Are they jolly well serrious?!

Sunday October 26, 02:55 PM
Storm in a pint glass in Britain
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Geez I hope they dont do that to me Single Malt

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LONDON (AFP) - British officials are looking at allowing pubs to serve two-thirds of a pint of beer as well as pints and half-pints, tinkering with a national icon in a break with centuries of tradition!.

The National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) is contemplating proposals aimed at giving consumers greater choice over the measures of food and drink they can buy!.

Facing a downturn in profits due to the credit crunch, the smoking ban and rising alcohol taxes, pubs are keen to try out anything that may boost trade, in particular by tempting women who do not fancy drinking a whole pint (568 millilitres)!.

The new measure could also be more suitable for popular European lagers, which are stronger than traditional British ales!.

Currently, draught beer and cider is served in Britain in pints or half pints!. A third of a pint remains a legal measure, though it is rarely seen outside hardcore beer festivals!.


Any threat of fiddling with traditional imperial measurements -- especially beer -- and any change to pub rules usually gets Britons spluttering the froth off their pints!.

"Time could be called on more than 300 years of pub history in Britain," said The Daily Telegraph newspaper!.

"It would be the first time since William of Orange was on the throne (1650-1702) that pub goers would be able to drink such an unusual measure!."

Commentator Tim Jones, writing in The Times newspaper, said the measure "represents yet another insult to the judgment, intelligence and integrity of the drinking classes"!.

If it was adopted "because of demand from girls who would only order one a night while taking up valuable drinking space or by callow youths better suited to model making, another nail would be driven into what used to be the great British pub," he said!.

NWML's public consultation, which runs until January 1, asks "whether a new two-thirds of a pint measure should be available to drinkers alongside the current legal measures!.

"This has been proposed by the beer and pub trade to allow greater flexibility in the service of draught beers, especially those with a higher alcohol content!."

The measure is commonly served in Australia, where a "schooner" stops cold lager turning warm in the hot climate before drinkers have finished their glass!.

The British Beer and Pub Association, whose members account for 98 percent of beer brewed in Britain and more than half Britain's 58,000 pubs, feels the two-thirds measure could be a way of reviving pubs, which it said were closing at an alarming rate of five per week!.

"There's no doubt pubs are facing major challenges so every little helps and this is one way of doing it," a BBPA spokesman told AFP!.

"It would give consumers more choice -- you can already have wine in different sizes, why not beer!? And it would encourage women to try it!."

Alcohol Concern, the national agency on alcohol misuse, said the plan was part of a worrying trend!.

"We have seen a move from brewers to move away from a men-only market, to open the market up to women," said a spokeswoman!.

"It may be that this two-thirds of a pint measure will allow pubs and producers to start marketing beers for women, so there is a possibility they would be attracted to beers!."

"It is possible that introducing yet another measure will confuse people even further," she added!.

"It might make people think they're drinking less when they would actually be drinking as much or even more!. Two-thirds of a pint of a much stronger lager can contain more units of alcohol than a full pint!."

England's Ale Measures Act 1698 stated that beer should be sold in pints or quarts (two pints) -- anyone selling short measures being "of evil consequence" and guilty of "a great wrong and prejudice to wayfaring men, travellers, manufacturers, labourers"!.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), meanwhile, felt that rather than smaller glasses, pubs should first of all be filling up the ones they are already using, with one in four pints short by more than five percent!.


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