Most expensive beer in history: Aussie charged $100,000 for a single pint
Cricket writer Peter Lalor has been charged $100,000 for a single pint of beer at a British hotel bar – calling it “the most expensive beer in history”.
During his stay in a branch of Malmaison in Manchester ahead of the fourth Ashes Test, Lalor decided to treat himself to a bottle of Deuchars IPA at the hotel bar.
What was supposed to cost him $9.90 ended up causing a significant dip in his pocket.
“I didn’t have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill for the beer and when she had some problems with the machine I didn’t think much of it, but it was eventually resolved, I said I didn’t want a receipt and she went to leave,” Lalor wrote on his Twitter account.
“Something, however, made me ask: ‘How much did I just pay for that beer?’ She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it.
“She kept giggling, I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now. She ran to get her manager, who took the situation far more seriously and went about attempting to arrange a refund. She told me somebody would be in contact.”
The journalist, who writes for The Australian and is also the paper’s “beer editor”, said no one had gotten in touch with him about the error.
See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history.
I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night.
Seriously.
Contd. pic.twitter.com/Q54SoBB7wu— Peter Lalor (@plalor) 5 September 2019
He was unaware of just how much was taken out of his account until he received a call from his wife.
“The sum of $99,983.64 had been removed from our account,” he said.
“There’d been a transaction fee of $2499.59 to add to the pain. The fee has been refunded but not the larger amount.”
Lalor went on to say how he found it “baffling” that the payment had gone through “unquestioned”. While he has been promised a refund, it is expected to take close to nine working days, and “in the meantime, there’s a massive hole in my finances”.
A spokesperson for Malmaison released a statement regarding the matter, saying: “We are currently carrying out an investigation.
“We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible.”
Lalor said Australian’s usually find Britain quite pricey, “but this takes the cake”.
“I’m just a cricket writer, I don’t earn big bucks and it’s costing me in interest,” he told the BBC.
But despite the beer not being worth the price, it was still considered to be a good beverage.
“It’s a good beer,” tweeted Lalor. “The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of $100,000, then I am inclined to agree with you.”