Let’s raise the bar on pouring proper pints of beer
Are the short beer measures Imogen West-Knights refers to (Put your tape measure away – and enjoy your delicious underpoured pint, 28 May) made up for by the modern phenomenon of asking for a taste of beer before ordering? As one who misspent his youth in pubs in the north, I have gradually overcome the cringing this used to induce in me when my partner asked to taste one (sometimes even two) and now enjoy these free sips, despite knowing that my northern, male forebears are probably spinning in their graves. They would rather have backed the top-it-up approach, perhaps by an interchange with the bartender serving the underpoured pint such as the following: “Do you think you could fit a large whisky in there?” “Yes, certainly.” “Well, why don’t you fill it up with beer, then?”
Damian Griffiths
Buxton, Derbyshire
• May I be the first of many members of the “security council of beer-drinking” to suggest that the answer lies in the return of the lined measure glass instead of the brim measure that is now the norm. There would be less wastage in filling a pint glass with liquid beer to the line than in topping up a brim measure. Watching someone waste much more than a “thimbleful” of beer in trying to achieve the right balance between head and beer breaks my heart. What it does for the publican doesn’t bear thinking about.
Robert Newton
Uppermill, Greater Manchester
• Pity not the beer drinkers, supping their average 96%-full pints, and save your feelings for those who drink something like cola, where bartenders are encouraged to fill the glass with ice. “No ice, please,” I request, and at am always delighted to receive it in a bottle. Pepsi (Democrat) preferred over Coke (the other lot), by the way.
Rob Harris
Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire
• The big problem with the way that beer is measured and sold in pints in the UK is the glass itself. Beers, and in particular lager-style beers, are best enjoyed with a nice foamy head. This is well understood on the continent, where the presentation of beer and the drinking quality is superior to what is routinely served up in UK pubs. This, of course, requires the glasses to be oversized and lined at the correct measure to allow space for the head. The brim-full pint glass does not allow this, so we have the compromise of a full glass at the expense of the best drinking experience. Regrettably, the consumers stubbornly refuse to recognise this, and any attempts to introduce oversized lined measure glasses have always been abandoned as the inevitable requests to “fill it up, mate” impact on the outlet’s profits.
Richard Luscombe
Norton St Philip, Somerset
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