A top Brewer has said the average cost of a pint could cost reach £7 due to the cost of living.

Scottish beer-maker Brewgooder’s chief executive Alan Mahon said the cost of raw ingredients were reaching “eye-watering” levels, pushing up the cost of a cold brew.

Mahon said C02 was now costing 3,000 per cent more than a year ago, while the war in Ukraine has put up the price of other ingredients, such as wheat and barley, are increasing quicker than inflation.

Inflation is now at 10.1 per cent.

This comes as a major survey from the ONS found the average cost of 30 usually low-cost staple items like bread, oil and meat had increased in price by 17 per cent.

Speaking to the BBC, Mahon said:  “I used to think ‘perfect storm’ was a cliché until we found ourselves slap bang in the middle of what the industry is facing right now.

“It is perhaps a greater long-term challenge than that created by rolling Covid lockdowns.

“From what we are seeing, the pressures on the industry with cost price inflation challenges and the chancellor’s scrapping of the alcohol duty freeze might make a £7 pint the norm rather than the exception in many places – particularly in bigger cities.”