An Australian visiting the UK was astounded to find the cost of a pint was a little more than he bargained for.
Peter Lalor paid a visit to Manchester's Malmaison Hotel and ordered a Deuchars IPA in the search for a "very English" drink – but he ended up paying 10,000 times more than he expected for the nightcap.
When Lalor's bill came he paid without noticing the eye-watering cost of a single beer.
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However, he soon saw that the bartender had spotted a mistake and was giggling at the blunder.
Lalor then received a shocking phone call telling him he'd been charged $99,983.64 Australian dollars for just one bottle of beer – a staggering £55,000.
He was also walloped with a service charge amounting to £1,382 – which alone could have bought him a whopping 251 more IPAs at the central Manchester establishment.
"See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history," Lalor, who writes about beer and cricket for The Australian, joked on Twitter.
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"I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night. Seriously.
"It's a good beer. 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," he continued.
He proceeded to recount the entire ordeal to his 50,000-plus Twitter followers, before explaining how the mistake had come about.
"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.
"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. I insisted.
"She kept giggling, I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now."
A manager soon arrived to deal with the mistake – but Lalor still had to wait days for his refund after the 2019 incident.
"She told me somebody would be in contact. Three days later I'm still waiting," he added.
Lalor says the service charge was quickly refunded, but that the repayment for the pricey beer took much longer to come through.
"It really is baffling that both Visa and our bank would allow such an amount to go through unquestioned," he continued.
"And, guess what? They agree that there is a refund in the system but it will take nine working days for it to go through.
"In the meantime there's a massive hole in my finances.
"Lesson to be learned: always find your glasses when presented with a bill."
Lalor later confirmed that he had since spoken to the Malmaison and that they were being very helpful in trying to get his refund put through.
A Malmaison spokesperson told the Daily Star at the time: "We always benchmark our bar prices, and acknowledge this was a tad on the steep side.
"We have been in touch with Peter to apologise and ensure this is fully resolved.
"We hope we can invite Peter back for another drink soon. The next one is definitely on the house!"
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