I like your thinking!!! ;-) ;-) ;-) (gsoh)
From: trus...@grandecom.net
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44185] RE: Downsizing beer glasses
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:39:49 -0500
I guess I'm ignorant of Jerry's and
Stephen's facts because I am a teetotaler.
But now that I know all this, all I can
say is, geesh! I'd love to work in a British hospital pharmacy. If you folks
are
so rigorous about measuring suds, I would think your pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians would the best on the planet.
----- Original Message -----
From:
Stephen
Humphreys
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 29 March, 2009 08:19
Subject: [USMA:44182] RE: Downsizing beer
glasses
UK pubs have large drip trays and it's part of the ordering of
a pint to see it filled to overflowing. Yes - they actually do fill then
overfill.
And yes you are actually correct (cause for celebration) that only some
pubs have oversized pint glasses that have marks.
It's been said on this very listserv that anything more than a 5%
head would be technically illegal. You're special 'pint'
would - of course -fall foul.
Having said ALL that - this "war" you've mentioned a few times today - it
isn't happening in the pubs. Apart from the mix of imperial and metric I've
never heard of a fight breaking out regarding being served a pretend metric
size in a pint glass - it really really does not happen - seriously. And
as I said - if you believe you have been short served you can ask for a top
up
- they're not going to turn you away citing some measurement war where they
are on the opposite side - or something equally daft.
I'm a cider drinker - cider does not form a head - so I always get my
full measure ;-)
One of the drinks I had last night was bottled (not draught) cider.
As it happens it was not one of the more famous pint glasses. Yes
- I had a 350ml bottle of Aspall cider. Strangely enough I did not
refuse to drink it due to it being in a metric bottle. I chose metric.
(Well, in reality I chose a cider I wanted and knew I liked which
happened to be in metric bottles).
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:56:32 -0700
From:
jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com
Subject: Re: [USMA:44168] RE: Downsizing
beer glasses
To: barkatf...@hotmail.com; usma@colostate.edu
I would tend to believe Pat's explanation. I'm sure everyone
else does too.
All you have said is that beer CAN be sold in oversized glasses.
This does not mean it is. You also say that one CAN ask for a top
up. Again that doesn't mean people do.
Somehow overfilling a glass so it over runs the brim doesn't sound right.
It makes for mess and makes the glass slippery, making it easier to drop
and cause a hazard. Also, product is wasted and that can add up
to liters of lost beer that goes down the drain. Who pays for
that?
You just don't want to accept that when you ask for a pint, you are
only getting 500 mL of liquid, not a milliliter more.
Maybe now you would like to discuss how wine and spirits are sold in
rounded metric sizes in UK pubs. Of course a pro-choice person such as
yourself would never order such items for fear of having to utter the
word milliliter.
Jerry
From: Stephen Humphreys
<barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association
<usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 8:39:55
PM
Subject: [USMA:44168] RE:
Downsizing beer glasses
Pints in the UK can be served in
oversized glasses (showing pint markings) or with 'brim' amounts. You
can go back to ask for it to be topped up if you think that the pint is not a
legal pint.
In reality the bar server tends to pour beer into a glass so it overruns
the side - giving you the full pint. I've never seen a pint as small as
500ml. Ever.
'Heady' drinks are poured in a specific way - eg Guinness.
There's a 'knack'. Esp in the case of guinness the white head
forms part of the 'experience'. Sometimes a shamrock is 'drawn' into the
head. In some areas of Northern Ireland this is seen as 'politically
incorrect' ;-) .
Drinks like cider and lager tend to be headless and don't have the same
issue. I would suspect cider and lager are the most asked pint style
drinks.
Some pubs are now doing 'third' pint drinks now. My favourite one
is.
From: pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com
To:
usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44162] Downsizing beer glasses
Date:
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:16:44 +1100
On 2009/03/29, at 2:45 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote:
I'm
sure Pat can tell us that the pint is still spoken in pubs in Australia,
but
no one would use it to mean a specific amount and thus the term has become
generic.
Dear Jerry,
Sadly, it is true that the word, pint, is still
used in Australian hotels. And it is still used, as it is in the UK, to hide
a
long period of downsizing by the beer companies in collusion with government
consumer affairs officials.
Let me explain what I mean.
Years ago when a pint was served in an Australia or
UK hotel or pub, the beer was served in a 22 ounce container to allow for a
pint of beer and for a suitable 'head' of froth. Likewise a half pint of beer
was served in an 11 ounce container to allow for the 10 ounce half pint and
the appropriate head.
Some time ago, in the order of 50 years I suspect,
lobbyists from the beer companies were able to convince legislators (or was
it
regulation writers) that a pint of beer could be served in a pint container
that held a pint of water when filled to the brim of the glass. The law
makers
suitably rolled over like little puppies to get their tummies tickled and, in
both Australia and the UK, if you asked for 'a pint of beer' in the
last 50 years you would have received very close to 500 millilitres of beer
with about 70 millilitres of 'head'. I leave to others to calculate this
roughly 10 % gain in profits by the beer companies deceit over this
period of time.
The next part of the campaign, as I observe it in
the 21st century, is to downsize the beer glass from a pint (568 mL) to a
rounded 500 mL glass. Naturally to do this the beer companies will need to
reduce the size of the 'beer pint' even further. The Guinness company has
already begun this process with their 440 mL can designed with enough beer to
fit into a glass that holds 500 mL of air to the brim of the glass before you
pour in the 440 mL of beer and the 60 mL of froth. I have noticed that this
campaign has, so far, been tried in Australia and in Singapore.
To answer Jerry's question a little more directly,
it seems to me that the use of the word 'pint', and its continued
encouragement and support by beer companies, is to maintain the illusion that
drinkers are getting more beer that they actually receive.
As a side issue, the word 'pint' is a relative to
the word 'paint' from the time that Roman soldiers demanded that a
paint mark be used on the side of (opaque ?) beer containers so that drinkers
could check that the level of liquid beer was 'up to the paint'. Paint
was gradually changed over the last 2000 years to the word, 'pint'. But you
will note that the rapaciousness of beer makers and sellers is not a new
thing!
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat
Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to
the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now
save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their
businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades,
crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication
leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian
Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the
UK,
and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/for more metrication
information, contact Pat
at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the
free 'Metrication matters'
newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to
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