The best value beer by alcohol percentage revealed

For those of you lager than life

It's 2025, the average price of a beer has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium, wages have all but stagnated, and beer brewers are ever-increasingly looking to reduce the alcohol percentage in their drinks.

Since 2010, the price of a pint has increased 77%, while wages have only gone up 42%.

Numbers are confusing, so let's put that into cold hard beer-numeros.

In 2010, a weekly wage of £520 could buy you about 200 pints - heavy week that.

However, in 2025, the average weekly wage of £767 would only get you 167 pints, a devastating 17% decrease.

So, we've crunched the numbers and let the quite frankly depressing head on this extra-bitter pint settle; it's time to figure out how we can get the most for our money in these beer-austere times.

Weaker beer for even more dear

There is a mass alcohol percentage content exodus taking place on our shores as beer brewers continue to follow the trend of weakening their beers.

Everyone is at it, Sol, Grolsch, Heineken and Hophead have all recently reduced their alcohol strength with the latest pint to beer-hop onto the bandwagon being Foster's - who are also brewed by Heineken in the UK.

Heineken UK disclosed that Foster’s Lager will be reduced from 3.7% ABV to 3.4%, starting from February, 2026.

The brewer says it’s part of consumers opting for lower-ABV choices as part of healthier lifestyles.

Despite this worthy cause, we wanted to crunch the numbers on some of the most classic pub pints in the UK to crown the best value beer for your hard-earned cash.

The magic formula

To find out just which beer is the best value for money, we've used data from The Morning Advertiser to establish the average price for a pint of the most common lagers in the UK.

Using YouGov's beer popularity index, we can establish the eight most liked lagers in the country with Fosters and Guinness thrown into the mix for good measure.

The results are as follows:

Beer	Average Price	ABV	£ per ABV
Birra Moretti	£6.04	4.6%	£1.31
San Miguel	£5.28	5%	£1.06
Budweiser	£4.37	4.5%	£0.97
Heineken	£5.29	5%	£1.06
Peroni	£6.14	5%	£1.23
Corona	£5.54	4.5%	£1.23
Carling	£4.62	4%	£1.16
Stella Artois	£5.27	4.6%	£1.15
Foster's	£4.47	3.4%	£1.31
Guinness	£5.56	4.1%	£1.36

The scores on the pub doors

Budweiser
Heineken & San Miguel
Stella Artois
Carling
Peroni & Corona
Birra Moretti & Foster's
Guinness

There you have it, the most brewtiful list you'll see today.

With the numbers processed, we can see Budweiser tops the list for the best value for money beverage.

While it may not be the tipple of predilection for many, it certainly wins in the price department.

Meanwhile, of course there'll be many out there shouting "what about ale? Are you scared of tasting something?"

Well, it goes without saying that if you want bang for buck, ales are certainly the way to go, often being cheaper than their gassy counterparts.

However, if you're lager than life, you can thank us later.