A True Pint - The Quest

[nzbrewer]

Have you ever been to a pub in New Zealand and asked for a pint and gotten something like 400ml or 500mls (if lucky)?

Wouldn't it be great to be able to get a true pint where ever you go for a beer.

[denimglen]

There're two pints as well.

US = 473mL

Imp = 568mL

So if you ask for a 'pint' and get 500mL count youself lucky :-P unless you asked for an imperial pint then you got ripped.

[Mike Neilson]

Mate where in the bristish empire bro!!! But I like your thinking!

[denimglen]

Yeah, like honestly I understand where everyone is coming from but I don't really care.

The whole CAMRA/Reheinsgebot beer-nazis 'laws' kinda piss me off. "Oh my god you added a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle to carbonate, it's not reheinsgebot so it's not beer", "Oh my god you used a tank of CO2 instead of natural carbonation, it's not real ale now" Like really? Fuck off. This isn't wine.

And truely, I bet most 'pint' glasses, even the marked ones, aren't exactly 586mL. You could always rock up to the bar with your graduated cylinder, that's still probably +-5mL, and then wait, are we talking about 586mL of beer? At what temperature? Serving or room? Get them to pour your beer at room temperature, so you really get 586mL and ask them to cool it back down to serving temp? Choice.

I think having a whinge about getting a 'pint' of beer is kinda pointless. Like if I had two pubs to choose from, one served say 400mL 'pints' and one that served imp pints the size of the beer is the last thing on my mind, yeah it might come into consideration but I'm looking at other things too when choosing. Is the pub full of friendly blokes there to have a beer and a chat or snobs after 586mL beer :-P

Like I know it's a principle thing more than anything and I do understand it but shit, I have a hard time getting to a pub that serves good beer, last thing I care about is if my pint is actually 586mL of beer. The glass they choose to serve beer in are the glasses that I will order, will I buy beer from there if I feel I'm getting ripped off? Nope.

[Reviled]

Stupid yanks eh? Just catch up with the rest of the fricking world for gods sakes!

[Dai]

I think for some people the (pint) glass is half full, and for others it is half empty. Bahahaha- I'm off for a pint now...

[Stu McKinlay]

Like if I had two pubs to choose from, one served say 400mL 'pints' and one that served imp pints the size of the beer is the last thing on my mind...

Same here, almost. Here's some of the non-scientific criteria how i choose:
Choice of beer (if it is only DB then it is out of the question, only Lion and it is likely to struggle)
The quality of the beer (choice, temp, condition/age, glassware)
Quality of service.
Quality of punters.
A hundred other things.

The size of the glass doesn't come into it at all for me. It's not petrol. I'd probably rather a big jug and a 250-350ml glass than a full pint... but I'm not bothered.

[nzbrewer]

So what about a standard measure, so consumers know what kind of value they are getting

Say if they are paying $8.50 for a 568ml of Galbraith's Bellringers or down the road they are paying $6.50 for 400ml of Mac's Gold

Beyond the type of beer they are drinking, do they know if they are getting a good deal.

They both asked for a pint.

On the face of it it might look like the Mac's Gold is cheaper.

[denimglen]

I think a standard measure of beer, of whatever size it may be, isn't a bad idea, but I still wouldn't be that worried about it. Maybe the tap handles need to have the "$x.xx per xxxmL" like all the supermarket price labels have now?

I think part of the problem is that the majority of NZers (well us younger folk anyway) don't know what a pint really is.

I reckon if you walked down the street asking people what a 'pint' was a large percentage of them would say that it was a glass of beer, not a unit of measurement, or even a specific measure of beer.

[Sam Possenniskie (TGM)]

caveat emptor

[Stu McKinlay]

Nah...

Though maybe pubs who want to work in this fashion should start publishing their price as $/ml of alcohol. Like Woolworths do with their $/100g tags. Then people would work out that the lower abv beers are not worth drinking because you are paying more per litre of alcohol and since alcohol is the only reason you drink you may as well get that 1L bottle of 35% rum for $8.

[Greig McGill]

I agree. I'm anti getting hung up on it, but very pro some kind of standardisation to assist in decision making by the consumer.

As long as we don't end up with an equivalent of "take it to the top", I'm certainly not against wanting a standard.

[Stu McKinlay]

standard drinks?