SHOUT-RAGEOUS! Outraged Aussie spots a $17 beer as inflation hits our beloved pubs with some charging insane prices for tap beer – and it’s only going to get worse
- Beer prices predicted to soar under new tax hike and amid soaring inflation
- One pub in Western Australia seen advertising $17.20 for a pint of 4.4% pale ale
- Pub baron Stu Laundy predicts ‘unavoidable’ schooner price rises within weeks
- Inflation hitting pubs hard with Australia fourth most-taxed country globally
Once unthinkable, a $20 schooner could soon be upon as inflation continues to hit pubs hard and brewers brace for another crippling tax hike.
A punter this week captured a snapshot that will surely send a shiver down the spine of beer drinkers, a pub in Western Australia advertising a local tap ale for $17.20 per pint.
The eye-watering price, sighted at Common Bar and Kitchen at Perth Airport, comes as beer prices reach record levels across the country with a fresh beer excise tax set to raise prices again in August.
Beer prices have surged beyond $17 in some places – seen here in Western Australia – amid industry warnings costs for drinkers is only going to surge further
The increase, the second for the year, threatens to push some tap beer prices beyond $20 per pour as pubs and clubs also continue to factor in increased labor costs and a nationwide power shortage.
John Preston, Chief Executive of the Brewers Association of Australia, said the industry was concerned about the rising costs in Australia where tax on beer is the fourth-highest in the world.
‘The price of a beer at a bottle shop or in the pub is impacted by inflation in the same way as all other products. What we also see with beer however is the twice-yearly beer excise increases bringing extra financial pain to pubs, clubs and beer drinkers,’ Preston told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Australia’s beer tax is the fourth highest in the world and it goes up twice a year.
‘The last increase in February was the largest in over ten years and the next one in August will be even larger.’
Beer prices set to surge in coming weeks as a new tax excise hits – as well as more interest rate hikes (pictured, mates enjoying beers in Sydney)
The Australian Tax Office hiked the excise duty rate per litre of alcohol by a factor of 1.021 back in February this year – an increase attributed at the time to inflation centred on rising freight prices.
That saw the average price of a schooner in Sydney jump from $8.10 to $8.50.
However many pubs and bars are charging much more with some inner-city watering holes pinging punters excessive amounts for a cold one.
Customs House Bar in Circular Quay currently charges $16 per pint of imported Peroni while French brew Sans Papiers will set back drinkers $21 at The Ivy Pool Bar.
However prices drop outside the CBD with the average price of a schooner of VB cheapest in the inner west ($8.40), followed by the western Sydney ($9), eastern suburbs ($10.31) and the CBD ($11.56).
Celebrity publican Stu Laundy, who helps oversee around 60 pubs as part if the Laundy Hotels empire, says his company has absorbed several price rises over the past year.
The Australian Tax Office hiked the excise duty rate per litre of alcohol by a factor of 1.021 back in February this year (pictured, mates enjoying a few drinks in Sydney)
Stu Laundy (seen here on Ten’s The Bachelorette) says his family’s pub business will be forced to increase schooner prices in coming weeks
However that is likely to end in August with the latest increase in beer tax excise.
‘We have held our prices down as long as we can but inflationary pressure means we will just have to now push up,’ Laundy told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That will mean something like 20 cents per schooner. Something in that range.
‘We don’t like to do it. But when you’ve got lettuce’s at ten dollars apiece or whatever it is…obviously inflation is hitting everything across the board.’
In anticipation of the August tax increase, the Brewers Association calling for action from the Federal Government in a bid to keep beer drinkers in venues.
‘The Brewers Association has been calling for Federal Government action on beer tax to ease the cost pressure on pubs and clubs which are being hit hard by Australia’s high beer tax rate, while they are still trying to recover from the impacts of COVID-19,’ Mr Preston said.
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