More than two-thirds of beer and wine served in UK pubs and bars is short measured, a survey by Trading Standards suggests.
Officers who visited 77 pubs and bars were served 96 short measures out of 137 orders, meaning approximately 70% were less than the prescribed quantity required by The Weights and Measures Order for pints and half pints and 175ml glasses of wine.
Of the short measures, 41 were under by 5% or more – 29% of the 137 drinks tested.
Some 86% of all beer ordered was short measured, as was 43% of wine.
The average deficit for short-measured beer was 4%, while for wine it was 5%.
For the average beer drinker, this equates to a loss of £1.70 per week, or £88.40 a year, and for an average wine drinker in the UK this jumps to £2.20 per week or £114.40 per year, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said.
£115? That’s nearly 3 pints of bitter
Tell us you live in London without telling us.
My mate’s dad insists on his pint having as close to no head on it as possible. The bar staff call it a pint of Ruined.
This country has gone to shit.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse this fucking happens. Absolutely unfucking acceptable.
Wankers.
Totally agree. I’m paying for beer, not foamy air. And out in these parts, there are no glasses with measuring lines.
Actually sat down and built a spreadsheet to figure out how much a bar or restaurant profited based on how much foam they pour. The numbers are eye-opening.
I’ll have to readjust the tables, though. Met friends at my favorite hangout last night. Overnight, they had bumped the price of a pint by $2 up to $10. May be time to find a new favorite hangout.
I’ll have to readjust the tables, though. Met friends at my favorite hangout last night. Overnight, they had bumped the price of a pint by $2 up to $10. May be time to find a new favorite hangout.
Might be time to move to another city. My local just raised the price of Theakstons by 20p and there was almost murder over it.
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Fraud is bad but the amount given is a very small fraction of the total cost of alcohol consumption, poisoning yourself has consequences and there’s no safe dose of alcohol
As a drinker, I’m not losing anything.
I know how they pour in my pub, I know the prices, I can make an informed (or slightly intoxicated) decision.Is this a problem of imperial pints vs USC pints?
No, just sloppy pouring mostly
aka fraud
Sure, technically, but I doubt it’s always on purpose.
Yeh, fraud implies/requires intent.
For a criminal charge, absolutely, and that’s as it should be. But in lay terms there is a bit of a grey area. I think you can be an overworked bartender who at some level does realise that the pour isn’t 100% up to the line (so the customer won’t be getting the full pint they ordered), but is too busy or distracted or lazy to really give a shit about making it exactly perfect. Who among us would make every burger perfect if we worked fast food? None, but it’s technically illegal in this case. But a punter who’d send a pint back for being less than an ounce under is pretty rare, nobody really cares that much.
I think the real news is that the average pub goer is spending almost three grand a year. Jfc.
“It’s a bit lively tonight “
What is USC? If you mean US sizes, why would they be used in the UK?
USC = US Customary unit of measurement, which is different than imperial unit of measurement. Many people don’t know, so if a bar owner buys pint glasses online, they may have no idea there’s a difference between them.
British people know how big their pints are meant to be ahaha
Clearly based on the OP they don’t 😛
Haha. But I mean they’re too polite and nonconfrontational to argue about less than an ounce, but an American pint is like 100 mL smaller, it’s really noticeable
