause though.
From experience I can tell you beer is 1/3 the price in Ecuador as it is in South Africa.
Even nearby Angola, Congo and Cameroon have much cheaper beer than South Africa.
As for consumption, it would probably be a good idea to include Australia :)
(I was going to add "in a pandemic", but perhaps that's the point: no-one is going to bars but maybe some are happy to pay bar prices at home.)
Anyone know where this is coming from? Although each shop carries a wide range of these cans, they all conform so closely, and they all appeared overnight, that I wonder whether there's been a change in packaging or distribution technology, or a new consortium of microbrewers?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index
https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption