Price Pulse
What people are saying about pint prices
A figure on this page is what someone said or published. It is not a PUBMAXX price.
No edition is published yet
Each edition is checked by hand before it goes up.
Where your £6 goes
A £6 pint of 4.5% draught lager, split by the tax rates the government publishes.
- VAT
- £1.00
- 20% standard rate, already inside the price on the bar. GOV.UK, VAT rates, in force from 4 January 2011
- Beer duty
- 50p
- £19.45 per litre of pure alcohol for draught beer from 3.5% to under 8.5%. GOV.UK, Alcohol Duty rates, in force from 1 February 2026
- Everything else
- £4.50
- The beer, the staff, the rent, the energy, the business rates and any profit. We do not split this for any pub.
The trade blames tax
The BBPA says duty is up to 40% of the wholesale price of beer, and that after duty, staff costs and business rates a pub makes 12p a pint. It asks the Budget to freeze duty and raise the draught discount to 30%.
BBPA, 24 September 2026SIBA puts the headline duty on a pint at 55p in the UK and 5p in Germany.
SIBA, 8 October 2026
Many drinkers blame the pub companies
Replies in r/ukpolitics said much of the money goes to the pub company that owns the building and sells the tenant its beer. One reply compared £6 or more at a nearby pub-company pub with about £5 at an independent.
r/ukpolitics, 5 October 2026
The UK Budget is on 28 October 2026. If it changes duty or VAT, we change these figures.