Recession mixed with high beer tax makes a heady drink, which the UK government has learnt when plunging beer sales in the UK downed the government of beer tax revenues of £17 million in January and February compared with the same period last year.

The UK Quarterly Beer Barometer, the comprehensive guide to beer trends in Britain, shows that 1.7 million fewer pints were drunk every day from January to March, than in the same period in 2008.

This has brought the government beer tax revenues down £17 million in January and February compared with same period last year, despite an 18 per cent tax increase and the government still wants to press ahead with a 2 per cent hike in alcohol tax in the coming UK budget.

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), the UK's leading organisation representing the brewing and pub sector, whose members account for 98 per cent of the beer brewed in the UK and own nearly two thirds of Britain's 56,000 pubs, said that total beer sales in the UK was down by 8.2 per cent, pub sales down by 6.3 per cent and supermarket and off-licence beer sales down 11.0 per cent.

Compared with the first quarter 10 years ago, 326 million fewer pints were sold across the country– a decline of 3.6 million pints a day.

It was a particularly bad quarter for sales in the supermarkets and off licences, with sales down 11.0 per cent. This is the third consecutive quarter in which off-trade sales have fallen. It is the first time since 2005 that first quarter off-trade sales have been lower than in the previous year.

The BBPA said that falling sales were hitting government duty revenues hard, which raise questions over the government's continued policy of raising beer tax, as it had proposed to do in the budget last week.

David Long, BBPA Chief Executive said ''These figures provide more telling evidence of the intense pressure in one of Britain's most important sectors. Falling beer sales means more publicans struggling to keep their pub doors open. Closing pubs means tens of thousands of job losses and the heart taken out of many communities.

''With the Budget last week, government tax policy continues to make this situation worse, despite widespread public and political support for the BBPA/CAMRA Axe the Beer Tax - Save the Pub campaign,'' he added.