Cheater Pints

JaKe a écrit :

Depends if the (US, 16oz) pint is a legal measure to sell beer in your area / state. If it is, then this would be a blatant short measure, and you should contact your local trading standards office (or whatever that's called in the US) .

Cheers !

Laurent

Call me picky but I get pissed whenever I'm served a pint and it isn't an imperial pint.

In much of the USA, there is no such thing as "legal" measure, and that is true of the part of the USA in which "JaKe" lives (Washington state).

A pub can and will call a 14-ounce mixing glass a pint. I've even been to pubs where they mix the use of 14-ounce and 16-ounce "pints." Such a pub will often pour a big foamy head, too, effectively delivering a 12-ounce "pint" to an unwitting or indifferent customer. Such customers are common in the USA, a land where truly knowledgeable beer drinkers are still only a tiny minority among imbibers.

The best recourse is to avoid such establishments. It isn't a bad idea to tell the management why you won't come back; some of them might care, and some of them will look at you like you just grew a third eye.

Doesn't exist. There are people who show up to enforce alcohol regulations, of course: clean bar, toilets that aren't overflowing, no smoking going on (illegal in several American states now, including Washington), no drunks being served, and most important of all, no underage minors being served. But a bar can use a "cheater" 14-ounce pint, an American 16-ounce pint, a German half-liter glass, or a British "Nonick" 20-ounce pint, and the bar can call any of those a pint if it so chooses. Some bars serve both American and British pints and let the consumer know the difference; often, such bars eschew the "cheater" pints as well. Such bars are deserving of all the trade they can handle. The clowns serving beer in frosted cheater pints can go to hell and stay there.

Wow, very well put!

Thanks JaKe Seattle

I would think it would be easier to get pissed if it _was_ an imperial pint.

Dav Vandenbroucke davanden at cox dot net

lol. Love the multiple definitions of "pissed".

"Dav Vandenbroucke" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Just like with liquor there are no rules. Some places take advantage of this and really rip you off. Personally, I make it a point not to patronize any place I feel is charging significantly more / giving less alcohol as it is ALL WAY WAY WAY overpriced when you go out anyway. $4 for a domestic draft?! Give me a break. I run a business and I still say "Give me a break!". I believe that's something like a 400-500% markup for a glass of beer. Yeah, I think so.

Well...There's the cost of the liquor license, which runs over $300,000 in some areas right around where I live. Add on the cost of the building, utilities, insurance (and a hefty liability rider). There's the cost of the beer itself, keeping it cold, keeping the lines clean (which involves wasted beer -- a LOT if the lines are long and you do it right), the bartender's wages, advertising, accounting, taxes, some kind of legal trouble at least every five years or so because it's just that kind of business, maintenance on the draft system. And there's inevitably pilferage, unless you put flow meters on your lines -- another expense -- which may well result in you losing business to places where the bartenders do give away beers... It's all in there. They aren't losing money at $4 a pint, but they aren't robbing you blind, either. Figure a half barrel of domestic's $70 and you can maybe sell 110 pints out of it; say 60 cents a glass. But that's the keg, sitting on the curb. There's a LOT more goes into it; that license is one hell of a big monthly nut right there. Yeah, it's a big mark-up. It's a costly, risky business, too.

Yeah, I completely understand the overhead. They probably aren't even making money at 4 bucks a pint. That still doesn't change how much MORE it costs to drink out vs. at home. Sometimes I wish I didn't buy liquor, beer, and keg beer. This way, I wouldn't know how much more I'm paying when I go out. Liquor is probably the worst. It's unbelievable how much more you can pay for a mere shot or two of "lower mid-shelf" booze which they call "top shelf" when you are out. Most people that drink out a lot wouldn't know good beer or booze if it hit 'em squa in the face and that's probably a good thing. A local cuban restaurant sells Mojitos with "top shelf" rum for $15. Yes, I couldn't believe it myself. If that didn't make you sh*t your pants, wait til the bartender pours out Bacardi as the "top shelf" rum you asked for! Then, to kick you when you are down he pours in 7-up and throws in a mint sprig and a twist to call it a day! LOL. You only do that once! At any rate, that place is known for highway robbery when it comes to booze.

Oh, hey, LIQUOR, that's another matter. Easy to inventory, lasts practically forever, never breaks anyone's foot...the markup on liquor should make those guys blush themselves to death.

Depends on where they're at. Des Moines, Iowa, they're probably making plenty (beer is a profit center, food breaks even at most restaurants and brewpubs). In New York, they're losing it by buckets.

Well, duh. Does it strike you by surprise or seem unfair that food costs more when you eat out than cook it yourself? That anyone should be surprised by this, or complain about it, is baffling.

Don't buy any food, either. After all, that three-egg omelet costs as much as a couple dozen eggs you'd buy yourself.

-Steve