Smaller measures

As I was trudging my lonely path around the mean street of the Hoofddorpplein neighbourhood, I got to thinking of recent suggestion (I can't be arsed to look up the link). That moving to two-thirds instead off pints would reduce beer consumption.

That's total, utter, utter, utter, utter, fucking, bollocking bollocks.

There's the false assumption that people go out for a set number of drinks and then go home. That's not how most people drink.* They go to the pub for a fixed length of time. The number of drinks consumed is fluid.

You arrange to meet friends at eight and drink until closing time. You spend your lunch break down the pub. You meet at 1 PM for a few pints before the match. There's a set start and time. The latter usually being last orders. That's how social drinking mostly works. A fixed time, not a fixed number of drinks.

But there's an even bigger problem. People don't drink at the same rate from every size glass. The smaller it is, the quicker they drink. Two halves will be knocked back more quickly than a pint. As will a two thirds.

I'm not a fan of litre measures. They slow me right down. It becomes depressing that the thing takes so fucking long to empty. A half litre is much more manageable.

Do you see where I'm going? 

In my youth, 15 to 20 minutes per pint was a comfortable pace. Which I could up,  if needed, as last orders loomed. Six or seven pints in a two-hour session on average. I'd want at least five pints of Mild just to get an appetite for fish and chips on the way home..

I never said  to anyone "Let's go out for seven pints." It was "Let's meet at half eight in the Adelphi."

In general, the longer the session, the more pints I'd drink. I think this was especially true when drinking in a group.

Your average drinker, in a two-hour session would drink more if the glass were a two-thirds. Because they'd drink them more quickly than pints. And wouldn't have a fixed number of drinks in mind. 

Smaller measures would lead to increased consumption. Publicans should welcome them.

* Pensioners and filthy, dole scroungers** are exceptions. And people on shit wages. So I guess that's pretty much everyone in the UK now.

** I spent many happy years on the dole. Filthy scrounger that I was.

Inside a 1920s bar (part five)

More excruciating detail about a 1920s bar. I do love this stuff. Despite how ultimately useless this information is.

Today we start with something about measures. This was an area where publicans had to take particular are on account of various legal requirements.

"Note: if a half-pint is asked for, a Government Stamped Measured Glass must be supplied.

If a glass is called for, it may be supplied in a five to the quart glass.

All other measures of beer must be sold in pints, quarts, or gallons, and not in fractions.

It is illegal to serve over measure in the sale of beer, and it is equally an offence to sell under measure.

The particular sizes of glasses you use for soda-water, bottled beers, etc., do not signify, as regards measure.

You are bound, by law, to have stamped pint and half-pint glasses or mugs.

Opaque mugs are not now generally popular, as customers take a great deal of pleasure in criticising the condition of the beers they buy. A few tankards for the saloon bar are necessary.

If measures become dented or bulged, they should be taken out of the bar, and correct ones substituted, as a prosecution would result in conviction."
"The Art and Practice of Innkeeping" by Alexander Francis Part, published by Heinemann London, 1922, pages 213 - 214.

A couple of points about the beer measures. I'm surprised that nips (third of a pint) aren't mentioned at all. This having been one of the permitted measures - along with half pints and pints - when I was younger.

And the "glass", well such a vague, unmarked measure definitely wasn't allowed when I was younger. I've seen mention of it as a measure in texts from WW I. I didn't realise it continued after the war. I'd be intrigued to know exactly when it was outlawed. At five to a quart, it's half way between a third and a half pint.

It might seem odd that an over measure was banned. This is a hangover from WW I. Some landlords had deliberately served over measures to attract custom.

Part can be quite cutting at times. I love this: "customers take a great deal of pleasure in criticising the condition of the beers they buy". You can tell some punters really pissed him off.

Why were tankards needed for the saloon bar? Because some middle-aged toss-pots rewuested them?

What is a glass of beer?

It sounds a very philosophical question. Whereas in fact it's far more prosaic. About short measures, really. A recurring theme in British pub life.

I was quite surprised at the first sentence in this article. I'd thought that draught beer could only be sold in a third, half or pint or quart measure.

"What is a Glass of Beer?
"It is the custom to go into a public-house and ask for 'a glass' of beer or bitter, and, in that case, the publican entitled to serve what he likes and charge what he likes, but the point at issue is this, that if anyone asks for a set quantity, they must have it, and it must be in a stamped glass."

