In southwest England, Trading Standards officials carried out a survey of various pubs and other alcohol-serving venues and discovered that one in five pints had noticeably less liquid than it should. Given that this shortabe happend with such regularity at many different locations, perhaps the theory is that once you've had a few pints, you won't really be worried about a few extra mouthfuls. Or, perhaps the quality of bartenders has simple declined, since it is much more difficult to pull a drink with the appropriate amount of foam than you might guess.
Officials recommend asking for a top-off if the drink appears to be a bit short, not only to ensure that you're getting what you've paying for, but to encourage vendors to be a bit more careful in their pouring in the future.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-22-2006 @ 3:58PM
Brian J. Geiger said...
If only one-in-five drinks is not filled up all the way, that means that four-in-five pints are filled all the way. That means that, unless the fifth drink is indeed empty, and just simply partially filled, then "All added up, this means that for every five drinks that people buy, they could be paying for an empty glass for one of them," is an incorrect statement.
If the fifth drink is missing 10% of its liquid, then it would take 50 pints before it would equal one empty glass.
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9-22-2006 @ 6:12PM
geekhappens said...
I see many anrgy barkeeps in someone's future . . .
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9-24-2006 @ 4:51PM
Dean H. Saxe said...
The fact that 20% of all pints are short pours does NOT mean than by buying 5 pints you only get 4 pints of beer! The only thing one can infer from this post is that if you buy a round of pints for you and 4 friends, someone is likely to have a (slightly) short pour. Given that most glassware in Europe has marks identifying a proper fill level for beers, it should be easy to identify and remediate the situation.
Sounds like someone needs lessons in math.
-dhs
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