Our thoughts on the new duty increase

The Treasury’s Review of Alcohol Taxation announced that beers with an ABV above 7.5 per cent will face extra tax as part of the government’s plans to tackle alcohol related misuse.

In our view,  the new plans to raise tax on beers above 7.5%ABV is yet  another example of the authorities not tackling the main issue but instead penalising niche, artisan producers like BrewDog. They are completely toothless in the face of the real roots of alcohol abuse. The new law is completely unfair: If beer duty is to rise, it should rise uniformly. Instead we are handicapped in the market place for trying to elevate the status of beer in the UK.

The ABV of a beer has nothing to do with whether it inspires irresponsible drinking and to think otherwise is short-sighted. There is a culture of quantity over quality in the UK beer market; consumers are able to buy mountains of mainstream, 5-6%ABV beer for very little money and this is the kernel of the problem in the UK. Higher alcohol beers, in the main, tend to be more exciting artisanal beers that elevate beer above its current station in Britain and increase awareness of great craft beer. 

At present, beer is seen as something you chug down in pints with the sole intention of getting drunk rather than savouring it. To think people consume higher alcohol beers in the same way as a pint of fizzy yellow lager is nothing short of archaic. Penalising those trying to redefine beer, rather than those breweries marketing their beer to be sold in large volumes and at low cost, is just backward thinking. There is now a huge disincentive for a customer to buy a Hardcore or a Paradox and consequently is much more likely to buy a much larger volume of discount beer instead.

We want to try and make other people as passionate about great craft beers as we are and promote better understanding of craft beer. The real route of alcohol abuse in the UK is the reckless pricing by the faceless, pathetic monolithic multinational brewers where drinkers are merely pawns in their statistics. We were the first company to publically back the Scottish Government’s proposals for a minimum price per unit on alcohol and feel this would be a much more effective way to address the problem than the new duty levels which will penalise those like BrewDog trying to change UK beer consumption for the better.

In our opinion, CAMRAs support for the proposed legislative changes reflect their own agenda. Not a concern about drinking issues in the UK but a preoccupation with pushing the same bland cask ales that never vary greatly in ABV, flavour or imagination. It's as unimaginative of them to come out in support of this legislation as it is unsurprising.  As long as their boring beers, defined on a flavour spectrum of bland 3.5% mild to boring 4.2% bitter are unaffected they remain obliviously content and are callously indifferent to the greater development of the craft beer in the UK.  It's a real shame these people are seen to represent the craft ale industry in the UK. They don't represent contemporary thinking about beer and they certainly don't represent BrewDog.