Craft beer being sold from $15 for a middy across Sydney pubs
BEER tastes on a champagne budget could actually leave you short of a brew, with hipster palates pushing up the price of the working man’s tipple to wallet walloping levels.
NSW
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BEER tastes on a champagne budget could actually leave you short of a brew, with hipster palates pushing up the price of the working man’s tipple to wallet walloping levels.
Watering holes across the city are turning the taps to increasingly exotic beers with flavours such as caramel, hibiscus and stone fruit — and the prices are getting just as wacky.
At Surry Hills’ Keg and Brew Hotel, handing over $20 for a middy won’t return much change.
During Sydney Craft beer month the venue is selling 285ml middys of both a Melvin Brewing Indian Pale Ale and a Three Weavers stout for $15.
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Meanwhile, a four-year aged bottle of wood barley wine described as the beer equivalent of Grange sells for $75 at the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe in the city.
So popular it is currently sold out, the beer has such an intense flavour it’s usually split between people and sipped like a spirit.
McCrindle social researcher Geoff Brailey said young people were keen to express their identity through having a different taste in beer, but drinking a lot less of it.
“We’re shifting away from that excess culture, people are looking for a status type of drink like a craft beer or a whisky to express identity,” he said.
“We are slowing down that consumption and looking to be more health conscious and looking for that expressive type of drink.”
And customers are happy to pay for it.
“A lot of these beers require much better quality ingredients so they are more expensive to make and they also take a lot longer to make,” Redoak manager Janet Hollyoak said.
She said drinkers could easily taste the difference in the top end bottles she sold for $15 a pop.
“You’ll find they’re about 7 or 8 per cent in alcohol and they would have taken about three or four months to produce and sometimes they’re a popular beer so we bottle it so we can age it, Mr Hollyoak said.”
Beer enthusiast Kieran Flew said he enjoyed a stout and was happy to pay more.
“It is different to what the mainstream, there is a whole variety of different flavours,” he said.
“It is worth forking out a few extra dollars for … Life is short, there is no time for bad beer.”