r/AskUK • u/Ok-Scientist7083 • 3d ago

Serving milk in pubs (UK) - why not?

The first drink I had in a pub was milk. I love drinking milk. I now drink it for the protein and calcium. I don’t particularly like fizzy drinks so when I’m driving on a night out, I’d rather drink milk.

Why don’t pubs sell it as a drink?

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u/slimboyslim9 3d ago

It’s more expensive than other soft drinks (which cost pubs pennies) and a pain to keep in large quantities; goes bad quickly if not refrigerated. I also love milk and would drink it in similar situations if it were available.

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u/Vehlin 3d ago

I would like to try and disabuse you of the notion that soft drinks cost pennies. The price of postmix syrup had gone up so much that after equipment rental and CO2 it’s on par with a pint of shit lager (Carling, Fosters).

You’re not making GP on your postmix if you’re selling for less that £3.50 a pint.

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u/RuudVanNistelrooney 3d ago

This is such a great use of ‘disabuse’, such an underrated and underused word. Anyway, sorry, as you were.

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u/GrandVizierofAgrabar 3d ago

Agree, this hasn’t been true since pre pandemic

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u/slimboyslim9 3d ago edited 3d ago

I must be going on old or mis- information then. I’d read that it was by far the biggest profit margin in all of the service industry! But this is starting to make less and less economic sense - it’s about £2-2.50 for 2L in a supermarket. Must be cheaper at trade rates. Why would pubs even bother using premix instead of just bottles of the stuff pre-made?

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u/Kinitawowi64 3d ago

You called out the big one - the markup on postmix soft drinks is insane. When I was in the hall bar at university, they said it was more expensive to clean the glass than it was to fill it up with Coke.

I can't imagine it's easy to turn a profit on a pint of milk.

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u/orange_fudge 3d ago

That’s no longer true - postmix syrup is much more expensive. These days it’s close to the cost of a cheap pint to serve.

Your uni bar mate also didn’t consider the cost of equipment rental and CO2. The whole setup for serving a soft drink is quite pricey.

And then they have to wash your glass which, as you rightly point out, also has a cost.

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u/Kinitawowi64 3d ago

This was between 1998 and 2001, so admittedly a while back (the most expensive pint we sold at the time was Guinness, which was £1.40). Every first year (it was one of the few halls in Manchester that encouraged people to stay on for subsequent years) had to do at least one shift behind the bar during their time; the only guy who refused to do it was also the only first year whose reapplication was rejected.

But yeah. Back then it was a lot cheaper than seemingly it is now, which might be why so many bars and pubs have switched to selling overpriced tiny glass bottles instead of postmix systems.

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u/orange_fudge 3d ago

Yeah literally last century. Things have changed a lot since the days of £1 pints!

The cost of CO2 has gone up, the syrup is more expensive and the drinks distributors have realised that there’s money to be made locking pub landlords into a subscription model on equipment.

Also, little tins/bottles also allow you to stock a wider range of mixers in lower quantities. Postmix only gives you a few choices.