Price vs Strength

[sheffield hatter]

I've brought this forward from another thread:

1/2 Torrside Valour 1917 Imperial Stout 7.7% (£6.90/pint);1/3 Boutilliers/Shakespeares You Have Deaded Me bloody orange IPA 11.7% (£9/pint); 1/3 Beatnikz Republic/Shakespeares Bass Hero quad hopped IPA 6.3% (£4.80/pint); 1/3 Blue Bee/Shakespeares Wheels of Confusion black IPA 6.0% (£6.00/pint). Total £10.05.

Generally speaking, I would regard many of those prices as outrageous even locally.

Now, I enjoy going to pubs (and I hope the government is paying attention, before they close them all down) for many reasons: (luckily too numerous to mention here, but could be the subject of a new thread). One of them is the chance to try new beers that some of our very inventive brewers have been coming up with in the last 10 years or more. My reason for quoting my old friend Aqualung in this context is that I don't think price is relevant when the intention is to try something never experienced before; and/or the price is justified because of the strength of the beer and the time spent in the pub drinking it.

Here's an example: tonight I went to the Devonshire Cat quite late in the evening, knowing that they have had a few special beers on this week (Sheffield Beer week). I went for Kirkstall/Yeastie Boys Slow Show barrel aged barley wine 11.5% (a beer I have had before when visiting the Kirkstall brewery tap after a Leeds Rhinos game) and Marble Decadence barrel aged ruby porter 10.5%; 1/3 of each for £7.75; then 1/2 of Beaver Town/Queer Brewing Project Saturn black IPA 6.5% for £3.90. So I spent £11.65 and was in the pub for about 80-90 minutes drinking these delectable beverages (sipping rather than quaffing, as befits their relative strengths).

Totting up the abv's, I reckon I had the equivalent of a pint of Black Sheep Bitter 3.8%, Jennings Bitter 3.5% and Thwaites Dark Mild (Nutty Black) 3.3%. Those could have cost me between £3.50 and £3.90 a pint, depending on where I drank them (obviously not London!), but let's say around £11 for three pints, which would have taken me a similar time to drink (quaffing rather than sipping, as befits their relative strengths).

I think on the whole I had my money's worth from those beers, and I wouldn't have argued with paying the same overall for the three (theoretical) pints in a different pub on a different occasion. Yes, I could have imbibed the same amount of, or even more, alcohol by getting three for £5 from Tesco, or some discounted stuff at Wetherspoons, or even a bottle of wine from Aldi, but this is not about getting a buzz on; it's about the drinking experience in a pub. New tastes, or old. Gentle sipping and thinking about flavours, or necking a pint. I'm not sure that money comes into it.