A few people I know observed Dry January: giving up alcohol for the first month of the year. In some cases they did it to make up for overdoing things in December. I did not follow their example, but I decided not to spend money on alcohol if possible. If anyone wanted to buy me a beer I would happily accept. Also, on Friday 2 January I was at a belated Christmas party for a quiz company I do some work for, limitless amounts of food and booze for all-comers. It would have been rude to restrict myself to soft drinks when there was so much Fullers London Pride on offer. In January I also drank some of the gin and whisky that I was given for Christmas, including Sipsmith’s Sloe Gin. I’d never had such a thing before; very nice.

By the middle of the month I had broken my rule and spent money on beer after all. My son and I revisited a few pubs that he had not been to for over a year. He has enjoyed spending time in pubs ever since he was 11, as noted in a few earlier pieces like this one about about a Boxing Day pub crawl in 2017. He is now 21, and still does not drink alcohol. J2O, Coca-Cola and orange and lemonade are his drinks of choice. We had lunch at the pub I have spent more time in than any other in my lifetime. My 20% Discount Card brings the price of a pint down to under £5, even for Fullers ESB. At 5.5% this used to be the strongest beer available all year round. That’s what my brother told me back in the 1980s, and I have always believed him. Young’s produced Winter Warmer, a seasonal ale which was even stronger. As its name suggests it was only available in winter.

We also went to an Irish bar and played some pool, something we hadn’t done last year, and we ended up at a music night in a pub in Brentford. I spent a lot of time there in 2024 but didn’t play there much in 2025. My son had not been since Boxing Day 2024. I played a few numbers and we were home later than we expected when we originally went out for lunch. (It was about 10.30pm, on a school night.)

The following Sunday I broke my rule again and had a couple of pints after a local music session, at the invitation of someone who has started playing music again. He hadn’t played in public for nearly 40 years. I had a couple of pints of ESB again, and he was on a beer called Lucky Saint. It seems to have been promoted quite heavily in recent weeks, an alcohol-free brew that is available on draft in many places. No discounts in the pub that we went to, and two pints came to £13. I asked the barmaid to break that down for me. I knew that the ESB was around £6 and expected the 0% beer to be cheaper. That’s not the way it works these days. ESB (5.5% alcohol, as noted above) was £6.15. Lucky Saint (0%) is £6.85 a pint. I asked why. A significant chunk of the price of booze here in the UK is Excise Duty and VAT, which makes it much more expensive than in most of our European neighbours. How could a 0% brew be more expensive? She said that she had wondered the same thing, and she was given this explanation: the beer is brewed as normal (not sure what strength, but it contains alcohol). The process of removing the alcohol is so expensive that the beer ends up costing more than even the strongest available draft beer. I’m not convinced. If I’m on the alcohol-free beer I’d expect to save a few quid, not pay more. Guinness Zero, which is available in most places, doesn’t turn out to be that much cheaper either. Local places charge £4 for a 500ml can, £5 for a regular pint (568ml). This means that a pint of Guinness Zero would cost £4.40, a saving of 60p. Typically you have to pour the can yourself, but pouring a pint of draught involves the bar staff doing a bit more work.

There are good reasons to observe Dry January, including saving a few bob. But if you’re drinking 0% beers in pubs rather than the “full fat” alternatives you might be spending a bit more.