Name: Drinkflation.<\/p>\n
Age: The current round started in 2023.<\/p>\n
Appearance: To the naked eye, no appreciable change.<\/p>\n
But drinks are getting bigger? Drinks are staying the same size.<\/p>\n
Then the price of these same-sized drinks is getting higher? Prices are also staying the same.<\/p>\n
So what is happening? The drinks are getting less alcoholic.<\/p>\n
Which drinks? Specifically, beer. Even more specifically, Carling Original, which is being reduced in strength from 4.0% alcohol by volume (ABV) to 3.4%.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t noticed. You won\u2019t have done, because the change doesn\u2019t come into effect until October.<\/p>\n
And also because I don\u2019t drink Carling. Or indeed beer. Good for you. <\/p>\n
Anyway, if they\u2019re actually reducing the alcohol, why is it called drinkflation? It\u2019s a coinage based on shrinkflation: the practice of reducing food portion sizes \u2013 putting fewer crisps in the bag, say \u2013 while keeping prices the same.<\/p>\n
Sneaky. Are any other beer brands considering doing something similar? Lots already have: Foster\u2019s has gone from 4.0% to 3.4% ABV over the last three years; Sol went from 4.2% to 3.4% in 2025. Carlsberg, Grolsch, John Smith\u2019s, Coors and Amstel have also reduced their alcohol levels.<\/p>\n
Is this because drinkers prefer weaker beer? Or is it a bid to curb the nation\u2019s alcohol consumption on the sly? Neither. It\u2019s a bid to save money and maximise profits.<\/p>\n
How much money can you save by reducing the level of alcohol by a few measly percentage points? A lot. But it\u2019s not the alcohol that costs money, it\u2019s the tax.<\/p>\n
I have no idea what you\u2019re talking about. The move could have something to do with the changes to alcohol duty<\/a> in 2023, under which packaged beer between 3.5% and 8.4% ABV attracts a levy of \u00a322.58 per litre of pure alcohol.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what that amounts to. For a 4.0% beer it\u2019s about 41p a pint. Whereas a 3.4% beer is subject to a duty of just \u00a39.96 per litre of pure alcohol, or about 19p a pint.<\/p>\n That\u2019s quite a difference, but what if people don\u2019t like Carling\u2019s new weak beer? The company claims<\/a> the 3.4% version actually ranked \u201chigher for overall taste\u201d in consumer tests. It also laid the groundwork<\/a> for the reduction by introducing a stronger and more expensive Black Label version in February, at 4.7%, creating a \u201cvalue-premium price ladder\u201d within the brand.<\/p>\n Do say: \u201cAlcohol duty must strike a difficult balance between raising revenue and improving health.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t say: \u201c3.4%? My urine is stronger than that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name: Drinkflation. Age: The current round started in 2023. Appearance: To the naked eye, no appreciable change. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-717711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}