Winning on pints: Beer is still Britain’s favourite drink, as figures reveal 8.5billion pints were sold last year
- Britain drank 8.5 billion pints last year v 7.4 billion 175ml glasses of wine
- Some 1.2 billion pints of cider were sold in the UK last year, according to HMRC
- One hundred new breweries opened in 2018 taking total to 2,530 in the UK
In the age-old war between the grape and the grain, it was feared that trendy wine bars were forcing out the delights of a few pints down the local.
But beer remains our most popular alcoholic drink by far – with 8.5 billion pints sold in Britain last year.
That equates to 48,559,000 hectolitres (a hundred litres) – compared with 12,901,700 of wine, or 7.4 billion 175ml glasses.
Beer remains Britain’s most popular alcoholic drink by far – with 8.5 billion pints sold in the UK last year. File image
Some 1.2 billion pints of cider, or 6,804,000 hectolitres, were sold, HM Revenue and Customs data shows. The figures were published in the British Beer & Pub Association’s handbook.
A hundred new breweries opened in 2018, taking the total to 2,530 – up 2,030 since the millennium.
But the BBPA also pointed out that drinkers were hit with a ‘staggering’ 11 times more tax than in Germany or Spain. We pay 54p duty on a 5 per cent ABV pint.
The BBPA said beer is ‘vital’ to the manufacturing sector, with 82 per cent of beer brewed in the UK drunk here, and pubs and brewing accounting for 900,000 jobs.
BBPA boss Brigid Simmonds said: ‘Should tax continue to rise, drinking in the pub will no longer be affordable for many, meaning pubs will continue to close.’
Comparatively we drank 7.4 billion 175ml glasses of wine in the UK last year