Pat said "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." That may be true in Australia, Pat, but it does not accurately describe the UK situation. In the UK, TSO's brought the attempted prosecutions that led to the court decisions that the head was part of the pint (Dean v Scottish & Newcastle was the relevant Scottish case. I cannot recall the English cases offhand, but could dig them out if you are interested). There wouldn't have been attempted prosecutions if there had been collusion. The Trading Standards Institute (TSI - the TSO's professional body) constantly lobbied for section 43 of the Weights & Measures Act 1985 to be implemented. This would have had the effect of forcing pubs to deliver a full liquid pint. Politicians refused to implement this measure - not "Consumer Affairs Officials" TSI has also been a long-term advocate of introducing lined pint glasses into UK pubs. Pat also said "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."
Again, this may be true in Australia, but does not describe the UK situation. Ale has been required to be sold by the pint since 1698 (11 Will 3, c 15..) If you look online, you will find dozens of pewter pint brim measures for sale. The lined pint glass is the more modern measure for beer - not the brim measure. Finally, Pat states that you are likely to be served 500ml if you ask for a pint in the UK. I've already mentioned in another post that TSO's & CAMRA both state that the average pint is around 95% (540ml) --- On Sat, 28/3/09, Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:44162] Downsizing beer glasses To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, 28 March, 2009, 8:16 PM 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 [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
