Throughout the Enlightenment period, brave and principled individuals pushed through the squalor of their time in search of rationality, truth, and understanding.

In this sunset era of British economics, the shadow of history lies long. It puts a wager on the souls of principled individuals to take up the search for inviolable truths in the modern world.

The Leeds Policy Institute has taken up such a wager, and the first successful Leeds Pint Index will stand as will manifest.

The pub of choice for the evening was the Library (not to be confused as a place of study). Much like the semi-fictional town of Radiator Springs, it has derived great value from sitting alongside a great and well-travelled route (that being between the university and many a student home).

As a result, the clientele is ever-changing. On every visit, a new society group will be found drinking. This hubbub more than makes up for the pub lacking a specific panache. One can expect friendly and helpful staff alongside a dazzling variety (even in the non-alcoholic category) of beverages.

We kickstart the index with a popular pub of choice: The Library (Image source: Tripadvisor)

The night began softy, sifting through the standard lagers, the stouts, and pale ales; Guinness remained an interminable presence for those of such a proclivity. Despite this preference, those participating in the sampling of beers and beverages made a valiant effort to try a wide array of flavours. 

Upon many delays (sincerest apologies from the Beer Barons and data team) we have produced the following table of prices:

And a sneak peek into what the actual data ‘collection’ looked like:

In future, as the pint index travels across other venues, we promise more creative forms of data visualisation. One we would quite like to have is a cool boxplot courtesy of the think tanks data team whereby one can easily compare the means, interquartile ranges, and lower and upper bounds of all pubs in Leeds. Just like a fine wine, we believe this research will increase in value as the pint index continues to mature.

Now, time for some comments on the prices themselves.

Our first discovery of the evening was the heavy and aggressive use of price discrimination. In an ingenious effort to maximise efficient market allocation across all income levels students enjoyed hefty discounts on select pints.

We have taken this into account and made a qualitative assessment of prices (criteria of which will not be disclosed) to take into account these deals alongside the fact some (non-student) agents sometimes consume beer. 

Pint prices looked steady at first, a sharp drop from southern prices, but not enough to be proportional with the north/south economic divide in income. 

One may also notice the “wanker premium” (see chart below) upon which pale ales set a great burden on the pockets of their drinkers. As an acquired taste, this is not unexpected, and if anything, it’s an invective to those who drink it as proof of its value and ‘luxury’ status.

(Source: LPI, Authors' own analysis)

A summary of the hard statistics shows that the cheapest swamp water - otherwise known as a Newcastle Brown Ale - came in at £4.55 (kudos to the poor soul who volunteered to drink that). Cocktails of all types took the lead with £8 a pop (and that’s after a 2-for-1 deal and the average pint price of the Library sat at a nice £5.59. With a variance of 24 pence, this presents students with limited opportunities to economise their consumption. 

Concluding on the statistics, this basis of insight will make for a concrete foundation to compare in the future. 

With a wide variety of pints and reliable data scientists at the helm, the first Leeds Pint Index will set the standard for events to follow. We had promised a selection of Untappd posts from the night to be listed in today's article, however, none came close to the desired standard. We ask for better efforts to be made by all contributors in future iterations. 

The Beer Baron committee shall publish the results of the November pint index in December.