In March 2011 the British Government increased beer duty by 7.2% inline with The Duty Escalator policy lay out inside the Labour Budget of 2008. However, the Chancellor, George Osborn also halved the duty on lower strength alcohol to 2.8%, whilst improving the duty on super strength beers (above 7.5%) - in apparent supplication to the brand new'religious right nanny state'that's the British Health lobby.https://www.abeervinum.it/birrificio-brasserie-st-feuillien.html
It might be less galling if there is a level game, but cider duty is presently under half that of beer, whilst wine duty remains banded by its alcohol content plus the spirit industry has benefited from 10 years of duty frees beneath the last government!
But exactly what does this suggest for any UK's burgeoning Craft Beer industry and others it employs? Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) reported 15% annual surge in the volume of micro-breweries in 2010 (the largest since 2005), that has been largely attributed to the benefits of the Progressive Beer Duty that provided 50% duty relief for brewers producing 5000hl per annum increasing to 30,000hl then tapering off at 60,000hl.
"The decision, variety, creativity, innovation and proliferation of styles we're now enjoying can be traced time for that single fiscal measure", says Julian Grocock, Chief Executive within the Society Of Independent Brewers.
So, why this second surge in 2010? Quite simply, craft beer got cool.
From late 2010 to early 2011 craft beer caught the imagination of influential, opinion-forming'20-and-30-somethings ', where ingredients, flavour, ethics, provenance and locality all became type in the consumers'selection process. However nowadays have a home in a culture of farmers-markets and artisan production, from cupcakes to cheddar. Furthermore, we also have a home in a post-CAMRA world where beer is in its most enjoyable, not in small, male dominated pubs, but in their natural successor, urban craft beer houses, containing seen them bucking fashionable which saw about 7 pubs close daily this past year!
OK, so initially you're considering'great news'right? With all the current interest in craft beer, its inherent inventiveness, plus organization flexibility and willingness to experiment, you'd think this would mean that craft beer breweries could perfect the high-wire juggling act of making a tasty low-alcohol beer.
However it's our very enthusiasm for strong, stylistic hybrids this means a could suffer a double hit from both ends on the Chancellor's budget.
"You have to be an exceptionally skilful brewer to acheive the appropriate degree of flavour which is not overwhelmingly bitter in a beer of this strength (2.8%). Hops to some beer are just like salt, pepper and herbs to some chef. You are in danger of overwhelming your base product wish 2.8% beer is so light and incredibly delicate." Melissa Cole, author of Let Me Tell You About Beer.
It is actually thereby you will likely have any craft beer falling beneath the 3.8% a rarity and others edging closer for the 7.5% a great deal more likely. As Simon Bartlett, MD at Bristol Beer Factory, points out, "this alteration has [only] helped those large breweries ineligible for progressive beer duty, even so the simultaneous tax hike on beers above 7.5% inhibits the creativity of small craft brewers ".
So what on earth implications will there be for these fledgling breweries? Craft beer brewing is often considered labour (of love) intensive and proudly inefficient. It does not take very qualities of awareness of detail, experimentation and emphasising quality of quantity that set them apart and created interest in the first place. That will put this into some form of metric, SIBA's research into micro and native brewing indicated that whereas an everyday brewery will employ a single person for every single 3,000hl per annum, the craft beer sector employs six people for every single 3,000hl brewed!
Furthermore, SIBA estimates that all of these employees create 18 jobs along the production chain, with proof the pinch has been felt overall demonstrated by total British beer production slumping from 54.7m hectolitres in 2004 to 42.5m hectolitres in 2011. That's almost one fourth!