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Topics: Food And Drink, London, UK News, Money
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Emily Brown
£80 could easily get you more than a dozen pints in a regular pub as well as a kebab or some cheesy chips on the way home, but at one London pub it could cost you the same amount for just one drink.
I know London is one of the more expensive cities in the UK, but an £80 pint? You could literally book a Ryanair flight to a different country and buy a pint there for less money.
The pricy beverage is sold by the Craft Beer Co chain at its establishment in Brixton, South London, where the ale is on sale for £105 for a bottle holding 1.3 pints (750ml).
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Reforged 20th Anniversary Ale is a craft ale which is made by the AleSmith Brewing Company, an 'artisanal' microbrewery in San Diego, California, before being imported to the UK.
At 11 percent ABV, the beer is dark brown in colour and has a thick, syrupy consistency. It's aged in a bourbon barrel for 18 months and contains roasted malts and hops, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and barley wine.
Unsurprisingly, the £105 bottle hasn't been flying off the shelves, and in fact only one bottle has been sold to date.
The pub’s general manager, Andrew Barton, explained: "We have only ever sold one before to a group of six guys who absolutely loved it. They really loved the sourness they got from it, combined with the sweetness of the bourbon.”
Beer lover Ben O'Neill, 22, who manages The Needle and Pin pub in Loughborough, described the ale as being 'a bit on the thin side' after giving it a try.
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He made clear the most he would be willing to pay would be £45 for a pint, saying: "Without the price I would rate this as an 8.2 out of 10. With the price factored in it is more like a four out of ten. I would definitely expect more from something that is so expensive."
Ben's friend Chris Anagnostopoulos, a software engineer from Bath, described the beer as 'good' but agreed he wouldn't pay 'that much' for it.
The second most expensive drink available at the pub in Brixton is another American ale called the 'Brewery Out of the Lunch Box’, which comes in at less than half the price at £45 for a 750ml bottle. Still not a cheap beer by any means, but a lot more manageable than its £105 relative.
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Andrew explained the company likes to highlight 'the different breweries around the world', adding: "Selling these sorts of beers has given people the opportunity to try things they would never have tried before. People will have heard about a beer on the internet or social media and they come to us to get the chance to try it.
“We understand the cost of living at the moment is very expensive. With the beers we have on tap, we try to make craft beer very accessible and we try to be cheaper than other pubs nearby - we sell one IPA for £6.50 when they sell it for more than £7. It is not all about charging people these crazy prices," Andrew said.
The most expensive beer on tap at the pub costs £11, meaning you could get seven pints for less than the cost of the pricier import. If you're going to splash the cash, though, I guess you might as well just go all out.