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.

因此，生活成本危机的到来让酿酒行业的处境更加艰难。尽管存在种种具有挑战性的不利因素，酒类价格的上涨速度仍比其他商品慢得多。因此，尽管平均可支配收入有所下降，但酒类的价格几乎比过去30年里的任何时候都要实惠。

All of this means that it’s little surprise to see brewers looking for ways to increase their profits. Making small reductions in alcoholic strength is one way they can do this.

综合来看，啤酒厂商想方设法提高利润也就不足为奇了。小幅度降低酒精含量就是他们的办法之一。

But are consumers being cheated？ People’s perspective on this will depend on their motivations for drinking beer. With shrinkflation， consumers are paying the same amount for a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps， but getting less. With “drinkflation” consumers are still getting the same amount of beer， it just contains slightly less alcohol.

但是，消费者是否被欺骗了呢？人们对此的看法取决于他们喝啤酒的动机。在“缩水式通货膨胀”的情况下，消费者虽然以同样的价格买巧克力或者薯片，但得到的分量却比过去的少。在“酒饮通胀”的情况下，消费者得到的啤酒分量不变，只是酒精含量略有减少。

So， only people who are drinking for the specific purpose of getting drunk are being “short-changed”. For people who are drinking beer because they like the taste or who see beer as an important part of a social ritual， the lower alcohol content is more likely to be a positive， given that people consume less alcohol when drinking lower-strength beer and the health benefits of reduced alcohol intake.

因此，只有为喝醉而喝酒的人才会“吃亏”。对于喜欢啤酒的味道或者将啤酒视为社交仪式重要组成部分的人来说，酒精含量低更有可能是件好事，因为喝低度啤酒，摄入的酒精量就会减少，而酒精摄入量降低对健康有益。

In line with this， the low-alcohol and alcohol-free beer industry is growing. Most shops and many bars now offer at least one alcohol-free beer option. The UK market has also seen the launch of several lower-strength， carb and calorie versions of existing brands， such as Heineken Silver.

与此同时，低醇和无醇啤酒行业正在发展壮大。现在，大多数商店和许多酒吧都至少供应一款无醇啤酒。英国市场上已有几款由现有品牌推出的低酒精含量、低碳水化合物、低热量啤酒，如喜力星银。

This puts us in an unusual situation. Reducing the alcoholic strength of beers is in the commercial interests of brewers， but it also aligns with trends in consumer demand and is likely to be a benefit to public health by reducing overall alcohol consumption.

这让我们处于一个不同寻常的境地。降低啤酒的酒精含量符合啤酒厂商的利益，也符合消费者需求的走向，还可能通过降低总体饮酒量来促进公众健康。

It’s incredibly rare for these， usually competing， interests to be pulling in the same direction， so perhaps the trend is something worth celebrating for almost everybody. Cheers to that.

这几方通常相互冲突的利益朝着同一个方向发展非常罕见，所以这股“酒饮通胀”趋势或许对几乎所有的人来说都值得庆祝。那就为此干杯吧。

1 lager拉格啤酒，低温底层发酵啤酒，味淡，通常多泡沫。因名字源自德语的“贮藏”，所以也称“贮藏啤酒”。 2 ale深色或浅色麦芽啤酒。

3 1品脱约等于568毫升。 4 small beer（相比较之下）无足轻重的人（或事物）。