Strange new drinking glasses are all up in the news today. This series of wine glasses based on the deadly sins goes nicely with this article in the Wall Street Journal about sneaky taverns swapping out 14 oz glasses for pints(!)
Apparently the skyrocketing cost of yada yada combined with a downturn in the whatever blah blah are causing the bottom line to fizze… GET YOUR LIES OFF MY BEER!!!
What’s really infuriating is that some sleazy jerk of a glassware wholesaler got right in there right away and started making these thick-bottomed glasses that feel like pints even though they’re 2 oz. lighter.
Should we have a beer police like they have in Britain? Hell yes. The weights and measures people come around and regulate gas stations so they don’t sell less than a gallon. They won’t let McDonalds sell a quarter pounder that weighs any less than 4 oz., but here we are just guessing whether or not we’re getting a real pint. Across the pond, they get this:
In the U.K., the Imperial Pint (equivalent to 19.2 U.S. ounces) has been a government-regulated standard for several centuries. The standard requires use of official pint glasses – with the word “Pint” and the European “CE” marking – etched onto each glass. The glasses actually hold more than an Imperial Pint, so there’s room for the foam.
While over here we have:
A bartender at a Florida location of the GameWorks chain said it serves beer in the thick-bottomed 14-ounce glasses, adding, “We are trained to say it’s a pint.” Pat Hart, the GameWorks chain’s vice president of operations, says the policy is to serve 16-ounce pints. At that location, Mr. Hart says, “they probably just ordered the wrong glasses.”
If the health or building department can come in and regulate everything from rotten food to the number of floor drains in the kitchen to the rise of the stairs, a weights-and-measures-type entity really should be able to assure customers they are getting what they pay for when they pay for a pint.
Meanwhile, the guys at the Honest Pint Project, mentioned in the Journal article, are working to apply peer pressure to bars that mess with our brews. They’ve got a petition you can sign, and the blog works as a forum for outing dishonest bars. Meanwhile, we at MenuPages invite you to chime in on our user reviews section if you catch a bar or restaurant slinging “falsies.”
Deadly Glasses [Hamilton Design]
Wine Glasses Based On The Seven Deadly Sins [Boing Boing]
A Pint Sized Problem [Wall Street Journal]
The Honest Pint Project [Beervana]
[Photo: Honest Pint Project via Beervana]
