A pub in London has denied "gouging" customers by charging £13.40 for a pint.

The Rake, in Borough Market, has hit back at criticism after a picture of its menu was posted on Twitter showing a pint of Cloudwater DIPA, Citra & Amarillo cost £13.40.

Experts say that on average a pint takes 10.5 sips to drink - equating in this case to £1.27 a sip.

Dat Cloudwater price pic.twitter.com/1Jca3740UB — Kat Sewell (@katrinnas) August 22, 2017

Utobeer, which operates The Rake, denied claims it was "gouging our customers" or making "vast profits".

The firm said logistics meant the beer had to be ordered through a distributor, making it more expensive, and pointed out that at 9% strength it was "never going to be cheap".


Utobeer said in a statement: "We are not making 'vast profits', we work to a margin like all businesses and if we stopped we'd start losing money and eventually go out of business.

"Cloudwater will not deliver directly to us unless we order a pallet from them & if you know The Rake you'll also know we do not have the space to store a pallet; so this being the case we have to order through a distributor who will obviously put their margin on it."

The distributor Euroboozer also denied it was to blame for the high price and took the unusual step of publishing its own costs.

A letter published by the firm's director said: "The difference in our price compared to Cloudwater's list price is minimal. I don't mind telling you our gross profit on this keg is £22.39.

"When the cost of good beer goes over a certain price, we adjust our margins, look at our cash and say 'well, that's too much on a keg' and then adjust our pricing accordingly.

"As a result we have taken a good 25-30% hit on our usual overall margin here."

He added: "No one is making anyone buy any beer but if you can afford it and want to then go ahead because it's a smashing pint.

"Good beer costs good money."

The average price of a pint in London is £4.08, while across the country as a whole it is £3.47, according to The Good Pub Guide.