Betjaman Arms beer festival

[Arthurish]

Hi all,

Went to the Betjaman Arms ale festival, nice range of ales on sale, but it seems a bit pricey.
£3.50 a pint (£3.30 for CAMRA)
£2.00 a half pint
But any Meantime ales £3.90 a pint.

Is this the norm for beer festivals?

Arthuish

[ETA]

Not in my experience - it sounds extortionate and nto a good way o encourage people to come back.

[rpadam]

Not in my experience - it sounds extortionate and nto a good way o encourage people to come back.
Well, it is a station pub (albeit a fancy station gastro-pub) with something of a captive audience in central London so the prices aren't that surprising (and comparable with other Geronimo Inns outlets).

On a related subject, I just had a nasty shudder imagining what the Boadicea's first beer festival might be like...

[aleandhearty]

OK,it's a station pub and people might possibly stop by for a quick one before their train. However, if punters go there with their festival head on - wanting to try lots of different beers, they're going to drink halves, which works out at £4.00 a pint. That's just plain greedy.

From my limited experience of festivals, the prices, if anything, are rounded down slightly, both to cut down the hassle of sorting out change, but more imprtantly to encourage footfall. At the Toddy BF 'oldboots', 'ROBCamra' and I were paying the equivalent of £2.50 a pint.

[trainman]

I'm with ETA, that price is well OTT regardless of location and, unless their regular prices have increased substantially this year, above the cost of regular offerings.
It doesn't surprise me though, this place is badly mismanaged and poorly staffed. If they struggle to serve 2 pints correctly, and at the correct price, heaven knows what carnage might ensue during a 'festival'!

[trainman]

At the Toddy BF 'oldboots', 'ROBCamra' and I were paying the equivalent of £2.50 a pint.
and they say it's grim oop North...!

For Nottingham, next week, they say "The price of beer tokens has yet to be decided but will have to be more than last year's price of £1.25 per half pint because of the large increases in beer duty applied by the Government"

[ROBCamra]

and they say it's grim oop North...!

Shush, that's a rumour spread by us Northerners so that the Southerners don't come up here and screw it up for us. ;)

[Arthurish]

They are selling their Betjaman Ale at £3.05 a pint.

[Oggwyn Trench]

At last weekends Telford Beer Festival at the Crown , i was paying the normal pub prices ,£2.20 -£2.80 a pint .

[ETA]

As if on cue, this appeared on the BBC's website this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11484987

[oldboots]

As if on cue, this appeared on the BBC's website this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11484987

"The Great Britain-wide average was £2.80, a 4% rise on 2009. But this covers broad regional disparities, with the cheapest part of the country, the West Midlands, falling well short at £2.45 below the most expensive, Surrey, at £3.08."

Obviously no Sam Smith's pubs in Surrey :p or there are and they've brought the average down to only £3.08?


"To those of us who can recall - just - the days of the sub-£1 pint, shelling out three times that amount for a single beverage will always cause a small part of ourselves to die a little inside."

15p when I were a lad, Running Dog and Arky probably remember it under 2 bob a pint. :rolleyes:

[ETA]

15p when I were a lad, Running Dog and Arky probably remember it under 2 bob a pint. :rolleyes:

As a mere sprog of 49 the best I can rememebr buying was Courage Best at 23p a pint in the Boatswain and Call, Gillingham (OK, I might have had to pretend I was 18...). Old Peculiar was really expensive then - 33p a pint in the Little Gem, Ayelsford.