How “Drinkflation” Affects the Price of Beer“酒饮通胀”对啤酒价格的影响

How does inflation impact the already shifting industries of alcohol and nonalcoholic beverage offerings？

通货膨胀对已经在转型的酒精和非酒精饮料行业有何影响？

The cost-of-living crisis has seen the prices of many goods and services rise sharply， but food and drink prices have been particularly hard hit.

生活成本危机见证了众多商品和服务的价格大幅上涨，食品和饮料的价格上涨得尤其厉害。

Some food producers have responded by reducing the size of their products， while keeping prices the same—a phenomenon known as “shrinkflation”.

一部分食品生产商采取的应对策略是缩减产品规格，但价格保持不变­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­——这种现象就是所谓的“缩水式通货膨胀”。

When several major brewers were reported to have reduced the strength of beers， including Fosters lager1 [cut from 4% alcohol by volume （ABV） to 3.7%] and ales2 such as Old Speckled Hen and Spitfire， it led to accusations of “drinkflation” and short-changing of customers.

据报道，几个啤酒大品牌降低了啤酒的酒精含量，其中包括富士达的拉格啤酒（酒精含量从4%降至3.7%），以及“花斑老母鸡”和“喷火战机”等品牌的艾尔啤酒。这一做法引发了人们对“酒饮通胀”和欺骗消费者的指责。

Duty on beer is levied on the basis of alcohol content， so a 0.3% reduction in ABV equates to a saving of around 4p on a pint3. Brewers can pocket this if they keep the sales price the same. If this seems like small beer4， consider the fact that we drink around 7.8 billion pints each year in the UK， meaning that a 0.3% cut across all beers would see industry revenue rise by £290 million a year.

啤酒的税钱是根据酒精含量计算的，因此酒精含量降低0.3%相当于每品脱啤酒的税钱减少约4便士。如果啤酒售价保持不变，省下来的税钱就能装进啤酒厂商的腰包。单看好像没多少钱，但想想英国人每年大约喝掉78亿品脱的啤酒。也就是说，如果所有啤酒的酒精含量都降低0.3%，那么整个啤酒行业的收入每年将增加2.9亿英镑。

Brewers and the British Beer and Pub Association have pointed to rising production costs and squeezed profit margins as the justification for these reductions in strength. But concerns remain that the great British pint is becoming another casualty of the cost-of-living crisis.

啤酒厂商和英国啤酒与酒馆协会共同指出，生产成本上升和利润空间缩小是啤酒酒精含量下降的原因。然而，人们担心英国啤酒产业将是生活成本危机的下一个牺牲品。

But this is not a new phenomenon. Brewers have been cutting the strength of major beer brands for well over a decade. In many cases this is done with minimal publicity and without many consumers even noticing.

不过，这也不是新鲜事。十年来，英国啤酒厂商一直在降低主流啤酒产品的酒精含量。大多数情况下，这件事无人声张，很多消费者甚至都没有注意到酒精含量降低了。

HMRC collects alcohol taxes on behalf of the UK Treasury and requires all alcoholic products above 1.2% to advertise their alcoholic strength on the label. But beer producers are allowed a little wiggle room around this， provided the value on the label is within 0.5% of the true strength.

英国税务海关总署代表英国财政部征收酒精税，要求所有酒精含量超过1.2%的产品在标签上标明酒精含量。然而，啤酒厂商在这方面有一点点操作空间，标签上的数值与实际酒精含量的差额在0.5%以内就可以。

This is a concession to small producers who may find it hard to produce every batch to exactly the same ABV but don’t want to have to produce new labels with each small variation.

这是为了照顾小啤酒厂，因为他们很难生产出各个批次酒精含量都完全相同的产品，但又不想为了每批次的细微差异而制作新标签。

Molson Coors took advantage of this leeway in 2012 to reduce the strength of Carling from 4% to 3.7%， but continued to label and market it as 4%. This only came to light when HMRC took the company to court for paying duty at the lower rate. Ultimately Carling won the court case， but this calls the strength of the contents of your can or pint glass into question.

2012年，摩森康胜公司利用这个操作空间，将旗下卡林啤酒的酒精含量从4%降到3.7%，但仍贴着4%的标签在市面上销售。直到英国税务海关总署将该公司告上法庭，指控其按低税率缴税，此事才曝光。最终，卡林啤酒赢了官司，但这件事让人们对罐装或品脱杯装啤酒的酒精含量产生了质疑。

Changing tastes

口味变化

It is also important to point out that long-term trends in alcohol consumption have not favored beer producers and so they may be looking for ways to recover lost revenues. In 1970， UK adults drank an average of 181 pints of beer per year. By 2021 that had fallen to 120. Over the same period， average wine consumption increased from 5 to 28 bottles per year.

同样有必要指出的是，酒类消费的长期趋势对啤酒厂商不利，因此他们可能正在想尽办法来挽回损失。1970年，英国成年人人均每年喝掉181品脱啤酒。到2021年，这一数字下降到120品脱。同期，葡萄酒的人均消费量从每年5瓶增加到28瓶。

These changes in drinking patterns have run alongside a gradual shift away from drinking in the pub to drinking at home. A couple of decades ago we drank two-thirds of our beer in pubs and bars， according to data from the British Beer and Pub Association—today it’s less than one-third.

饮酒品类发生上述变化的同时，人们也逐渐从在酒馆喝酒转向在家中喝酒。英国啤酒与酒馆协会的数据显示，几十年前，三分之二的啤酒都是在酒馆和酒吧里喝的，而如今这一比例不到三分之一。

COVID lockdowns and the closure of pubs for much of the pandemic have only served to accelerate these trends， as has an ever-widening gap in the price of drinks in the pub compared to the supermarket.

疫情那几年的大部分时间里活动受限、酒馆倒闭，加速了饮酒模式的转变，酒馆酒饮和超市酒饮的价格差距越来越大也起了推动作用。

There has also been a massive shift in the age profile of drinkers. Alongside big falls in alcohol consumption among young people， who historically go to the pub far more， there have been corres-ponding increases in drinking by older age groups， who tend to favor drinking at home.

喝酒人的年龄结构也发生了巨大的变化。年轻人的饮酒量大幅下降，过去他们去酒馆的次数要多得多。与此同时，年长之人的饮酒量却在相应地增加，他们倾向于在家喝酒。

So the cost-of-living crisis has arrived at a tough time for the brewing industry. Yet， in spite of these challenging headwinds， the price of alcohol has risen much more slowly than other goods. And so， although average disposable income has fallen， alcohol is more affordable than at almost any point in the last 30 years.