This was the explanation by Mr. Albert Edward Waller, Inspector of Weights and Measures, when he appeared to prosecute at Oundle Petty Sessions, last month, against Walter Dixon, publican, of Harringworth, who was summoned for selling, by his servant, or agent, Elizabeth Dixon, intoxicating liquor of less measure than was purported to be sold.

Mr. Waller said that on Tuesday, April 17th, he went into the public-house, and Mrs. Dixon came into the bar. He asked for two half-pints of bitter. He poured the drinks into some half-pint measures that were there, and pointed out to Mrs. Dixon how much short they were. The glasses actually held 8 oz., whereas a half-pint was 10 oz., so that, in serving a quart, there would be five of those glasses required instead of four.

Mrs. Dixon said : "I am sorry if I made an error, but I was unaware that it was an error at the time."

The Chairman (Mr. G. H. Capron): There is no doubt that an offence has been committed. You did not serve half-pints when you were asked in properly marked glasses. At the same time, we do not think you had any intention to defraud."

A fine of 5s, was imposed.
Brewers' Journal 1934, page 343.

I bet they loved those Weights and Measures inspectors calling by, trying to catch them out. Do you think that he was just in that pub by chance, or that he had been tipped off? I bet someone had told him they served short halves.

Getting back to the glass of beer, I know that pubs served beer in that highly indeterminate measure in WW I. And that there were five to a quart, around 8 fluid ounces per glass. I'd assumed it was one of those weird WW I practices. Now I can see it did exist in peacetime, too.

Now I think about it, the title is incorrect. It should be What is a Half-pint of Beer?

Pinters

We've not been to Bolton for a while, have we? Time to revisit its 1930's pubs. This time with a vital question: glass size.

One of the biggest surprises for me about pre-war Bolton pubs was that most men drank halves. Something I've never experienced in a pub. Not one in Britain. (In Australia, of course, you rarely see anything bigger than a half. And never anything as big as an imperial pint.) I was intrigued as to why they drank from such small glasses. So I was pleased to find this explanation:

"PINTERS"

This brings us to the question of "pinters" — men who drink pints instead of gills. According to Nicholson (London Survey) men drink pints because it is something to grip on to. He quotes these words being used to him by drinkers. Also he says, it makes the beer last longer. This again, he bases on what pub-goers have told him.

Our Worktown timings show conclusively that the time taken, per pint, is practically the same whether it is drunk in pints or gills. Observers have reported men drinking pints with a group of gill drinkers, and finishing off their mugs the same moment that the others are draining their second gills. To confirm this, the same observers timed 48 beer-drinkers in London pubs (December);
result:

Pints    17.5 minutes average speed.
Halfs     8.6 minutes average speed.

In this small series, pints actually averaged more than twice as long as half-pints.

The fact that the mug "is something to grip on to" has to do with pint drinking. The landlord of a beerhouse who has recently installed gill mugs tells us that they are very popular. On the other hand, many pubs do not provide mugs with handles, and serve pints in large plain glasses. The actual size of the glass must also be taken into account in this respect. The habit of drinking gills from pint glasses may be due to this.

Nicholson also says that the majority of London pinters are old men. Our observations bear this out for Worktown too. One of the reasons for this may be purely historical. Before the war, when beer cost a great deal less than now, most working class drinking was done in pints. A factor for changing this may have been the increased price. (We say "may have been", because, although a reasonable suggestion, we have no proof of it, and other factors are involved.) But men who have been used to drinking pints for years have formed a habit pattern which is hard to break, so whenever possible they continue it. Besides old men, the other common classes of pinters are labourers, and people who do heavy manual work, especially foundry workers. In the forge people bring in bottles and drink them off.

A barman writes:

Pints—depends on how much one can swallow at a gulp. This is entirely a matter of natural growth, and when one has attained the degree of a pinter, a half pint seems insignificant, and you are well steeped in the drinking habit. Seems a matter of choice and habit and maybe length of thirst and pocket.

