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Nips and Sticks

NIP:

Looking around the www and after consulting a number of beery books, there seems to be some disagreement on the size of the imperial beer measure known as the "nip".

The following describe a nip as a quarter of a pint of beer*:

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Whereas these describe the nip as a third of a pint of beer (which is still a legal measure): Brian Glover - CAMRA Dictionary of Beer

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Perhaps as the following site indicates, there is more than one usage: " nip of beer is 1/4 pint (the same as a gill, 4 fluid ounces or about 117.7 milliliters) or sometimes 1/3 pint (189.4 milliliters)."

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STICK:

A more regional measure seems to be the "stick" or 1/3 of a pint. The term "stick" appears to be restricted to the Birmingham area. This is confirmed by two people who've I heard use it - Dr Carl Chinn and one of our CAMRA branch members, both B'ham born and bred. The "stick" was popular with licensees who chose it when being bought a drink.

nb: The beer nip is completely different measure from the spirit (eg whisky) nip.

*A gill is 5 fl oz or a quarter of a pint
Reply to
Brett...
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I always thought it was a third of a pint. Some pubs in this area sell really strong beer in "nips" as an alternative to halves and pints, especially when those have a large price tag.

Tony. snipped-for-privacy@morgan5000.fsnet.co.uk

Reply to
Anthony Morgan

4 fluid ounces is 1/5 pint not a quarter.
Reply to
k

My mistake, thanks for the correction!

Reply to
Brett...

In the North-east at least, a traditional "gill" was HALF a pint (I'm sure unofficially!).

Reply to
Frank Erskine

The quoted site is American. Those damned Yankees only have 16 fluid ounces in their piffling little pints and I *think* their fluid ounces are different from ours as well. Z

Reply to
Zythophile

Slightly larger, actually. An American pint is about 17 oz Imperial.

Reply to
Jamie McDonell
[Snip]

Ah, you mean approximately the same volume as the big brewers and pubcos want us to accept as a full "pint"

I always wondered where they got the idea.

Reply to
Steven Pampling

In the north west too (Salford to be precise) I often used to hear a half pint referred to as a gill. I think that terminology has largely died out amongst the younger generation though.

Gavin

Reply to
gavin

Frank Erskine31/12/04 4:10 PM

I always thought that a gill was a third of a pint. In the old days (I'm also from the N.E.) we had crates of free school milk delivered which came in small foil topped glass bottles. I have always thought that they were gills. Could be wrong though.... Milk was also sold in half pints back then but those bottles were bigger than the school bottles.

CR

Reply to
Chris Rockcliffe

I certainly remember school milk, but have never heard of the bottles containing a gill.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

In England a Gill is a quarter of a pint, however, just to make life easy, in Scotland 4 gills equals (or did equal) .75 of an imperial pint. Hence you are probably all correct!

Regards

Stuart Hudson

Reply to
hudson

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