Popular lager to slash its alcohol strength in the UK to save money

The reduced alcohol strength comes as a result of increasing costs

It comes as part of a trend of multiple large breweries reducing their Alcohol By Volume (ABV) as they continue to try to cut costs where they can.

Already, Hophead have diluted their beers from 3.8% to 3.4% while Molson Coors has dropped Grolsch from 4% to 3.4%.

Meanwhile one of the biggest, Carlsberg, has dropped their Danish Pilsner from 3.8% to 3.4%.

Now, following all of this alcohol strength reduction, Heineken are set to follow suit, in an attempt to evade rising costs implemented by the alcohol duty tax which was introduced in August 2023.

They have already dropped the ABV of its John Smith's Extra Smooth by 0.2% and is now set to drop the ABV level of it SOL brand of beer by 0.8%.

The Mexican beer was previously 4.2%, but will now be sold at the lower alcohol strength of 3.4% starting from 25 February.

The company did add, however, that the wholesale price would be going down, hopefully meaning the inflation costs won't be passed onto the customer.

This said, products across the board from Heineken will be going up by an average of 2.97%, in an attempt to negate rising costs.

Ultimately though, pubs will have the final say on how much they charge for their beers.

A Heineken spokesperson told The Sun: “As ever, we continue to make considerable effort across the business to deliver cost savings and drive efficiencies to keep price increases to a minimum, and reduce the impact of inflation on our customers."

The alcohol duty is not the only factor set to increase the price of the humble beer has a new charge, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), set to be introduced.

This measure will add on the environment cost of a product during its life cycle to its price.