The more froth that you have in your glass, the less beer you receive
In his weekly ‘The Bar Man’ column, Jeff Hoyle discusses fair measures…
Like a head on your beer? So do the publicans. The more froth that you have in your glass, the less beer you receive and the more air you are paying for.
In the north of England, where a decent head on a pint was the norm, several systems were introduced to make sure the drinker received full value.
Common in Lancashire when I was first frequenting pubs was the measured dispense, normally a horizontal or vertical glass cylinder that served a measured half pint.
Obviously, if there was any spillage, the pint could not be topped up, but these seemed to satisfy most drinkers until, ironically the advent of CAMRA began to identify the handpump with real ale.
Another answer was the autovac. Common in Hull when I was there in the 70s, it consisted of a stainless-steel trough under the pumps.
When the beer was pulled through the handpump the glass would be allowed to overflow and the beer from the trough was recycled through the pump, avoiding wastage and producing a tight creamy head.
I mostly identify this method with Yorkshire, but I know that it was used in other parts, notably Edinburgh. It fell foul of the hygiene regulations despite clinging on for a year or two by promising a clean glass would be used for each pint.
What to do now? CAMRA’s answer was oversized glasses where you could receive a pint of liquid and there was still space for the head. While this has been adopted at many beer festivals, the take up has been limited in pubs, with Shouldham’s Kings Arms being the only place I had encountered it on a regular basis.
It is more difficult to serve accurately and the slight overfilling of glasses adds up and eats into the profit margins. Also, customers unused to the glasses might perceive that they are being given short measure.
The upshot of this is reflected in a recent report by Trading Standards which suggests that 86% of all beer ordered was served in a short measure. The sample size was fairly small, with 137 orders across 77 bars around the country, but my experience suggests that it is not far from the truth.
With beer, I always ask for an obviously short pint to be topped up. I try to be polite and very rarely encounter a bad reaction, but I will bet that many people blindly accept the short measure.
With beer, this is quite easy to judge and for the publican to correct, but less excusably the survey found that 43% of wine orders were short. This seemed to stem from the wrong or perhaps no measure being used, but as a customer, how do you recognise this?
In Walsall, a 175ml measure costing £3.20 was 15% under, while in Havering a £5.75 glass was 13% short. With spirits, a poll by Trading Standards found that three times as many people under 45 were in favour of spirits being dispensed without using a measure as those over 45.
If your whisky is not measured, what do you think? Under or over? Most worryingly, Trading Standards found that many local authorities were lacking in the resources to conduct spot checks and some did not even possess the equipment necessary for the task.
So, be vigilant, and if you feel that you have been short-changed, draw this to the attention of the bar staff politely but firmly. Trading Standards suggest that it is costing the average drinker over £100 per year and I know some who may well be significantly over that average.
bar.man@btinternet.com
