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How much Alcohol Duty is on a pint, bottle or can of cider?

Checked against GOV.UK on 2 October 2026. Written by Bradley Cadd, who runs Duty Sorted, an independent business that isn't part of HMRC. About Duty Sorted. Not tax advice: see the note at the end.

The sum

Take a 500 ml bottle of 6% cider:

1. Litres of pure alcohol = 0.5 litres × 6 ÷ 100 = 0.03 litres.
2. Duty = 0.03 × your rate per litre of pure alcohol.

Your rate is the full rate for the product, less any Small Producer Relief discount, or the draught rate if it qualifies. The rates are on GOV.UK's Alcohol Duty rates page, and work out how much Alcohol Duty you need to pay explains the sum.

At the full rate, by strength and container

Still cider, no relief of any kind. The full rate is £10.39 per litre of pure alcohol, using the rates in force from 1 February 2026. Duty per container, in pence:

What Small Producer Relief takes off

SPR cuts your rate per litre of pure alcohol, and the discount shrinks as your annual production grows (see how to work out SPR). For a 500 ml bottle and a 440 ml can of 6.0% still cider:

The 0.0p in the 5 hectolitre row is correct. In GOV.UK's table the discount for the first 5 hectolitres of pure alcohol is as big as the full rate, so the rate is £0.00. It starts to rise once you go over 5 hectolitres. Makers of cider only, who made 5 hectolitres or less last year and expect the same this year, also don't have to submit returns, though they still need HMRC approval: see what changed for small cider makers.

"Annual production" is your figure for the SPR production year (1 February to 31 January), across all your products. Not sure what yours is? Try the free calculator. New to this? See SPR for a new business.

A pint from a keg or bag-in-box

Draught Relief gives a lower rate on products in containers of at least 20 litres designed to connect to a dispense system. A pint poured from one is charged at the draught rate. The same 568 ml in a bottle or can is not. For 4.5% still cider:

The bracketed figure is the rate per litre of pure alcohol. Draught Relief and SPR combine: HMRC's guide says to subtract the SPR discount from the draught rate, using a separate SPR table for draught. See Draught Relief explained for what counts as draught, and what happens if you bottle it later or sell it for take-away.

Watch out: sparkling cider over 5.5%

Still cider from 3.5% to 8.4% ABV has one rate. Sparkling cider above 5.5% has a much higher one. At 6.5% ABV, in a 500 ml bottle, at the full rate:

Fruit cider, mead and other "other fermented products" are charged differently again. See which category is yours. Cider at 8.5% ABV or more is also charged at that higher rate: see what happens at 8.5%.

Using these figures

• They're for pricing and sense-checking, not for your return. HMRC rounds duty on each line of your return (total litres of pure alcohol × rate, rounded down to the penny), not on each bottle. Working up a return from per-bottle figures can be a penny or two out. Log your batches instead: how to keep batch records.
• They show duty only. They don't include VAT or any other cost.
• The rates change every 1 February. The tables above are recalculated from the current published rates, so they stay right when new ones take effect.
• Which return it goes on depends on the duty point: see when is Alcohol Duty due on cider.

This guide is general information, not tax advice, and rules and rates can change. Check the GOV.UK pages linked above and ask HMRC or your adviser if you're unsure which rate applies to your product. Duty Sorted is independent and is not made or approved by HMRC.