{"id":218773,"date":"2025-05-02T12:08:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/session-146-now-thats-great-value\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T12:08:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:08:26","slug":"session-146-now-thats-great-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=218773","title":{"rendered":"Session #146: Now that’s great value"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Good value in beer is easy to define: it\u2019s when you get more than you expect for the price you pay. Like perfect pints of Butcombe Bitter for \u00a33.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is our contribution to edition #146 of the (revived) Session which is being hosted by Ding at Ding\u2019s Beer Blog<\/em><\/a>. Each month, a different beer blogger sets a topic and others respond, if they feel like joining in.<\/p>\n

We had fun discussing this with each other on a ramble through Varna, Bulgaria, which we\u2019ve just reached on our long trip across Europe by train and bus.<\/p>\n

First, we had to unpick the word \u2018value\u2019 a bit. It\u2019s almost always used in the context of good<\/em> value and poor<\/em> value.<\/p>\n

Can a beer have neutral value? As in, we\u2019d expect to pay about \u00a35 for a pint of decent cask ale in Bristol, and when we get that, we\u2019re quite happy. That\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s also a \u2018dog bites man\u2019 situation. Neutral value, acceptable value, goes unnoticed. It\u2019s only when something makes us say \u201cFlipping heck \u2013 you\u2019re taking the piss!\u201d or \u201cWait, are you sure you rang both beers through?\u201d that we particularly notice the price.<\/p>\n

Some examples of great value we\u2019ve noticed in recent years include:<\/p>\n

Where it gets interesting, we think, is the value we place on the venue. the location, and the quality of the experience.<\/p>\n

Those 99p pints of Ruddles Best were actually good. Jess wouldn\u2019t have stayed in the otherwise fairly dingy pub and ordered several more otherwise. If they\u2019d been \u00a33 a pint, would they have been so attractive?<\/p>\n

What about the same beer in a much nicer pub at \u00a33 a pint? That would perhaps still feel like a bargain.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re drinking one of the world\u2019s great beers in one of the world\u2019s great drinking venues and the price per pint is 30% higher than we\u2019d normally expect\u2026 well, that\u2019s probably still good value.<\/p>\n

The point is, we think, that it\u2019s always a multi-directional equation, involving quality, price, location, urgency, occasion, and convenience:<\/p>\n