Former Lancastrian

So as an ex pat we know that we all like a pint now and again.
So what is a pint? I guess it depends where you come from and what you are used to.
The imperial pint consists of 20 imperial fluid ounces and the US liquid pint is 16 US fluid ounces, making the imperial fluid ounce about 4% smaller than the US fluid ounce.
A Vancouver Sun investigation of 15 pubs and bars in the city claiming to be selling “pints” of beer found that nine of the establishments — or 60 per cent — failed to pour at or near the legal requirement of 20 Imperial ounces.
More than half of Vancouver bars aren’t pouring real pints — a rip-off that costs drinkers millions, probe finds | National Post

Perhaps they are so high after smoking their herbal cigarettes or using a bong they don't notice they are getting ripped off on a pint

Outrageous I tell ya.

Jingsamichty

You are a Yorkshireman and I claim my five pounds.

Atlantic Xpat

That's rich coming from a Scot....

Shard

UK fluid Oz - 28.4 ml
US fluid Oz - 29.6 ml
Never new that.

Jingsamichty

The Scottish solution to FL's problem would be to drink 25 pints, then tell the barman you'd only had 24.

After 25 pints, the 4%/pint shortfall will be recouped.


And to add a Canadian flavour to the solution, you could then drive home.

bc_guy

Maybe this is another way of masking inflation. They switch to a smaller US measurement with the same name in order to make it look like you're paying the same amount of money for the same amount of liquor. The same thing is happening to candy bars. Inflation makes the universe larger and candy bars smaller.

Alan2005

I remember reading that selling 20oz glasses of beer was technically illegal in BC.

bc_guy

Why would it be illegal?

Zoe Bell

there are all kinds of weird ass laws about alcohol in various provinces.
I'm sure there is a legal limit on the size of multi packs of beer in Ontario ( or am I making stuff up?)

Pulaski

Probably a similar reason that draft beer in the UK can only be sold in pints and half pints. .... That's what the law says.

Alan2005

There was (is?) a law that said the maximum amount of beer that could be sold at once was 17.5oz. Don't ask me why, cos it doesn't make any sense to me.

Former Lancastrian

From the article
The Sun also discovered then that B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch stipulated that individual servings of draft beer could not exceed 500 millilitres or 17.5 ounces — effectively legislating a legal pint out of existence in B.C.

So why offer a pint (20 ozs) if you can't legally sell one.

bc_guy

Well, I'm a non-drinker here so I wouldn't know anything about these limitations and whatnot. But it seems really pointless to put a cap on how much liquor can be legally served at a pub. I'm guessing that they cap it at a certain volume because they don't want drinkers having surplus beer in their servings and feeling compelled to drink the rest (lest they waste their money). Maybe it's to discourage alcohol-related misdemeanors and crimes such as DUIs, which are due to the over-consumption of alcohol.

But I've seen people in certain BC bars order entire glass pitchers of beer without any problem. If the limit is 20 ounces or less, then shouldn't that be illegal? But then again, I don't go out to pubs very often since I don't drink and very few of them actually serve food. Maybe that one I've been to was unknowingly breaking a really pointless law.

caretaker

I already had a sip - the girls usually fill them up to the brim so it's closer to 22.

Oink

What I miss is going for a quick lunchtime pint, and then drinking 3/4 of it and asking the bartender to stick a half in it while fully expecting them to fill it up to the top.