He is wrong — as those who best know so often are. We see here that the size of the pint glass gives the feeling that the men who drink from them must be drinking faster and more than those who drink gills. Connected with this is the fact that the labourer and the outdoor worker who are usually pinters, do very often drink more than other pub-goers, owing to the nature of their work, which makes them thirsty. Hence the feeling that there is something "manly" about pint drinking, and inversely, that it is "unrefined". The landlords of some pubs refuse to serve pints in the parlour. Women do not drink pints — the story of a woman who used to do so bears out these points: it is a discussion in the parlour of a small beerhouse, among a number of women, some of whom are drunk.

Discussion about a lesbian woman. They concentrate like hell to try and remember her name. After four minutes'working on it and puzzling, one remembers it, and there is joy all round, and the name is reiterated again and again. The following remarks were made about her:

"She be dead and buried now."
"The worst thing about her is neither woman or man."
"'er and Emily lived together."
"She was rather on the vulgar side."
"She was very dirty spoke though."
"She'd stand up at fire." (This mentioned twice.)
"She'd rather have a pint than a gill."

Undoubtedly, the pint mug is associated with labourers, men drinking in dirty working clothes, and old chaps who spit a lot and smoke cheap twist. The association between pints, spitting and strong tobacco is dealt with below. In the lounge of the town-centre pubs, pints are a rarity; while in most vaults they are normal. In the pubs in the "Irish" district, mentioned earlier, to ask for a gill in the vault is to become conspicuous. The first time an observer ordered one, the barmaid repeated "a pint", and there was some difficulty in getting across the idea that a gill was required. A man with a trilby, standing next to the observer, who didn't seem to belong to the pub (he wasn't talking to any of the other chaps) turned and said to the observer in a low voice — "Most of these navvies they come in 'ere and order a pint, you see. ..."
"The Pub and the People" by Mass Observation, 1943 (reprinted 1987), pages 183 - 185.

I already knew that larger glasses tend to slow rather than speed drinking pace. I'm surprised that the difference recorded in Bolton between pint and half drinking times was so small. Just 0.3 of a minute. 17.5 minutes for a pint is a pretty good pace. 15 minutes I found to be the maximum comfortable pace for me. 20 minutes is a bit more civilised.

Hard times are a reasonable explanation for the switch to halves. Especially in a culture of round-buying.  By buying halves, both the amount needed to buy a round and the amount any member was likely to overspend by buying odd rounds was minimised. WW I - what isn't it to blame for? That old men - whose drinking habits were set before the war - were mostly pint drinkers seems to confirm the role of WW I. Odd, because in my experience, old men were some of the few males likely to be drinking halves.

The use of beer for rehydration is another common theme. Especially for those working in hot, physically demanding trades like foundrymen or glassblowers. Or during harvest time, when a supply of beer was considered essential to get the best out of workers. Harvest beer, a low-gravity Mild continued to be brewed well into the 20th century.

I've a good story about women and pints. When I drank in the Cardigan Arms in Leeds during the late 1970's, there was a couple who used to be regulars. Both were in their late 50's. The man would always go to the bar and order a pint and two halves of Tetley's Mild. The pint was for him and the two halves for his wife. I can remember pubs that refused to serve pints to women. Only because it was considered "unladylike". How culturally defined such ideas are is demonstrated by Bavaria and Austria. Where women - even grannies - are happy to drink beer in litres.

I love the conversation between the women. It's like a cross between a scene the Rover's Return snug and Mrs Brady Old Lady.

Stout

Stout.

Bottled Stout in pints.

You want to know what a pint bottle of Reid's Stout cost in 1938, don't you?

Bloody weirdoes.

What the hell are you interested in?

Stout.

Bottled Stout in pints.

What was its OG in the 1030s?

Funny you should ask that.

Another day looking at blurry photos. Sad, it's true. Since Dolores gave me a magnifying glass my transcriptions have become more accurate. 108%.

There are numbers. Seek them out if you care.



Stout.

Bottled Stout in pints.

Guinness. I was pleased to find a couple of mentions of their bottled Stout. Still, pre-WW II, a beer considerably stronger than today. Marvel at its power.

Barclay Perkins. Note that they and Whitbread (former bigtime Porter brewers) brewed a Stout to match Guinness in strength.



All these details and so many, many. many, many, many more are available here.

You have been warned. Expect minimal entertainment value. Minimal. Zero, would be more accurate. Expect zero entertainment value.