More thoughts about Lager

On my daily walks, I've been thinking about the rise of Lager in the UK. And another possibble reason for drinkers moving over to Lager: rounds.

For those of you who aren't that well up on UK drinking culture, I explain. When drinking in a group, rather than everyone buying their drinks individually, each member will take it in turns to go up to the bar and buy a drinks for everyone. That's buying a round.

It works best if everyone is drinking the same, or at least all the drinks are of a similar price. If in a group of five, three are on Mild and two on Bitter, it wasn't much of a problem. In the mid-1970s, the difference in price was just 1p. In 1974 the average price of Bitter was 15p, while Lager was 19p. That's about 25% more expensive.

Should the mix in a group be four Lager drinkers and one Bitter drinker, it's a trickier situation. The lone Bitter drinker would be paying way over the ofdd for his bee: 18.2p per pint. Easier then, to switch to Lager and at least get wwhat you're paying for.

Then there's group pressure. If most are drinking Lager then there's the inclination to switch to it as well, to fit in with the rest of the grioup. And to make round buying simpler. If everyone is drinking the same, ordering at the bar is much easier.

What do you reckon? Do you think round buying was another impetus to Lager conversion?